The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“It was a vote of confidence”
For the second year in a row, Gunnison County Electric Association (GCEA) members have elected incumbents to serve on the GCEA board of directors for another three years. Incumbent Gunnison area resident George Besse and Lake City resident Paul Hudgeons were re-elected to contested seats, and incumbent Bill LaDuke, a Crested Butte area resident, ran unopposed.
According to GCEA administrative assistant Melba French, aside from last year, GCEA has not held a contested election since 2003.
GCEA board members direct policies and govern the operations of the electric cooperative, which serves more than 10,000 customers in portions of Gunnison, Hinsdale and Saguache counties. Board members serve three-year terms.
The election results were tallied up following GCEA’s 64th annual meeting on Tuesday, June 24.
This election, Besse was challenged by Gunnison area resident Steve Schechter for the District 4 seat. District 4 encompasses the area west of the city of Gunnison, including Blue Mesa Reservoir. According to the official results, Besse received 672 votes, and Schechter received 541 votes.
A board member since 1996, Besse says his election platform was formed on his desire “to continue to provide clean, reliable electric power at the most reasonable cost. I also support green power, conservation and energy efficiency, but I believe GCEA is moving in the right direction.”
Schechter’s campaign focused on encouraging GCEA’s power supplier, Tri-State Generation and Transmission, to look past coal power plants to provide energy. Schechter also supported public education to reduce energy use and waste, and creating more incentives for the use of green and renewable energy.
In District 5, representing the Lake Fork of the Gunnison and Lake City areas, Hudgeons was challenged by Lake City resident Schuyler Denham. Hudgeons received 861 votes, and Denham received 342.
Denham pursued an election strategy similar to Schechter, and supported immediate investment in green and renewable power production. With the possibility of a tax on carbon emissions being enforced in the future, Denham stated that green and renewable energy sources would be a cheaper source of energy in the long run, acknowledging their up-front costs.
Hudgeons, who has served on the GCEA board since 2002, believes most GCEA customers were comfortable with the efforts GCEA has been making at promoting energy conservation and using renewable energy sources, while still working to keep rates low. “I think the voters/members believe we are doing a good job. We have a safe company and the rates are good. It was a vote of confidence for the management job we are doing,” Hudgeons says.
The last two GCEA board elections have been closely followed by the public and the media, particularly after many GCEA customers participated in a debate over the lack of renewable energy trends being pursued by Tri-State, which generates the power that GCEA purchases. In 2007, customers asked whether or not GCEA should have signed a 10-year contract extension with Tri-State. The board went on to sign the contract.
In this election, more than 1,200 votes were counted, representing 15 percent of GCEA’s entire membership, up from 975 votes received last year. GCEA chief executive officer Mike Wells says he believes there is a growing interest in the activities of the GCEA board, spurred on by the Tri-State debate. “I can see kind of a renewed interest in the activity of the association, what we’re doing and what we’re trying to accomplish,” Wells says. “The whole concern of climate change is what’s driving almost all of this.”
Besse agrees the public has been paying much more attention to its electric provider. “There’s definitely more involvement and more interest in the electricity industry. That’s not just GCEA, but all across the nation.”
The elected candidates will officially begin their new terms at the next GCEA board meeting on July 22.
