adn.com | Power struggle : comments

Power struggle : comments

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Posted: April 6, 2008 - 11:30 pm

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12 April 10, 2008 - 1:49am | ray

This ADN Editorial: "The End of Journalism"

KBYR commentator Glen Biegel considered this ADN editorial on the Chugach Electric elections to be so poor that he called it "The End of Journalism" along with a story by Channel 2.

Biegel said "the Anchorage Daily News has taken sides with the [IBEW] Union and is not to be trusted because they are printing lies."

Well worth hearing at:
www.chugachconsumers.org/Lib/080407_Biegel_EndOfJournalism.wma

11 April 8, 2008 - 11:47am | bigdabber

When

The price of oil returns to a low price is when the cost to produce energy will get low.
I can blame anyone or everyone but the costs still rise.
Who will join me to make a change that will effect our future and our children.
When... . Daniel A. Berry

10 April 7, 2008 - 9:57pm | bostonbill

Ray - Comment #3

Ray, be careful what you wish for. If the ADN actually did an investigation of the Chugach election, they might find out that your annual sky is falling, hair is on fire, rant that the IBEW is taking over Chugach Electric is no more true today than it was a decade and a half or so ago when you first started using it annually to get yourself and your minions elected to the board. In fact, its never been true. They might find out that you have elected more board members over the last 15 years or so than any other entity. They might find out that the vast majority of those folks, with a few exceptions, quickly defect from your single minded, vitriolic anti-IBEW agenda because once elected to the board they quickly find out that most of what you have told them is either an outright lie or just plain nonsense. They might find out that you have struggled to keep folks on the board that will maintain your agenda. They might find out that your annual rants against the IBEW is just a ruse to maintain power on the board. They might find out that the employees of Chugach, both labor and management are dedicated, hard working folks who get nauseated every year when you come out from under your rock and trash them and the company. They might find out a whole lot more than that if they kept looking and asked the right questions.

9 April 7, 2008 - 6:18pm | bruce_davis

Right on

One might add that the current board members that fired the last fired the last CEO did so paying a very heavy buy out package because there was no cause identified. The current board members are carrying out their own labor agenda at great cost to CEA's long term health. It is a fact that labor for electrical utilities is high but that is a national reality. One has only to look at the heavy cost spent firing the last CEO to realize that it would be best to cut the losses now but getting rid of the self-serving board members that made that costly decision.

April 12, 2008 - 1:47pm | ray

IBEW "Reliability Group" lawyer silent on his own actions

This post by former Chugach board chair Bruce Davison who is also the lawyer and management committee member of the IBEW Union Front "Reliability Group" deserves scrutiny. He has left out some key facts: He himself voted to make Bill Stewart a permanent CEO on 8/2/06. He wrote Stewart's contract AND he included in that contract a totally unnecessary Golden Parachute for Stewart that created this potential $1/2 million termination cost. Stewart was hired from within, no such largess was justified. Now Davison bellyaches that the Reform Board (that is trying to clean up Davison's own mess) has to pay for that Golden Parachute. Well, on 3/19 the board changed Stewart's termination to "for cause" and under the contract Davison's Golden Parachute will not have to be paid. Even if it did have to be paid, it would have been worth it. The right CEO will save $millions for the ratepayers.

8 April 7, 2008 - 2:06pm | funny_funster

For or Against

The effect of rising energy costs for Anchorage is going to a real issue for the next several years for everyone in Anchorage. Which side will address this better? So Daily News how much time and effort did you put into the Stripper Murder Trial as compared to this?? God you guys are lazy.

7 April 7, 2008 - 11:43am | oldjack

Hi cost wind

The Fire Island wind project would require a $50million state subsidy just to get going. That is a lot of the people's money that could go to schools, safety, etc.. These is no free lunch!!

April 7, 2008 - 12:52pm | bswenson

we are so poor

That we cannot afford a 50m investment to lower our day to day cost of Electricity??? Well Jack, I do find your thinking ODD. (and wrong)

The reason that the "light-bulb gang" don't want fire Island is that they can't raise rates on something that is free.

Look it up, write it down.

April 7, 2008 - 8:35pm | oldjack

Something that is free?

Oh sure, a 50 mill here and a 50 mill there, just blow the money. You must work on the Palin administration. Free?? One chartered trip offsets any savings. If it is such a free good deal, then the owners of fire island can generate all the power they want and sell back on the system. They don't because it would be a loss.

6 April 7, 2008 - 8:08am | franklin_6

I've heard ...

... (as you say), the problem is, and has been, a power struggle at the top.

Why hasn't ADN weighed in with an expose of that and an assay of the real issues? Too complicated?

Seems worth doing, all the same.

5 April 7, 2008 - 7:53am | akbigbird

ray

The fight will never stop until they put dirt on Ray and plant flowers there. He alone has caused more problems for the Anchorage consumers than any one person on earth. Wages are high but the truth is the disruption by Ray has caused greater damage than all the other things that causes high energy rates. Oh and by the way Wind power is not the answer. If is does not blow for one hour per year you will need that "expensive" plant near the airport. Wind power save energy (gas) but is very expensive to back up with generation (near the airport). NO I am not an IBEW member.

4 April 7, 2008 - 7:27am | Raven33

So what

if she paid it back! I guess ADN thinks it's okay to use company money as a personal loan as long as you pay it back. Did she also pay interest? Did she pay it back before or after she got caught doing it? I would be fired immediately from my job if I got caught borrowing money from the company.

April 7, 2008 - 8:02am | ray

Chugach actually owed Vazquez money

The view shown in IBEW's slime ads has the bottom cut off her expense report that shows Vazquez was owned money by Chugach even after the ticket was bought.

From the Truth Report:
Liz, is it true that Chugach booked an airline ticket for your mother?
"Yes, it is. Chugach booked a ticket for my mother while booking mine for company business. Of course it was clearly understood that I would pay for mom’s ticket and I did. My mother has dementia and for 3 months she was my constant companion so I could take care of her. I took her everywhere. Chugach staff offered to book both tickets at the same time so that we would be seated together and I appreciate their kindness in so doing. However, the deceptive Reliability Group ad doesn’t tell the whole story: that Chugach actually owed me money, not the other way around. My expense report plainly shows that the cost of mom’s ticket was offset against director fees that Chugach owed me, which exceeded the cost of the ticket. At the time, doing it this way made sense. I was naïve in not anticipating the kind of political hay the IBEW would make of it. I note that neither of the two IBEW-backed board members who are behind these defamatory ads took objection to it at the time; both approved my expense report.”

www.chugachconsumers.org/Lib/cc2008TruthReportSHORT3.pdf

3 April 7, 2008 - 8:08am | ray

ADN Chooses not to see Robbery in Broad Daylight!

Chugach Electric's Reform Board appointed a Blue Ribbon Panel of top business executives that found:
* Chugach is charging $25 million a year (2 cents per kwh) more than comparable utilities for distribution.
* Political action efforts on the part of Labor have compromised the natural balance between the board/management and labor, resulting in high costs that cannot be justified.

IBEW Unionized Chugach Electric employees don’t like the efforts of directors Uwe Kalenka, Rebecca Logan and Liz Vazqeuz to control these costs one bit. These employees and their allies are spending MORE to take back control of this co-op board than has been spent by all of the victorious assembly and school board candidates to win their recent election COMBINED! Can't you smell the stench? But the Anchorage Daily News is silent, no reporting on the election in its pages at all.

And now the ADN churns out this editorial without even a phone call to any of the Reform candidates even after a radio station investigation last week determines that the college degree in the candidate statement of the lead IBEW Union-backed candidate, Tony Izzo, is illegitimate.

The Daily News certainly ain’t what it used to be. It's not going to get another Pulitzer prize for investigating union corruption by helping cover up this “Robbery in Broad Daylight”. www.chugachconsumers.org/Lib/Izzo,Tony_resume_issues.htm

April 7, 2008 - 12:49pm | bswenson

now that you mention it...

the STINK is clearly coming from Ray Krieg (sp) and his Ilk. Hey Ray, what you do have against people earning a far living? and what do you have against Alt energy like Wind. We all know the truth, with Wind energy you cannot justify raising rates other then for maintenance.

We all know that Maintenance is just a fancy Union word for taking care of what you have. Wise up and realize that People are the number ONE asset.

2 April 7, 2008 - 5:39am | dennis862

Serious??

Are you kidding? You say you want the candidates to be serious and then you bring up that goofy wind farm? Have you people studied the true cost and actual output of wind farms? You need to do some homework!

1 April 6, 2008 - 11:39pm | cat_train2

Serious questions?

Goofy, off point, union versus non union, who cares? Forget the scare, Anchorage ain't going dark, big boys like their lights and heat. Only serious question for me is how much my electric bill's going up.

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