•KIUC responds •Spare change, Mr. President? KIUC responds Last Saturday’s column printed on The Garden Island Forum page begs a response. (“KIUC fails to provide public access,” A Better Kaua‘i, Dec. 12) We, as KIUC, pride ourselves on being open
•KIUC responds
•Spare change, Mr. President?
KIUC responds
Last Saturday’s column printed on The Garden Island Forum page begs a response. (“KIUC fails to provide public access,” A Better Kaua‘i, Dec. 12)
We, as KIUC, pride ourselves on being open and progressive. The co-op is guided by the seven Cooperative Principles, bylaws and policies, all set for the members’ best interests.
Our Board of Directors is elected by our membership; KIUC is democratically controlled by our members; one member, one vote whether you’re a residential customer or a large power customer. So every member has an equal opportunity to be involved in the process. Simply, the answer to the question posed in the Forum article is: Yes, KIUC is a democracy!
Our co-op is not shrouded in secrecy, we are an open organization and encourage our members to get involved. There are opportunities for all of our members to voice their opinions and have dialogue with our directors. KIUC is all about member participation beginning with voluntary and open membership. Whether or not you want to be a member of KIUC is your choice.
We seek meaningful involvement from our members and encourage them to participate in the election process, attend our board meetings, our informational meetings, and our annual membership meetings. All of which offer the opportunity for member input or testimony.
Allowing members to attend Board meetings and give testimony is not required by any law, nor is it customary for electric cooperatives throughout the country, most of which do not have open Board meetings. But it is memorialized in KIUC’s Bylaws as a matter of openness.
We were criticized for having had seven different iterations of these bylaws over its seven years of existence “to perfect its seclusion.” Nothing could be further from the truth. KIUC has been in existence for over 10 years, not seven, and it has had eight, not seven, sets of bylaws since its incorporation in 1999 (the original set and seven revisions).
But four of the versions were changed before KIUC started running the electric system on Kaua‘i in November 2002, and those changes were made to increase openness. The ones made after KIUC became the owner of Kaua‘i’s electric system were mostly “housekeeping” in nature, and were all overwhelmingly approved by member vote.
To let you see for yourself we have posted a version of KIUC’s bylaws on the KIUC Web site, www.kiuc.coop, showing the differences between the bylaws in effect when the KE sale closed and the present bylaws.
KIUC has also developed and adopted Board Policy No. 16, which allows members to have access to a substantial portion of the information kept by KIUC. Only private information such as members’ personal data and sensitive business materials remain confidential to protect KIUC and its members. In fact KIUC’s policy in this regard is used by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association as a model for those co-ops looking to become more open.
We publish KIUC Currents magazine and Watt’s Up bill inserts to keep our members and customers informed. We update our Web site several times monthly. You can find bylaws, PUC filings, audited financial reports, patronage capital refund forms, historical rate data, KIUC’s strategic plan, technical reports from our consultants and much more.
This information is made available because we want to be open and transparent to our members. We are not obligated under the law to provide this information but do so, so our members are informed about the co-op. There are only a handful of electric cooperatives in the country as open as KIUC.
In addition, there is an entire section of the Web site devoted to the democratic governance of KIUC. It includes all the minutes of KIUC board meetings, all the policies and procedures the board uses to govern KIUC, the dates of upcoming meetings of the board of directors. It even includes a 50-page Director Orientation for members interested in serving on KIUC’s Board of Directors. Members can also contact the directors via e-mail kiucBoD@hawaii.rr.com from our Web site or by calling the board’s administrative assistant at 246-4307.
KIUC is an integral part of the community. Our employees and board members are your neighbors, family and friends. We realize that each decision we make affects the community. We take this responsibility seriously.
Randy Hee, KIUC President and CEO
Spare change, Mr. President?
We were promised change, we were promised withdrawal of troops from both wars, we were promised stimulus to make similar programs like FDR’s new deal of the 1930s of rebuilding America and putting America to work. The only stimulus I have seen thus far is from a little blue pill.
The only change that has occurred since President Obama took office is what little change we all have in our wallets, the lack of paper money has created a lot of change.
I can now feel comfortable asking my fellow cosmic islanders for spare change and know that this was all made possible by the candidate of change that myself and many others voted for. If I ever have the pleasure of meeting our savior, (Mr. Barack Hussein Obama) I will ask, “Spare change, Mr. President?”
James “Kimo” Rosen, Kapa‘a
