Your Blue Ridge Mountain EMC Board of Directors is committed to Transparency, Accountability, and Responsibility. We will from time to time be placing articles in newspapers serving our members in order to provide you with timely information about what is going on with the board. We want you to know that our highest priority is to continue to provide your home and business with reliable electricity. We want to be sure that our employees, who often work in hazardous conditions, are supported in doing their jobs each day to be able to safely keep your electricity on.
Some of the changes since September 2014 implemented by YOUR Board of Directors include: A conflict of interest policy that prohibits Board Members from having a profitable business relationship with YOUR EMC. Board members and the Board attorney are no longer offered medical insurance through YOUR EMC. At the September 2015 Annual Meeting, YOU the membership voted overwhelmingly to implement term limits for board members. Board members now may serve no more than three terms on the board. Board minutes are now posted on the website once they are approved. Minutes from one month are approved at the next month’s meeting, so there is a delay of one month in posting minutes on the website. The board selected new auditors to do the annual audit. The latest audit, presented at the October 2015 board meeting, was conducted by Henderson, Hutcherson, and McCullough of Chattanooga. This audit was clean with no problems noted. The audit report will be placed on the website at some point in the near future for you to review. Security deposits are now based on one’s credit rating. If you are a new customer and have a good credit rating, you will not be required to make a security deposit. Those residential members who have paid security deposits and have a good payment history for 24 months are eligible for a refund of the security deposit. A written request must be received in the EMC office for a residential member to receive the refund. While it may seem like a small thing, another change is that bills going to one address are now mailed in one envelope saving on postage.
Since the latest board election in September 2015, YOUR Board of Directors has hired a new attorney, Larry Ford of Hayesville to replace Larry Sorgen who resigned after more than 20 years of service. YOUR Board of Directors has appointed Ray Cook to fill the vacant board seat from Cherokee County. YOUR board voted to change the policy which allowed board members to have interest free loans for heat pumps. Under the new policy a board member will pay the same interest rate as YOU the members for heat pumps purchased through the EMC heat pump program. YOUR Board of Directors is beginning the process of searching for a new General Manager for YOUR EMC. A search committee representing the membership, YOUR board, and the EMC staff has been appointed to select a recruiter and find suitable candidates for the General Manager position. Search committee members include: Bob Short, representing the membership; Mickey Cummings and Roy Perren, representing the board; Sheila Cook, representing EMC employees; and Larry Ford, the board attorney. While the annual audit was clean, YOUR board feels strongly that a forensic audit should take place before the new General Manager is hired. YOUR board has appointed the finance committee to select an auditor to conduct the forensic audit.
YOUR board is aware that there are other items YOU the members want to see addressed. We are in the process of working closely with the Blue Ridge Mountain EMC staff to come up with the final cost of the Headquarters building. The staff has done an excellent job of putting this together and we hope to have a final bottom line figure to YOU the members soon. YOUR board will be meeting soon to develop a procedure to open up meetings where YOU the members can address YOUR board directly. We hope to have this process settled in time for the New Year.
We are YOUR Board of Directors. Please feel free to contact us with your questions and concerns. YOUR board members are: Mickey Cummings, Charles Jenkins, and Greg Owenby from Union County; Ronnie Burch and Chris Logan from Clay County; Steven Phillips and Roy Perren from Towns County; Larry Williams from Fannin County; Ray Cook from Cherokee County.
YOUR Blue Ridge Mountain EMC Board of Directors.