Sharp, one of the plaintiffs to that lawsuit, was supported in his bid for the Area 5 seat by three of his fellow plaintiffs, but was stridently opposed by the two best-known plaintiffs, Butch Thompson and Bo Pounds. He earned 835 votes (52 percent) over Charles Sevier, who received 761 votes (48 percent). On March 31, when there were nine candidates vying for the seat, Sharp led Sevier by 273 votes. This time, his victory was just 74 votes.
Sharp said he was disappointed in the negative tone of the campaign, but is ready to take his seat on the board.
“We have to put the EMC members first and move this organization forward,” Sharp said. “They are more important than any one board member.”
McClellan, who will represent Area 4, won 820 votes (52 percent) over Jim Hudson, who received 771 votes (48 percent). Both he and Sevier were endorsed by the Cobb EMC Owners Association and Thompson and Pounds.
It was a come-from-behind win for McClellan, who had finished 80 votes behind Hudson in the eight-person field on March 31. On Saturday, he prevailed by 49 votes.
McClellan said he hadn’t known what to expect.
“I’m glad it’s over and done with,” he said. “Now we move forward.”
But that did not happen immediately. As he offered to shake hands with his opponent in the sanctuary of Piedmont Church, where the vote was held, Hudson refused.
“I don’t want to shake your hand,” Hudson said to McClellan. “I don’t like the way you ran your campaign, and I think it’s trash.”
McClellan responded that he was sorry Hudson felt that way, and said later that he believed he ran a fair campaign, even with ads that some considered negative.
Hudson, though, said he is happy that Sharp was elected.
“We’ve got a great person in Tripper,” he said. “What we and the plaintiffs have accomplished is phenomenal.”
Sevier said he was proud that he had greatly narrowed the gap between him and Sharp in the Area 5 race.
“I’m disappointed, because I believe I have better experience, but I gave it my best effort,” Sevier said. “I feel very good about so many people, including a lot of first-time voters, coming out. I’m glad we got David on there.”
There were 1,620 registered ballots on Saturday, just under 1 percent of the EMC’s 174,000 members. Lawyer Michael King served as acting chair in place of lawyer Joe D. Whitley. Both are with the Greenberg Traurig firm in Atlanta.
The 2007 member lawsuit resulted in a complete turnover of the cooperative’s 10-member board of directors that began in November, when Ed Crowell, David Tennant, Cheryl Meadows and Malcolm Swanson were elected. All had been endorsed by the Owners Association.
Four more directors were elected March 31. They are Rudy Underwood, Kelly Bodner, Bryan Boyd and Eric Broadwell, and all but Broadwell were endorsed by the Owners Association. Those four, along with Sharp and McClellan, will attend their first board meeting on Tuesday.
Crowell, who was elected as chairman of the board in February, said this campaign had been “much too political.”
“But we have a pretty decent board. Part of my role now is to get everyone out of campaign mode and get serious about the business at hand,” Crowell said. The board will immediately get to work on determining the scope of a forensic audit, and then selecting a firm to do that work.
“We will spend whatever it takes to do it right and do it well,” Crowell said.
Chip Nelson, who was named last summer as chief executive of the utility, lauded the “solid” board that has been elected.
“There’s no reason this board can’t work well together,” Nelson said. “They all bring something positive to the table.”
When it was all over, Butch Thompson — who had made no secret of the fact that he did not believe Sharp, or any of the plaintiffs, should seek a seat on the board — said he is nevertheless excited for the EMC.
“Naturally we would have liked for our people to win, but the people have spoken,” he said. “In my opinion, this is the first time every board member has been elected by the membership, and that is historical. It is a great day.”
Don Bailey of Woodstock said he came out to vote yesterday to make certain that Hudson and Sharp were elected.
“They have good qualifications and good integrity, and we need people like that,” said Bailey, who has been an EMC member for about seven years.
Pam Strong, who lives in the Heritage Farms subdivision in northeast Cobb, said she came out to vote for McClellan and Sevier because she wanted to see change.
On Tuesday night, the EMC directors and company executives are planning to host the first town-hall meeting for members, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at EMC headquarters in Marietta. Seating is limited to 200 people on a first-come, first-served basis, though the room can accommodate up to about 350 people, company executives have said.
Attendees can register in advance by calling (678) 355-3102 or online at cobbemc.com/ townhall.
There will be a brief presentation at the town-hall meeting, after which directors and executives will take questions, chairman Crowell said.
Cobb EMC serves about 190,000 members in Cobb, Cherokee, Bartow, and Paulding counties in metro Atlanta, plus Randolph, Quitman, Calhoun and Clay counties in the south Georgia “Pataula” district.
The company’s fiscal year will end April 30, and its finance director has predicted a bottom line $4 million to $5 million less than the $22 million in net margins, or profit, recorded in fiscal 2011.
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The election is over, and we are blessed with a bunch of really well qualified Directors.
It's time to stop targeting one or another EMC employee. Let the audit do its job, and the pieces fall where they may.
Recriminations are not facts, and we don't need any more personal vendettas.
In the meantime let's cut these employees some slack.... and that includes the management.
Go Directors. Work as a team. We have your back.
For the most part, we have a good board. There are only a couple owned by the EMC management.
With Tripper and a few others at the helm, we should eventually be able to overcome the huge financial loses to our EMC.
Frankly, I think the CEOA overstepped their supposed "mission". One has to wonder what they would have to gain by influencing the board election. Is Whelden and company just looking for a feather in their cap and bragging rights? Or is there some other potential conflict of interest at work here? It seems completely irrational for them to have taken such a negative tone against two perfectly fine candidates and spent money on the effort unless there was something to be gained down the road from it personally.
Little more would require them to do some journalistic professional work ? Is the MDJ capable and willing - Judge Schuster should be asking the questions - he set the table for the election corruption.
The new Cobb EMC Board of Directors has a significant job ahead of them. When Butch Thompson says it is the “first time that the member owners have elected every Director on the EMC Board”, he is referring to the traditional game played by EMC management, where very few customers ever attended the annual meetings. Management coerced block voting by EMC employees assured that management’s candidates won those elections.
Unfortunately, what we have just witnessed is a similar game conducted with a slightly different approach. True to form, very few customer owners chose to vote (1% or less), which made the election much easier to manipulate. With the support and funding from leaders of the CEOA and coercion of EMC employees, management’s candidates were endorsed. When the CEOA endorsement magic failed on March 31st, a political smear campaign for their two remaining candidates was undertaken using negative attacks and outright lies against their opponents. Some of their actions may have exceeded the bounds of libel and mail fraud.
Since management, CEOA leaders, and the candidates were so driven to win and obviously comfortable using these tactics, they had one candidate to prevail in the runoff election by a margin of 50 votes. What kind of man is this, and how well will he work for the customer owners (who he theoretically represents), when the appearance is that he owes his position to insiders. This is hardly a mandate from the owners.
The new Board of Directors has much to prove. However, they don’t even know what the financial condition of Cobb EMC truly is, or what unfunded obligations may be hidden in the past actions of the management, or are yet to be determined by the courts. The Board will need the active oversight of the owners, and can only achieve this through a stronger relationship with them.
W = Washington; gone!
A = Alford, Dean; still hangin around
R = Rayder, J.W.; $40 K/ month consultant and $30K/month committee chairman
T = The Lawyers that are representing Brownie
S = Sherali, Anis; No bid manager of Brownies no bid power supply deal with his buddy Cliff Hare
After receiving the uggly postcards in my mailbox late yesterday afternoon, and the incredible bad emails the days before, I realized what we had been missing. Does not reflect well on the CEOA.
It is fantastic that the revolution to replace the old Cobb EMC has taken place. Now, let's not get into the dirty hole which was there before. It's time work together without calling each other names. Let the "others" do that.
I am not sure why either Tripper or Jim Hudson would have withdrawn after coming in first place in the March 31st election. So I would think it would be a stretch to criticize them for the costs of the runoff election. That criticsm falls directly on McClellan and Sevier's shoulders, who both finished in second place in the March 31st election. Ultimately we had a runoff only for the personal benefit of David McClellan. It is clear that he cares less about the members. Only himself.
Neither Jim Hudson nor Tripper Sharp did any mail-outs for the runoff election. Only Charles Sevier and David McClellan did mail outs (tasteless I might add) and they arrived Saturday afternoon.
Oh, you are also clueless but that too is your history. However, you might have a point about
who should run and who shouldn't. Wish you had and what a loss it would have been...might have taught you a lesson on manners.
Bring on the Audit!!!!