Pedernales Co-op election could jolt entire electric market

Ohm sweet home.

What happens on the PEC board of directors doesn't just stay in your billing envelope. It has a ripple effect that extends well past the Pedernales River basin.

The Pedernales Electric Co-op (PEC) is the largest member-owned utility co-op in the nation. Even if your electric service provider is not PEC, it stands to reason that your company is paying close attention to them. With several consecutive rate decreases in a row and some innovative approaches to helping consumers watch their electric consumption, we're liking what we see from PEC's customer member-centered approach.

The candidates are as follows. Voting takes place from May 18 to June 17, 2017 (PEC co-op members only -- ballots to be delivered by mail and members may also vote in an upcoming annual meeting as well as online).

District 2 
Emily Pataki
William D. (Bill) Boggs

District 3
Eric Stratton
Randy R. Klaus, CPA
Matthew S. Weldon
Judy Lawler Pokorny

Our friends at the Leander Local blog have some more info on why this race is relevant, including information on a couple of endorsements from some well-known Williamson County GOP leaders:

Two director positions for the Pedernales Electric Coop (PEC) Districts 2 and 3 will be filled by election beginning May 18, 2017.   District 2 includes portions of Leander, Liberty Hill, Cedar Park, and Round Rock.   District 3 includes portions of Austin, Cedar Park, and Round Rock.  Unlike most other utility providers in Central Texas PEC is run under the direction of an elected board of its members.  Customers of PEC are members of the utility cooperative and are eligible to vote for the member director for their district.  A map of the districts is available at https://www.pec.coop/docs/default-source/board-district-maps/director-districts-maps-all.pdf. 

The Williamson County Republican Leaders Organization has endorsed Emily Pataki for District 2 and Eric Stratton for District 3, and the GOP County Chairman, Bill Fairbrother, is also personally endorsing the candidates. ... The PEC election is not associated with political parties, but the political parties and their leadership will at times formally support candidates in municipal and school board elections if party leadership determines a candidate best represents its values and principles. ...

Read more: http://leanderlocal.blogspot.com/2017/05/wilco-gop-backs-candidates-for-pec.html

According to Fairbrother via the WillCo GOP's email update:

Pedernales Electric Coop is the largest privately owned electric utility in the country. It covers a service territory the size of several small states in the northeast and over 240,000 utility customers. But it is also rather unique. Unlike utility customers in other parts of central Texas, PEC customers are stockholders, too—member-owners.  This allows the member-owners the additional benefit to elect the leadership of the utility and have a more direct say in its affairs.​

Do you have any recommendations of your own for PEC board? Please include them in our comments section.