LIHUE — Ballots for Kauai Island Utility Cooperative’s special election related to smart meters are in the mail. All co-op members have a chance to weigh-in on the KIUC board’s recent decision to charge additional fees to the roughly 3,000
LIHUE — Ballots for Kauai Island Utility Cooperative’s special election related to smart meters are in the mail.
All co-op members have a chance to weigh-in on the KIUC board’s recent decision to charge additional fees to the roughly 3,000 customers who have chosen not to use a wireless smart meter.
The question being asked is simple — Do you support the board’s decision?
A “yes” vote means only those who choose not to have a smart meter will pay the additional charges. A “no” vote overturns the board decision and could result in all members paying the costs — and estimated $340,000 per year — of installing and reading old meters.
It has been no secret where the co-op stands on the issue. In the past couple of weeks, KIUC has sent out postcards encouraging members to “Vote Yes,” as well as run both print and radio advertisements, including on Pandora.
“Recovering these costs is a responsible, reasonable action by KIUC’s elected board,” Board Chair Allan Smith said in a release Thursday. “It’s a simple matter of fairness that the people who don’t want a smart meter and require special treatment should pay for it.”
But some co-op members are questioning KIUC’s campaign tactics. Jonathan Jay, one of three drafters of a petition which ultimately sent the issue to a vote, called it “dirty electioneering with member money” and an attempt to persuade people.
In an email to KIUC spokesman Jim Kelly, Jay called it “outrageous” and a “violation of basic clean campaign practices.”
“I wonder if it’s even criminal,” he told The Garden Island. “For some inexplicable reason, they think they can act with impunity.”
Kelly said nothing in the bylaws or board policies prohibits “member education on votes,” and that the rules only cover campaigning by board candidates.
“It’s totally reasonable for the board to encourage members to vote, to tell them how they reached the decision on the fees, to tell the members that the (Public Utilities Commission) has already reviewed and approved the fees and to describe the impact of a yes or no vote,” Kelly wrote in an email.
Kelly did not have the amount spent by KIUC on its campaign, or even a ballpark figure, but said that “it isn’t that much.”
“Since we’re just starting the new year, I’m moving up some of the money budgeted for later in the year and using it now,” he wrote.
The co-op has also relied heavily on social media, email and word-of-mouth, and has been meeting with senior citizen groups, condo associations, neighborhood groups and professional organizations, including the Filipino Chamber of Commerce, according to Kelly.
“We even crashed a couple of Christmas parties,” Kelly wrote. “A lot of shoe leather advocacy but it’s free and effective.”
Jay said KIUC is “spending like drunken sailors” to push their agenda and members have a right to know about it.
“If you wanted to alert people that there was (a) special ballot, and that they should decide for themselves how to vote, that would be one thing fair and square — but you guys are clearly way over the line here!” Jay wrote to Kelly. “Why is it you all seem to be unable to stop yourselves from making such basic breaches of public trust?”
Kelly pointed out that Jay is not only an anti-fee petitioner, but ran for a seat on the KIUC board last year and continues to wage a “nonstop campaign” to push his own anti-smart meter agenda on Kauai Community Radio (KKCR).
“One of the reasons we’re spending money is that we don’t have unfettered access to ‘community radio,’” Kelly wrote. “Do a couple of 30-second radio spots have the same impact as two, sometimes four hours of KIUC bashing every single week?”
Jay said Kelly’s comparison is ludicrous — apples to oranges.
Unlike KIUC, KKCR is a volunteer-run, listener-supported entity, according to Jay.
“And they are welcome to call in,” he said of KIUC representatives.
As for there not being any board policies to prevent KIUC from spending money the way it has been, Jay said it is one more example of the co-op not being accountable to anyone but itself.
“That’s a clear pattern we keep seeing again and again,” he said.
Election ballots were mailed out today and must be returned by noon Jan. 25. Results of the election will be announced later that day. Members can also vote online or by phone.
The fees in question include a one-time set-up charge and a $10.27 monthly fee for customers who opt not to use the new smart meter technology. Both fees took effect in November and cover the costs of sending technicians to read and service old meters, according to KIUC.
Approximately 10 percent of KIUC customers have opted not to use the new technology.
For more information about the current election or to vote online, visit www.kiuc.coop.
