OUR TURN: Fischer’s stand at PEC underscores need for transparency

Though the maneuver may seem a bit extreme, the refusal recently of a new Pedernales Electric Cooperative director to attend a closed-door board meeting underscores just how important transparency remains to governing the utility.

After all, battles over making governance at the country’s largest member-owned electric co-op more open are what led to a complete overhaul of the organization and the ouster of the old board during the last two years.

Director Ross Fischer’s declaration to not attend the strategic planning session Oct. 13 if fellow board members meet behind closed doors underscores the need for PEC officials to continue on the path of reform.

Of course, there is little likelihood PEC will again become an organization where everything is done out of sight. Every director now on the PEC board got elected on campaign promises that included making the utility more transparent, and so far they have kept their word.

Which explains why board President Larry Landaker very quickly arrived at a compromise when Fischer said he would not attend the meeting later this month if the entire gathering was held in executive session.

Landaker’s suggestion calls for the board to meet for 90 minutes in open session, with time set aside for comments by both members and employees.

The board will then go into executive session to discuss litigation, real estate, personnel issues and competition.

This is the same kind of agenda that most fully open governmental bodies follow, and no one complains about that.

What makes PEC’s recent openness even more noteworthy is the fact the board is not required to hold all their sessions in public. Yet they do.

The co-op is a quasi-governmental entity and a business, which means it is not subject to the Texas Open Meetings Act and other sunshine laws. Some of its business has to be conducted behind closed doors, and anyone who has ever run a company will acknowledge that certain proprietary matters cannot be aired in public.

On the other hand, those topics of discussion are usually only a few. There is no reason why most PEC meetings can’t be held in public.

Yet anyone who knows anything about PEC will agree the utility has come a long way in three years, moving ahead light years in terms of transparency.

PEC meetings are now well-publicized, open to the public and even streamed on the Web; a far cry from just a couple of years ago, when even a state senator was locked out.

At the same time, Fischer’s concern is not misplaced. Despite progress at PEC, nothing should be taken for granted. The reforms have only occurred over a relatively short period, and the utility has existed for seven decades — a span that has seen senior managers and former directors conducting business in back rooms without the pesky interference of the public.

Although the new board members are reformers, they still have a lot of work to do convincing some of the utility’s rank-and-file that good governance means conducting members’ business out in the open.

This is a philosophy that not everyone at the co-op has been willing to embrace. Directors are working to change that culture.

It will take quite a while to chip away at some of PEC’s entrenched practices, but as long as directors such as Fischer are willing to champion the cause of transparency and openness, the chances for continuing those efforts at reform look good.