OPALCO Board Approves Bylaw Revision

Revisions made to the Orcas Power & Light Co-op Bylaws in December 2014 inadvertently shortened the time between the Committee on Nominations announcement of candidates and the deadline for nominations-by-member petition. OPALCO staff recommended that extending the duration between the two nomination processes by 10 days, from sixty to seventy days in advance of the Annual Meeting. Staff suggested that the Board revisit the entire nomination process in greater detail later in 2015.

This change to Bylaws Article III, Section 3, part a) was submitted to and approved by the OPALCO Board of Directors at the March 19, 2015 meeting:

Bylaws Article III
Directors Section 3 Nominations and Election of Directors

a) “Nominations: It shall be the duty of the Board of Directors to appoint, not less than one hundred (100) days before the date of a meeting of the energy members at which directors are to be elected, a committee on nominations consisting of not less than three (3) nor more than five (5) energy members from each of the voting districts for which a director is to be elected. No officer or member of the Board of Directors shall be appointed a member of such committee. The committee shall prepare and post in the lobby at the principal office of the cooperative at least seventy (70) calendar days before the meeting a list of its nominations for directors. Any fifteen (15) or more members may make other nominations from their particular district by petition with their signatures, filed with the board of directors at the principal office of the cooperative at Eastsound, Washington, not less than fifty-five (55) calendar days prior to the meeting. The secretary shall cause the same to be posted at the place where a list of nominations made by the committee is posted, including electronic postings on the cooperative’s website. The secretary shall publish a legal notice in the local newspaper(s) which carries legal notices, said notice to announce names of director candidates. The notice must be submitted to the newspaper(s) within three working days of the posting of nominations. The cooperative, in the alternative, may post the list of director candidates on its website in order to provide the notice required in this section. The committee, if possible, should nominate at least two (2) candidates for each open position, one of whom shall be an incumbent director, unless such director does not wish to be considered for reelection. The secretary shall mail with the notice of the meeting a statement of the number of directors to be elected from each district and showing separately the nominations made by petition, if any, or in the alternative, the cooperative shall provide such notice electronically.