Anchorage Daily News

The Matanuska Electric Association board on Monday handed longtime cooperative general manager Wayne Carmony a letter outlining details of a severance agreement.

Details of the letter were not made public. But it was clear from other board actions Monday night that Carmony is on the way out of office. The board appointed three of its members to a committee to search for an interim general manager. They also extended restrictions on Carmony's authority to fire other high-level cooperative employees.

MEA board attorney Robin Brena, in response to a question by a board member at the meeting Monday, said the time limit restricting Carmony's powers was needed because he was still in office. The restrictions, passed April 15, prohibit Carmony from hiring any terminated MEA employees as consultants or firing or decreasing rights or responsibilities for any other salaried employees at the utility. The motions carried with a 60-day time limit, which would end soon.

Brena recommended extending the restrictions until mid-July so Carmony's power to fire company executives didn't "come back in the middle of what we're doing." That measure passed with board members David Glines and Larry DeVilbiss opposed.

Board members unanimously agreed to create a committee to search for an interim general manager and appointed board members Katie Hurley, Janet Kincaid and David Glines to serve on it. MEA president Lois Lester said she will act as a non-voting member of the committee.

The board agreed to meet again at noon on June 16 to "review with counsel the discussion with Mr. Carmony."

MEA is the electric company for an area stretching from Eagle River through Trapper Creek in Mat-Su.

Carmony has been general manager for 14 years. His era has been marked by an emphasis on cost controls through tough union contract negotiations and a willingness to contract out work previously done by union employees, along with animosity toward Chugach Electric Association, the Anchorage power company that has supplied MEA with electricity for decades.

For several years a vocal minority of the board has objected to decisions made by utility managers relating to future power supplies, high legal expenses and a refusal to cooperate with other utilities. With new members last year, that minority became a five-member majority.

Find reporter Rindi White online at adn.com/contract/rwhite or call her in Wasilla at 907-352-6907.

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