Further investigation into those numbers show that the 2013 numbers in the 2014 financial report to the board were decreased from those presented in 2013, which is why it appeared that the 2014 board expenditures were much greater. In fact, the 2014 board expenditures were only $6,402 greater than the 2011 board expenditure – 2011 being the year before the recent board turnover began.

This 2014 increase was due to the additional expenses incurred by the meetings to interview and select a new LPEA CEO. Without those added expenditures, the “new” board in 2014 would have had lower expenditures than the “old” board of 2011. The annual board expenditures of the last four years (2011-2014) were $251,750, $250,568, $242,480; and $258,152 – quite consistent.

The accusations in the rest of her letter are as mistaken as her allegations concerning the board expenditure.

Harold highlighted another fact about co-ops: There is a lot of subsidization going on among members, partially because of programs put in place by the directors. For example, as she points out, it is accepted that urban areas subsidize rural ones. A key job of the board is to understand, accept and occasionally modify these subsidies.

LPEA members are right to keep an eye on LPEA expenses. But it is surprising Harold would worry about this phantom $40,000 and yet make no objection to the millions of dollars in losses attributable to the LPEA subsidiary Western Energy Services of Durango Inc. (WESODI). The new board members led the fight to shut down WESODI over objections from some of the old, so perhaps she should work for our re-election rather than write letters urging our defeat.

Britt Bassett

Durango