Letters to editor of the Pahrump Valley Times

Was VEA smeared by false rumors and accusations?

The latest information from Valley Electric, as reported in the PVT, assures us that they, the electric co-op, did no wrong. This was established after their governing board hired a private detective to look into alleged financial improprieties.

Lo and behold, their investigator found no indication of malpractice or anything of a criminal nature, to include that corporate funds in excess of $70,000 were not unlawfully appropriated for work at the home of their CEO, whom we are told, will remain on paid administrative leave while everything is being sorted out.

According to Valley Electric, the hullabaloo was stirred up by rumors and false accusations. Much ado about nothing? If that is the case, their customers will be relieved to know that all is well within the offices of our electric service provider. It would also mean that the Nye County Sheriff’s Office could save further time and expense by dropping their criminal investigation.

Are we really on the road back to business as usual? Well, maybe not quite.

In Nye County, some of us have learned to expect the unexpected. But I would be very surprised if our sheriff’s office walks away from their probe into serious criminal allegations. Of course, after reviewing all facts and circumstances, the district attorney may decline to prosecute. We’ll have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, it would be a welcome expression of good faith if the electric cooperative reduced our power bills by at least the amount they were raised, just before all the uncertainty came to light, although I imagine the California lottery offers better odds.

Ralph Bazan

Members unhappy with annual co-op meeting

With eight decades of experience and counting, I readily admit to having pangs of naivety from time to time when interacting with the business community; but recently I experienced the ultimate in business skulduggery that raised my acumen relating to how a business can be destroyed to at least a PhD level in Business Shenanigans.

In order to better to grasp the big stuff to follow; I’ll begin with a brief example. Let’s suppose I hired a person to be my fiduciary agent (money manager) to manage my estate; but shortly thereafter I discovered my estate was on the verge of bankruptcy. Naturally I asked my hired fiduciary agent to explain why my estate is nearly worthless.

My fiduciary agent told me all matters related to money were confidential and could not be answered. Recovering from a quick state of shock, I set about discharging this person only to learn the agent, using my money, had secured legal counsel to prevent being fired.

The business meeting I recently attended was is effect a replay of the above example, only of a much greater magnitude. Subject of the meeting in question was to present the annual report of a multi-million dollar member-owned not for profit cooperative to its membership. For your information, member-owned cooperatives legally operate and must adhere to a different set of state regulatory statutes. As I understand these statutes, there is no (none) automatic enforcement of violations to these statutes by the state. Regulatory statutes are activated through civil legal action initiated by the stomped upon.

Additional information: In the state of Nevada, a not for profit cooperative is governed by three documents: Nevada Regulatory Statutes (NRS), Corporation Charter and Corporate Bylaws. All three of these documents must be in harmony with each other and current … they are not.

These three documents must be updated to reflect a current list of members, type of operation and legal address. These three documents further define the relationship between members (owners), directors and chief operating officer (CEO).

Members elect directors to act as their fiduciary agents for matters affecting cooperative finances. The directors are to keep the membership informed and seek approval for certain potential financial acts that will affect the membership. Directors will propose candidate(s) to fill the position of CEO followed by candidate approval by vote of qualified members.

In summary, the elected directors are fiduciary agents responsible to the membership and the CEO is responsible to directors. Unfortunately, over a period of time the directors allowed themselves, in company with the first CEO, to form a closed culture that excluded the membership and become de facto (an unlawful assumption of management not backed by law.) singular managers of the cooperative and have used legal counsel, paid with cooperative funds, to block actions of the membership attempting to take back control of the cooperative. The directors have and continue to make independent decisions and inform the membership whenever and with whatever they choose.

Space does not allow for an overview of the meeting other than call attention to few glaring infractions. NRS 81.470 states a Book of Bylaws must be current, available in the operational office and open to members at all times during regular business hours. This book does not exist and therefore the meeting was illegal from the get-go.

The specified quorum was not verified; therefore no legal business could be conducted.

The printed meeting agenda distributed for the annual meeting was not in accordance with corporate bylaws.

According to the current Corporate Charter, filed with the state of Nevada, the co-op’s legal address is an empty building located in Las Vegas.

During the question and answer segment of the meetings (there were two), questions regarding the audit content and relevant expenditures were not answered directly, leading to a series of loud negative responses from the membership.

During a second meeting the membership was subjected to a harangue regarding attributes required of a director. The membership thought this lecture was meaningless and from that point forward, management lost credibility with the membership, indicated by the dwindling attending members, negative vocal expressions and physical departure without a formal meeting closure announcement being heard.

After-meeting responses from members I heard were unanimous in expressing their disappointment with the directors’ arrogant performance and secrecy.

Dwight W. Hunter

Quilters’ group coordinator thanks members, businesses

As the coordinator of the 2019 Pins and Needles Quilt Needlework Show on April 5th and 6th, sponsored by the Shadow Mountain Quilters, I would like to thank all the members of our group who worked throughout the year to produce another successful show. Without all your efforts, we would not have enjoyed such a wonderful display of quilted and assorted needle artistry displayed for the community. Congratulations to those who entered their work for all to admire and especially to the winners of the beautiful ribbons hand-crafted by a group of our members.

In addition, the guild would like to thank the many local business owners who contributed gift certificates and merchandise which enhanced the raffle baskets, NyE Communities Coalition for sharing the activities center as the judging venue, to the Nevada Treasure RV Resort for providing a location and setup assistance, to the PV Times, KNYE Radio and Channel KVPM for advertisements, to B&C Printing for the timely printing of the program, to the vendors who offered attendees the opportunity to purchase quilt-related items. We especially thank Robin Hebrock for the front page Pahrump Valley Times article which attracted much attention. We extend a huge thank you to members of the community who offered their support by attending and purchasing tickets for raffle baskets and the Opportunity Quilt.

Unfortunately there still remains a challenge to find a location that will accommodate a show of this size. After multiple inquiries about town, a choice again faces the Shadow Mountain Quilters regarding where the guild will be able to host such an event in upcoming years. This must also be a concern for any other groups wishing to host an event of any size. The Bob Ruud Community Center was most likely adequate when it was first opened. The community has since grown considerably larger and yet we are still faced with this as the only location to host indoor public events. This is a limiting factor in attracting other event planners from outside the area. Income from such events would provide revenue for many diverse local businesses; including lodging, restaurants, gas stations and merchandisers.

Violet Touchton

Opinion from the Nevada Republican Assembly

Last month, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford decided he could represent all of Nevada when he joined a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s decision to declare a national emergency to fund a border wall he has promised to build dating back to his presidential campaign. According to Ford, “President Trump cannot side-step our Constitution for a political ploy.”

According to the Washington Post, there have been 30 national emergencies declared in recent years. There are 28 currently active. During their presidencies, Obama declared 12 and Bush declared 13 of these emergencies. Some of them have had to do with the Sudanese government, the Western Balkans, Albanians in Macedonia and Zimbabwe. All protections for people of these countries. To our knowledge, there has never been a suit to stop a president’s declaration of a national emergency.

In all actuality, Trump’s declaration of emergency isn’t for a wall; the emergency is that we have a dysfunctional Congress, whose House refuses to work with the president. Democrat members of Congress and even past Democrat presidents including Obama, have all wanted to secure our southern border with a wall. But now that Trump finally wants to protect the American people, rather than spending most of our defense dollars overseas for other countries’ protection, the hypocrites in Congress come out in force against him.

It’s particularly unconscionable for Ford to have signed on with this suit, considering the recent murders by an illegal alien, of Jerry and Sherri David, and Connie Coontz and Sophia Renken. If a stronger, more secure border wall had been in place, the murder of these four innocent people, in three separate incidents, may very well not have happened. The Angel Families in this country would agree.

For those who say there’s not an emergency, Border Patrol agents and property owners along the border would disagree. Just one sector is getting 1,000 illegal entries a day. That’s 7,000 a week! How is this NOT an emergency? In just 2018, there were 266,000 criminal record arrests at the border, 100,000 assaults, 30,000 sex crimes, 25,000 burglaries, 4,000 kidnappings, and 4,000 violent murders, committed by illegals who were trying to sneak into our country.

The incarceration rates for illegals is THREE TIMES as that for American citizens. Do we really want our tax dollars spent on putting these illegals in prison here? Wouldn’t it be better if they just NEVER got over the border to commit crimes here? EVERY crime committed by an illegal, is one that should have NEVER happened.

Who gave Aaron Ford the right to speak for Nevadans? He does NOT speak for us! His action tells Nevadans and the rest of America, that he cares more for illegal aliens than U.S. citizens.

Sincerely,

Juanita Cox,

President, Nevada Republican Assembly

Dr. William Tarbell,

President, Washoe County Chapter of the Nevada Republican Assembly