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Only 23 percent of SDCEA Membership voted in Election Impacted by Marketing

Sangre de Cristo Electric Association (SDCEA) announced the results of its 2023 Board of Directors election. Jeff Fiedler and Mark Boyle will serve three-year terms as board seat representatives for Rural Lake/Chaffee County and At-Large, respectively. Blake Bennetts, the incumbent town of Buena Vista representative, was unopposed for re-election.

Mark Boyle. Courtesy image.

Boyle defeated incumbent Joe Redetzke to represent cooperative rural Chaffee/Lake County members,  1,756 to 887 votes. Fiedler defeated incumbent Michael Robinson to represent At-Large members, 1,658 to 975 votes. As he was unopposed, Bennetts did not appear on the ballot.

All 11,926 SDCEA members as of April 7 were eligible to vote in the election, which was held by mail-in or online balloting. Ballots or votes cast online were due to Survey & Ballot Systems, a third-party company engaged to conduct the election, by 1:00 p.m. June 8 to be counted.

Twenty-three percent of eligible voters cast ballots in the election – 2,764 valid ballots were returned to Survey & Ballot Systems by the voting deadline. 1,305 voters elected to vote online, 1,459 elected to mail their ballot.

Jeff Fiedler. Courtesy image.

Results of the election were certified June 12 by the SDCEA board appointed election and credential committee. As Ark Valley Voice reported on June 2, self-reported campaign expenditure disclosure forms are available on the website under the Board Info tab on the website homepage. A group composed of solar energy members (which constitutes about 600 of the total SDCEA membership) organized as Ark Valley Energy Futures behind the candidacies of Boyle and Fiedler

The new and incumbent directors will take their seats at the June 28 board meeting.

Redetzke has served as SDCEA Board Chair for the past five years, having been on the board for more than seven years. He served as vice president for the Colorado Rural Electric Association board, an association that represents electric cooperatives in Colorado. He earned his director “gold” certification from the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, which encompasses nearly 30 day-long courses covering risk management, renewable energy, financial and legal responsibilities, and other subjects.

Blake Bennetts. Courtesy image.

Robinson served on the board since late 2022, appointed to fill out the remaining term of retiring board member Suzy Kelly. He recently received his credentialed cooperative director designation from NRECA and has a background in the telecommunications industry.

SDCEA is an electric cooperative, a form of business owned and controlled by the people who use it –members, who are consumer account holders. As it is not possible for members to directly make all cooperative decisions, SDCEA is governed by a board of directors, elected by the membership. Acting as a group, directors employ the cooperative’s Chief Executive Officer, establish operating policy, and direct the cooperative’s overall business operating goals.

Seven board members govern SDCEA’s business operations and represent geographic areas in SDCEA’s service territory. Board member terms of three years are staggered to ensure continuity of governance. This year, three board seats were up for election, representing the town of Buena Vista, Rural Chaffee/Lake County, and an At-Large seat. All cooperative members are eligible to vote in elections, regardless of the district in which they live.

SDCEA is a not-for-profit electric cooperative serving 14,000 member accounts in Chaffee, Fremont, Custer, Lake, and Saguache counties.

Featured image: Sangre de Cristo Electric Association  headquarters in Buena Vista