Lessons learned from the Envision failure

The Sunday, April 20th article in the Austin American-Statesman by Claudia Grisales concerning the PEC owned Envision Utility Software Company speaks volumes about the integrity and professional maturity of Bennie Fuelberg, Bud Burnett, and the PEC Board of Directors.

The lessons learned from this specific case are apparent. First, a company should focus their energy and investments on businesses that are the same or similar to their core business. In this particular instance, poor decisions were made and perpetuated for over a decade costing the cooperative over 60 million dollars. Apparently the perks for a select few outweighed the benefits to all in the minds of the principals involved with the purchase and management of Envision.

Secondly, the failure of the Board of Directors to provide any sort of meaningful oversight and disclosure of the cooperative’s interests to the members reinforce that they are incompetent directors and entirely new board members are necessary. The Envision situation was no small oversight and illustrates why board members are needed who will conduct themselves in a professionally ethical and responsible manner.

Some have suggested that PEC should expand their interests to include the production of power. This, in my opinion, forces PEC back into the same trap that we were placed into by the Envision purchase. Having spent a good portion of my life in the construction, operation and maintenance of power plants I must respectfully disagree with the assumption that PEC would gain from the purchase of power plants. The permitting, environmental impacts, potential media and activist controversies, costs (ranging from $100M to $10B depending upon type of plant), and the hiring of the expertise necessary to build and manage the resources, all point to PEC over-stepping their limitations and resulting in a loss which would make Envision look like pocket change.

PEC should retract back to their core business—the distribution of electrical power to its members—which we do as well if not better than anyone in the country. PEC also needs to focus on rebuilding the trust of its members. This trust can be rebuilt by electing board members with experience relevant to the management of electric power generation and transmission.

This election is so very important. Please take the time to thoroughly research all candidates and make informed decisions regarding your next board members. Elections that yield members who espouse the “old boy network” of thought, or support “cronyism” and friends over qualifications, experience and integrity will undo the positive steps forward that PEC has gained over the past few months.