During Pedernales Electric Cooperative's annual meeting on June 21, the electric utility announced Emily Pataki and incumbent Kathy Scanlon were elected to the board of directors in District 2 and District 3, respectively.
Members of PEC also voted to keep the current at-large election system for its board of directors with 9,219 votes instead of the proposed single-member districts, which received 7,957 votes.
PEC provides electricity to more than 250,000 Central Texas customers including Cedar Park and Leander residents and businesses. Its seven districts cover 8,100 square miles spanning from Lampasas to Bulverde.
In District 2, Pataki received 8,943 votes to defeat incumbent William D. Boggs, who received 8,393 votes.
In District 3, Scanlon won with 7,966 votes. Challengers Don Zimmerman received 4,488 votes, Arnold LeVine received 3,037 votes and Judy Lawler Pokorny received 1,794 votes, according to PEC's tallies.
Pataki and Scanlon will serve three-year terms on the co-op's board of directors. Directors have a four-term limit. They receive a monthly salary of $1,500 if they attend more than 75 percent of regular board meetings in person, electronically or by phone. Directors also receive $750 for each regular or member meeting they attend and $500 for each committee meeting they attend.
A board organizational meeting was held immediately following the annual meeting, and District 7 Director Dr. Patrick Cox was elected president of the board, Scanlon was elected vice president and District 1 Director Cristi Clement will serve as secretary-treasurer.
A total of 8.11 percent of PEC's 219,571 members voted in the election for a total of 17,813 ballots cast by mail, online or in person before the annual business meeting. Survey & Ballot Systems managed balloting for PEC.
During the annual business meeting held at Cedar Park High School, PEC CEO John Hewa provided members with an update about the co-op. He said PEC plans to roll out new Web services in 2015 that will help ensure customers have a reliable supply of electricity and timely response to outages.
"The best practices that have helped us be strong, we're looking to preserve, but we're also looking at new technology and tools," Hewa said. "This is a really complex business, and it's changing very rapidly."
Cox also spoke during the meeting, and said the co-op has recovered from some missteps in recent years.
"We have returned to our core business and core values: planning for the future, providing safe, reliable and affordable energy to our members, returning capital credits to our members, and working in the most cost-effective manner possible." Cox said. "We have made significant progress the past five years. Thanks to the dedicated, hard work of many members and PEC employees, we have made tremendous accomplishments in restoring trust, financial accountability and transparency while providing excellent, member-friendly services to our members."
