Member  Comments

from our website

Comment:  I am shocked at the blatant disregard the directors have for us members.  When I first heard about Holcim, I wasn't sure it was true, so I sent an e-mail to "my" director, Steve Sawyer.  His first response was within minutes:

HILCO did lose the Holcim account. Holcim's reason for not renewing their contract was that they wanted to try to get a better deal on the open market.

I do not forsee a rate increase because of this. Hilco, the Board and Employees, is comitted to tighten our purse strings and to continue to provide our members afordable, and reliable electrical service.Thank you for your interest.

I sent another e-mail, disagreeing with the impact and questioning the Board's expenditures and trips to unnecessary meetings.  No response.  After 2 days, I sent a follow-up, and he finally responded:

The Board believes that is is important that HILCO be represented at National and Regional meetings. However, the entire board does not attend each of these meetings. Holcim was the Icing on the cake. But we should have good margins, without Holcim. Hilco negociated in good faith with Holcim, but they chose to try the open market.

This didn't make sense, so I sent an e-mail asking "If Holcim was just the “icing on the cake” and HILCO has “good margins,” why has my bill just gone up – again?"  His response shocked me:

I have no comment at this time.

Comment:  HILCO is spending way too much on going off to meetings, taking spouses, making decisions without owner/members input.  They  must be made to be accountable to owner/members much as our state employees/representatives are.  (Webmaster note:  This comment was e-mailed to rescuehilco.com, Rep. Pitts, and Rep. Averitt.)

Response:  Thank you for e-mailing.  Over the past several months, several members have attempted to get both Mr. Pitts and Mr. Averitt to look into HILCO board dealings on the very issues raised by Senator Troy Fraiser and both apparently feel nothing is wrong.  I am unsure as to their direct involvement versus staff recommendations, but both have received thousands of dollars from political action committees (PACs) on behalf of HILCO and other cooperatives.  Perhaps the only choice HILCO members have is to support opponents of the two incumbents in future elections and to withhold funds from the Pitts/Averitt campaigns until the loss of revenue exceeds the income from the various specialist groups.

Comment:  Just thought you might like to check out what is going on with another coop I have an account with west of Austin, in the Hill Country.  Please go to PEC4U.org.  We all need to get together on these issues.  These coops are supposed to be by and for the people.  Are they?

Response:  Several HILCO members have been in contact with the Pedernales members.  You are correct in that the inmates are running the asylum.  Have you written to your legislator?  Letter to the editor of the local newspaper?  JoAnn Livingston from the Waxahachie Daily Light would love to hear from you.  The Hillsboro & Whitney papers are still refusing to write about it.

Comment:  I think that it would be a good idea to put an ad in the Tacklebox that points people in the direction of this website.   I am truly disappointed in this news.   In my opinion, as expensive as everything is these days, we need to look at what we are giving away as a cooperative also.  The charity aspects could be cut in half.  It is not easy to live without  electricity and we have the capability of having really good rates if the cooperative is run well.  Let's look where every dollar is going.

Response:  At this point, members are urging other members to write letters to the editors of their area papers and to their State Legislators to try to draw attention to the website.  If you write such a letter, send a copy to Jerry Lemons. He will send it to the decision group to be forwarded to the actual website for publication.

Comment:  Recently there was an article in the DMN about TXU and it listed several coops and their rates.  HILCO was the second highest on the list.  (One of the current directors has said that HILCO's expenses are comparable to the other coops, not so).   I wish I had that article because I would like to look at what coops they were compared to.  Do you by any chance have that information?

Response:  The Board of Directors has failed to respond to numerous requests by various members to stop their incessant spending and cease changing the voting districts which preclude members from running for election.  I will send your email to several members & see if they wish to contact you.  One director has threatened to sue members and so many are choosing not to make themselves a target.  The facts on the website, including all the benefits the directors give themselves with no member oversight, speak volumes.

Comment:  Some one needs to put their name on this web site.  This web site has been  very informative but I have heard so many comments about the secrecy of who "us" is.  I'm afraid it is distracting from the message.  If you do not want to do this please email me a response so I will have one for people who are concerned about the secrecy of "us."   Also, can another meeting be held and invite the board of directors to it (maybe you already have?)

I am shocked at the amount of money we are paying our directors and also concerned that they are getting an $8000.00 bonus at Christmas.   I have yet to get any money back from Hilco!   For some a rebate check of $35.00+ would mean a lot, if each of the directors would just forego their bonuses, not to mention how much it could go up if they were just spending what the average coop is  spending.  Anyway, back to my initial question.  I would love to have that information again about the coops and was wondering if you have it.

Response:  I will ask that the info be sent to you.  If I fail, you might go to the Dallas Morning News help desk & ask.  The Christmas bonus totaled $8,400, which is $1,200 for each of the 7 directors.
 

Comment:  Your website came as a shock to me.  If we have Directors that are running up fraudulent charges and attending unnecessary meetings that will cause me as Hilco member to pay higher electric bills, I sure would like to get the names of these Directors!  Even though it is my understanding that I can only vote for the representative in District #5, who I believe is Mr. Allen.

I would be very interested to see how Mr. Allen's expense vouchers compare with the other Directors.  I believe that Directors should be reimbursed for expenses incurred while attending meetings, but I heard that some Directors attended conferences in Las Vegas!  Is this true?

Response:  The website does not intend to suggest they have fraudulent charges.  There have been invoice errors in the past, but it is often difficult to pinpoint the cause of the error.   What the website attempts to do is to let the members know what fees and benefits the directors are giving themselves with no member input, how they are spending our funds and the impact their spending is having on our rates, and their lack of respect for members' requests for financial information.

Comment:  Can you provide a breakdown by directors showing what each director spent and the type of function/meeting that incurred these expenses?
 

Response:  The best way for you to be sure of the information is to call 800-338-6425 and ask manager Debra Cole to let you see that information.  She may refuse or the board may block her from allowing you access to that information.  Two members recently attempted to do that and we have their report on the website as "Our Grievances 2."

Comment:  I kept wondering how in the world my rates were going up every month from my August/September bill.  My rate even went up during December during which I was actually gone for two weeks.  When I went in to get an explanation I got some half-baked convoluted quasi-explanation that made absolutely no sense, but I sensed they were thinking, "what are you going to do about it?"

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