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Re-establishing trust at Pedernales.

Article Excerpt
If there is one essential, but sometimes elusive asset in today's business world it is trust. For cooperatives, trust is our member/owners' belief in our character, strength, service and integrity.

Trust can sometimes take a generation to build, but can be lost in no time at all. The nature and importance of trust means we, as corporate citizens, must take great care to protect it once it has been earned.

As a result of years of abusive, audacious, inappropriate actions--combined with a sense of entitlement by the board and former management--the Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC) became the poster child for mistrust in 2007. The same animosity that people across the nation have recently voiced against AIG, the failed insurance giant, is representative of the anger the members of PEC expressed during the past year.

As Fitch Ratings Services stated in a recent report, "PEC's transition from such long-established practices will take time and PEC will face continued pressure and scrutiny from its members." As a result of the longstanding problems stemming from the previous administration, Fitch stated that there could be a "lengthy process that PEC will likely encounter to rebuild trust with its membership." The transgressions of the past have been costly; although, as Bob Dylan has sung, the times they are a changing. At Pedernales Electric Cooperative, we are in the process of re-establishing trust with our members and restoring our once impeccable reputation. Throughout our service area our members, the media and legislators have questioned the previous administration's role as the stewards of the cooperative and cast serious doubt on the trust that they had invested in the running of this entity that they in fact own.

A bedrock of trust between management, governing boards and members can benefit PEC and all cooperatives in a variety of ways. For example, when it comes to making changes in electric rates, no one wants to see their monthly bill increase. Most members, however, will be more understanding of the change if they trust that their company is raising rates out of necessity to maintain quality, reliable service and not for other purposes that do not pertain to the cooperative's core mission--providing reliable, safe and affordable electric power....

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