Nominations are open for Homer Electric Association’s board of directors, with several seats accessible to interested members.
HEA directors are elected by district, with members voting only for the director in their respective district. The cooperative’s board consists of nine directors, three from each of the Kenai Peninsula service area districts.
Bruce Shelley, HEA Director of Member Relations, on the election process and the seats up for grabs this year: “Every year, one director will come off. They might be an incumbent. You have a nine year limit. Kelly Bookey, who is in District 1 – that’s the Kenai / Nikiski / part-of-Soldotna, he has termed out. He has served nine years now, he will term out. Then you have two incumbents, Dan Furlong in District 2 and Director Jim Levine in the Homer area in District 3. They can run again, they can be an incumbent.”
To seek nomination, a member must pick-up a candidacy packet at the HEA offices in Kenai or Homer or at the HEA website. Mr. Shelley, on what to do after you have your packet: “In that packet, there is a candidate application, a nomination petition, board policies, the HEA bylaws, a current strategic plan, and a current board member list. So, we ask that they fill out the candidate application, the nomination petition, and provide us a photo.”
A candidate must receive 15 signatures from current HEA members, though HEA recommends aiming higher than that, in the event that some signatures end up being from residents who are not current HEA members.
The deadline to submit the packet is 5 p.m. on Friday, March 6. Completed packets can be submitted at either the Kenai or Homer HEA offices. Ballots will be mailed to HEA members on April 6 and the results announced at the annual meeting of the members on May 7 at Soldotna High School.