re: 285 Corridor Tea Party Group Meeting 2/17

I suggested to one of the members of the 285 Corridor Tea Party last night to start posting meeting minutes so hopefully they will have time to get to this soon, but in the meantime, I can give an abbreviated version of my notes and take on the meeting, for what it's worth.

There were 3 parts to the meeting last night: first, soliciting feedback from everyone who attended as to what issues/legislation to focus on, and what actions to take so that these meetings don't just turn into get-togethers with nothing happening from them; second, Cheri Gerou the House Rep for District 25 spoke about her efforts on the Joint Budget Committee and took questions; third, the two candidates running for IREA BOD, incumbent Duke Dozier and challenger Mat Matson gave brief speeches and fielded questions.

1. Feedback from attendees - there's more, but the two points I noticed in particular were forming a committee to document politicians actions on legislation once voted in in order to make sure they are doing what they said they would. If they don't, then they should be voted out (I would recommend that rather than waiting for that time to pass, to organize members to contact said representative and ask them why they aren't keeping their promises and let them know that they are being held accountable - more on why it's important to ask in a bit). In hand with that was the idea to keep track of legislation of interest in order to organize efforts to contact sponsoring legislators and make opinions on said legislation known.

The other point was to form a committee about the upcoming vote on the Conifer Park and Rec district. As this issue gets resolved, the committee can dissolve and move on to other topics.

2. Cheri Gerou - here's her website so you can check her out: http://www.cherigerou.com/
It was enlightening to hear of the inner workings between other reps (basically it sounds like we have a bunch of petulant children getting angry and poking each other, and likely to the detriment of us taxpayers. Quite ridiculous that grown adults act this way). Ms. gerou's efforts have been to shrink the government and the method she is going about this currently is to defund programs. Colroado has a $19B budget, of which $12B is federal funds and the CO legislators can't touch that. They must balance the remaining $7B. Currently Hickenlooper is facing a $1.2B shortage and at the moment he is making cuts, Ms Gerou sounded encouraged by his efforts so far. But she also warned that, according to his track record, he will attempt to raise taxes somewhere next so keep an eye on him.

Here's why I mentioned earlier that it's important to ask legislation sponsors about their bills to make sure we have complete understanding. One person asked her about the Stimulus funds and that it seemed originally that Ms. Gerou was in favor of receiving them and now isn't, and had introduced legislation to modify a portion of its spending direction. Ms. Gerou said that she never was in favor, because there are always strings attached with federal funds, but realized that it was out of the state's hands - they were going to get them no matter what, so she wanted to make sure that at least some of the funds that she could touch would go straight to helping people directly rather than to programs and companies for "development". Her bill would have taken $300,000 and given grants to homeowners who were trying to sell their homes to perform energy efficiency upgrades - improving the value of their home so they could sell it for more, and giving funds to home builders to do the same - thus creating jobs in a sector that has been hard hit in the recession, and helping the economy with home sales. So while it looked like she was in favor of the funds, she really wasn't, but was working to get a least a bit of the pie to the people who need it. Another person asked about money being taken from Park Co that she had said she'd do, and she went into some detail about what the money was and wasn't, and that it wouldn't hurt the residents of Park Co because it wasn't their direct funds (I'm a little fuzzy on this, so hopefully, when she talks more in depth with the person who asked the question, they will disseminate that info later).

Ms. Gerou explained that efforts to balance the budget, which she surmised wouldn't happen in the remainder of her career, require making hard decisions now with an eye to the long-term. Legislation is very complicated and if the sponsor can't explain it when asked, then it's probably a bad bill, which is why she emphasized asking your reps first and foremost. She left some information pamphlets that I'm sure will be out on the tables at the next meeting, if you'd like more info.

3. The IREA Board of Directors candidates. Each gave a 3 minute intro speech. Mr. Dozier spoke mainly of IREA's purpose, sources of energy, and future direction. Mr. Matson addressed the issue of lack of transparency and questionable ethical goings-on, and pledged to improve that specifically.

Mr. Dozier certainly has the experience, and did expand on the issue of the sale of land to IREA from his family.

Mr. Matson described himself as a student, willing to listen and learn in order to keep IREA on the best path forward.

My own take:
Mr. Dozier is competent, but I have big issues with his continued lack of understanding of global wamring and the use of fossil fuel sources. Although he enthusiastically spoke of wanting to purchase nuclear power, there are no plants even beginning the permit stage here in CO, and he called other renewable energy sources too unreliable and not cost effective. That may be now, but will not be so in the near future and I worry that he isn't thinking long-term enough. JMO.

Mr. Matson has a very open mind considering global warming and alternative fule sources, with an eye for what would be best for IREA members, and for the environment, but his lack of experience may hurt his chances. He repeatedly described himself as a student, which as one person pointed out is great unless you're trying to manage a business and need to make decisions, rather than just study and analyze. I agree, but wonder if Mr. Matson would truly have that problem (considering that he wouldn't be the only board member and decisions will still get made) or if he just didn't understand to get the point across that he's into action too. I think ti would be great for the board to have a fresh perspective like his and that it would greatly benefit its members down the road when energy prices rise. Again, JMO. Others who attended will surely have a different perspective and it would be wonderful to have them expressed ehre as well so as to get a comprehensive viewpoint for those who weren't there.

Overall, I was very happy to have attended. This is a very informal group, which will create strengths and weaknesses. If enough people become active, I believe the strengths will outweigh the weaknesses. I applaud the core group who have made this effort to further our democracy, and look forward to attending the next meeting!

(Sorry this post got a lot longer than I anticipated - there was a lot covered, attend next time and I won't have to type it all here!)

Yes, that's correct. Thanks neptune; I meant to mention that and forgot. He said that 50-60% of IREAs energy comes from the Commanche 3 coal plant, about 8% from hydroelectric (and he emphatically stated that he didn't want more than 10% renewable energy, when asked about the requirement to buy at least 30%), and the remainder comes from XCel.

Nmysys, I accept as long as I can make it! (That all depends on hubby's work schedule, unless someone wants to volunteer to be tortured, err entertained, by my children for 2+ hours!) It's important to get as much info out as possible, even if it's re-hashed stuff from candidates that can be found elsewhere, maybe not everyone checks out their webpages, etc. and will depend on you as a source of info!

You're welcome! Thanks for putting up with me!