Candidates for Arrowhead board of directors talk 2018 election

The annual meeting of the Arrowhead Electric Cooperative starts at 8:30 a.m. with a pancake breakfast before the meeting officially begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 9 at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts in Grand Marais.

Included in the annual meeting will be the election of three members to the Arrowhead board of directors.

There are six candidates running to fill three seats on the Arrowhead board this year.

In the Colvill/Maple Hill area, Hillary Freeman and Bob Nesheim are running for an open seat.

For the Pike Lake/Cascade region, incumbent Stan Tull is being challenged by Inger Andress.

And Chris O’ Brien is trying to become the representative of the Devil Track/Rosebush region in his bid to unseat incumbent Mike Littfin.

Arrowhead Electric Cooperative’s board is made up of seven members. Each director serves a term of three years and can serve a maximum of four terms. All Arrowhead Cooperative members can vote for each district, meaning all three seats.

Ballots, which are included in the annual report, can be mailed, delivered to the annual meeting, or voting can take place at the annual meeting. To view full profiles with background information on each candidate, review the 2017 Annual Report from Arrowhead. If you’re a member of Arrowhead, you should have received this document in the mail by Memorial Day.

The Arrowhead election and annual meeting have been a significant talking point in the community in recent weeks, specifically after General Manager Joe Pandy left the company Friday, May 11. The exact details of why Pandy left and under what terms have not yet been made public.

WTIP spoke with each of the candidates running for election for the Arrowhead Board this year and asked them the following two questions:

1. What issue or issues are the most important for the Arrowhead Electric Cooperative in 2018 and why?
 
2. What characteristics or leadership skills are the most important for the next CEO/General Manager of Arrowhead to possess?
 
The audio below contains the responses from all six of the candidates.