St. Matthews, SC (WLTX) -- Members of the Tri-County Electric Cooperative are continuing to ask the remaining board members to resign after allegations of financial mistreatment have circulated.
The co-op will be taking matters into their own hands this Saturday.
"They have been taking advantage of the customers for many years now so they've been paying themselves large amounts of money we feel that is wrong," customer Helen Bradley said.
Members of the Tri-County Electric co-op are taking action to remove the remaining six board members after they say they have been taken advantage of.
"How could you in good faith enrich yourself in the detriment of us the members who you work for by paying yourself the way you have," Bradley said.
Back in May, three of the nine board members resigned after the annual meeting. Six board members currently remain, but did not show up to Thursday's meeting.
One of the accusations residents who came to the meeting say is board members were calling unnecessary meetings, benefiting them $450 every time there was one.
"Iif they were uneducated enough that they needed to have all of these meetings so they could catch up to what was going on then we selected some wrong leadership," one customer said during the meeting.
The board scheduled over 50 meetings last year, which totals out to $25,500 for each board member.
"People are finding out that the people you elected and that you trust to make the best decisions to keep those rates as low as possible are doing things that are questionable that are doing things outside of the norm that are doing things outside of the entire national average boosting the pay in certain ways as far as holding meetings that may or may not be necessary that really enrages people. that really upsets folks to know that i am paying each and every month my electric bill and people may be taking advantage of me," Rep. Russell Ott said.
Tri-County Electric CEO Chad Lowder said he is proud of how the members have come together to voice their opinion.
"It shows the co-op system works," Lowder said. "If there are problems the membership can fix that problem with voting which is what really everybody wants to do."
Lowder said after hearing all the concerns he feels the majority of members will show up to vote to remove the board.
"The people who put you in office trusted you in office and financially supported you in office and yes sadly have been betrayed by you," one customer said during the meeting.
The co-op will hold a special meeting Saturday to vote to remove the remaining members of the board. Registration to vote will begin outside of Tri-County Electric Cooperative.
Lowder said there needs to be between 600 to 700 customers registered before the business meeting can begin. The board will have an opportunity to speak but does not have to, as well as a representative for the members. Polls will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. By laws will also be voted on as well as removal of the board members.
Tri-County Electric Cooperative serves parts of six counties here in the midlands. They are Calhoun, Orangeburg, Richland, Lexington, Kershaw and Sumter counties.
