To the Editor:

Dakota Energy members were very upset about what seemed to be an illegal action taken by the Board of Directors when they made secret deals with Guzman Energy. Member/owners of Dakota Energy came out in force and elected 3 new members to the Board of Directors. However, that was not enough. The secret deal has not been revealed, and the lawsuit is still pending against East River Cooperative.

Member/owners need to elect three new directors to Dakota Energy’s board at the annual meeting on August 29. Then the secrets can be voted out of executive session and be revealed. The member/owners will know what their old Board of Directors did behind their backs. When there are six new Dakota Energy Board of Director members, Guzman will no longer control the board and cannot push the legal battle against East River Electric all the way to the Supreme Court saving us millions of dollars. Dakota Energy’s leadership will again have been returned to the member/owners. 

In 2024 member/owners can finish the process and elect the final three new board members to have entire new leadership. Then any legal matters can start to take place against the old board and their leadership for their actions.

After costing many thousands of dollars in legal fees for the 17 members, Dakota Energy dropped the court case that they filed against the 17 members to stop the vote about leaving East River. How many millions did it cost Dakota Energy for the court cases against the 17 members and East River? Will those costs be shown in the Annual Report at the Annual Meeting?

Three new board members need to be elected at the August 29 Annual Meeting to return the control of the cooperative to the member/owners.

Twyla Folk
Huron