A small group of DEMCO members, led by longtime member Bob Bourgeois of Sunbelt Business Brokers, is petitioning to put the utility co-op on the market.
Decades of frustration with the utility prompted Bourgeois to start the petition, which requires the signatures of 10% of DEMCO members to force the board to consider a sale.
To facilitate the petition drive, Bourgeois is resuscitating Dixie Watchers, an organization he helped launch in 1983 to work on issues members had with DEMCO.
This time around, Dixie Watchers will promote the effort to sell DEMCO and get information out to potential signees.
David Latona, DEMCO public relations manager, says that every member has the right to petition, but that the organization had not yet heard about the effort.
Among his claims: DEMCO has provided poor service to its members throughout the years, destroyed trees on his property without decent cause, and not allowing members a full 20 days to pay their bill. Selling the co-op, he says, would improve the service and potentially get members better rates.
DEMCO got a new CEO earlier this month, when Randall Pierce, formerly of the Association of Louisiana Electric Cooperatives, replaced John Vranic, who resigned in June amid allegations he only recently reimbursed the co-op for a $14,000 generator that’s been at his house for nearly a decade.
DEMCO is Louisiana’s largest electric cooperative, with 108,000 customers in the Baton Rouge region.
