EUREKA, Calif.–For the second year in a row, Coast Central Credit Union will be having a contested board election.
While most credit union board candidates run unopposed, Coast Central has five candidates running for four open board seats in this year’s election.
The $2-billion Coast Central CU holds an election at the beginning of each year for three of the nine seats on the board. It saw its first challenged election in 2022 when a trio of first-time candidates, dubbed the “Members Voice” slate, challenged the incumbents for a seat on the board for the first time in nine years, according to the Lost Coast Outpost.
This year, five people are running for four open seats, including incumbents Terry Anne Meierding, Ron Rudebock, Matthew Wakefield and Dane Valadao, all of whom are endorsed by the nominating committee, and first-time candidate Carrie Peyton-Dahlberg, the publication reported.
Peyton-Dahlberg, a former reporter for the Sacramento Bee, editor of the North Coast Journal and co-founder of the Humboldt Journalism Project, told the Lost Coast Outpost she was inspired by the “Members Voice” slate, which advocated for “increased member involvement and wider-ranging community investments during last year’s election.”
Motivation For Running
“As I [looked into] the process of applying, I realized, well, I really could bring things to this board that I think the board would find helpful,” Peyton-Dahlberg told the Outpost. “I’m not running against any one director – even though the voting members will have to choose among us – I’m just running for some ideas. … I think [Coast Central] is a good credit union, and it can be made better … through fairly small tweaks.”
If elected, Peyton-Dahlberg told the publication she would seek to reshape what the annual membership meeting looks like to better accommodate member participation.
“Let’s have Coast Central hold at least two meetings a year when members can ask the board of directors questions and suggest board actions,” she told Lost Coast Outpost.
She said she would also like to see the credit union improving its fee structure, noting that in 2022 it
collected $4.78 million in fees for overdrafts and nonsufficient funds, according to a report from the state Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. Those fees made up over 7% of CCCU’s income compared to three other institutions–Compass Community Credit Union, Redwood Capital Bank and Tri Counties Bank, all of which collected less than 2% of their total income from overdraft and insufficient funds fees, she told Lost Coast Outpost.
‘Kicking People When They’re Down’
“Frankly, overdraft and insufficient funds fees generally ended up getting paid by people who are having other money problems,” Peyton-Dahlberg was quoted as saying. “If those fees are disproportionately high, does that mean, as an institution, that you’re kicking people when they’re down? … I don’t know what the arguments are for keeping them high.”
Peyton-Dahlberg told the Lost Coast Outpost she also favors changing Coast Central’s election and campaign rules “to allow for more discourse” between candidates and members.
Under the current guidelines, candidates may submit a candidate statement of 250 words or less. However, “formal campaigns” are “strongly discouraged,” according to the Election Campaign and Petition Rules,” the Lost Coast Outpost reported.
Peyton-Dahlberg would also like to see that prohibition changed, as would Peter Pennekamp, a former Coast Central board member, who told the Lost Coast Outpost he shares Peyton-Dahlberg’s concerns.
‘Barely Doing What is Should Do’
“In some regards, Coast Central is one of the best organizations up here,” he told the Outpost. “But in other regards, I think it’s barely doing what it should do.”
“Pennekamp has served on ‘dozens of boards’ over the last 30 years, and in that time, he said he has “never encountered a [board] that was more hostile to new ideas,” he was quoted as saying. “[The organization] is performing at its core function admirably,” When I resigned, people said, ‘Are you going to drop [your membership]?’ and I said, ‘No! I like this organization!’ I think that it’s underperforming in its responsibility to its members. … I resigned because I felt like management and the protectionist board is willing to go to any lengths to keep anything from being discussed.”
The Outpost said it reached out to each of the incumbents for additional comment on their candidacy, and that Ron Rudeback, the board’s current chairman, was the only incumbent who returned the call.
Says ‘Variety’ of Candidates is Good
Rudebock, who has served on the board for the last 43 years, was “reluctant to talk about his candidacy,” but he did emphasize the importance of having a variety of perspectives on the board of directors, he told the Lost Coast Outpost.
“I think it’s great to have new members on there to get new ideas, fresh perspectives but it’s also good to have some senior members on the board to provide historical context,” he said in a phone interview in the publication. “I think it’s good to have a balance between the two.”
Rudebock said Coast Central “is an incredible institution” and praised its staff and leadership for “working hard to serve all our members.”
Coast Central has 76,000 members.
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