Cobb EMC leaders have been ordered back to court on Sept. 28 and told to provide more details on compensation paid to former CEO Dwight Brown and the liquidation of subsidiary companies.
Cobb Superior Court Judge Stephen Schuster filed the order on Thursday in what has become a long-running dispute for the non-profit, consumer-owned retail power supplier.
Brown, indicted on multiple charges for alleged business improprieties, retired at the end of February as part of a 2008 settlement of a lawsuit, one brought the year before against the co-op by a membership group. However, Brown was retained as a consultant by the co-op, a move that angered many EMC members and was admonished by Schuster at an Aug. 12 hearing.
Schuster’s disclosure order requires the EMC to detail how much Brown has received in direct or indirect compensation in two itemized breakdowns since Dec. 3, 2008, when Schuster approved the lawsuit settlement. The EMC has to detail Brown’s role with the utility or affiliated entities from that date through his retirement in February, as well as what role he has served after retirement.
“We were concerned that they put him in the role of consultant with no disclosure of his role or compensation information,” said Pitts Carr, attorney for the members who sued the utility. “We felt that was inappropriate and in violation of the final order.”
Earlier this year the EMC sought to rehire Brown after his retirement, claiming that he was the most qualified candidate. Schuster rejected the co-op’s request, and longtime Cobb EMC executive Chip Nelson was selected as Brown’s replacement in July.
EMC leaders also have to provide a status report on the dissolution of various entities associated with the for-profit operating company, Cobb Energy. The 2007 lawsuit alleged that Brown and other co-op leaders had unjustly benefited by setting up the company and siphoning co-op assets to it.
The EMC has provided the court with liquidation reports on a regular basis, but the reports have lacked the details necessary to determine if the liquidations were made in a timely and orderly fashion, Schuster’s order said.
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