Editorial: Finance committee makes sense for MCE

With a membership of 34 politicians on its board, MCE should be no stranger to public debate.

For most of its 15-year history, MCE – originally formed in 2010 as Marin Clean Energy – had dodged that bullet.

But some members of its board, which has representatives from 34 cities and counties around the Bay Area, are raising questions about the public agency’s finances and rates. They are getting pushback from staff and other board members on a proposal that the agency create a finance committee.

Having a special committee focused on the agency’s finances looks like a no-brainer.

Such committees have been in use for other big-budget public agencies, among them the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District and the Marin Municipal Water District.

And those districts have fewer board members.

Given the size of MCE’s board, having a finance committee makes sense.

Among the MCE board members advancing the creation of a finance committee is Larkspur City Council member Stephanie Andre, an investment banker who is no stranger to ledgers, income and revenue and bottom lines.

She’s been asking questions and feels she is not getting the adequate answers.

The issue is that with 34 members, most of whom are also responsible for leading other governmental agencies and also overseeing those budgets, public attention to the details of the finances of MCE is probably benignly diluted.

Financial audits are not easy reads. Throw in the complexities of the energy market and they don’t get any easier.

That doesn’t mean Andre is not entitled to her honest concerns.

She is doing the job she was appointed to do, providing public oversight, representing her constituents’ concerns and making sure the agency is meeting its customers’ expectations and goals.

MCE has built an impressive record, growing in jurisdiction, customers and investing in “green” energy production. Cities and counties have joined MCE as a significant move to further their reduction of greenhouse gases toward the state’s goal.

MCE staff has resisted creating a board finance committee. In fact, it disbanded its ad hoc audit committee that had been chaired by Belvedere City Council member Sally Wilkinson, a former investment banker and a one-time adviser to senior British finance officials.

Last December, a proposal to create a finance committee was voted down by MCE’s executive committee.

Gabriel Quinto, the board’s vice chairman, says calls for reform are “overblown.”

“These (Marin) small towns are not as busy as other cities that are part of MCE,” Quinto, an El Cerrito City Council member, said. “When it comes to an audit, we are not there to discuss it. That is the job of the auditors and they gave us a clean report. … That’s not our job to dissect that audit piece by piece.”

It certainly is their job if that’s what a board member wants to do.

Having a finance committee would be the place to do that so otherwise “busy” board members don’t have to attend.

“We have an obligation to engage in active oversight, which is not just passively receiving information or just approving what comes before the board,” Andre said.

Earlier this month, the board’s executive committee recommended creating a standing finance committee. It was a 7-4 vote, with directors  representing Larkspur, Belvedere, Mill Valley, Fairfax, Corte Madera and San Rafael backing the proposal.

The executive committee watered-down that proposal by revising its recommendation to rename the finance committee to the executive and finance committee with the stated assignment of devoting one meeting per quarter to a “deep dive” into MCE’s finances.

That recommendation goes to the full board at its November meeting.

It still falls short of the overall goal of creating a finance committee.

Given the agency’s growth in customers, assets, board members and staff and recent public questions regarding fiscal matters, a board committee focused on MCE’s finances seems to be a reasonable and business-like response.

There are board members who apparently are not too “busy” to take on that responsibility.