Pedernales Electric Cooperative members in Districts 4 and 5 elected board directors in the 2022 annual election. District 4, which covers the western half of Hays County including Wimberley and Dripping Springs, re-elected incumbent Travis Cox in a close race with challenger Kathi Thomas.
District 5 re-elected incumbent James Oakley to serve on the cooperative’s board of directors.
A total of 16,342 votes were cast across all districts.
Only members of District 4 and 5 were allowed to vote in their respective races. District 4 re-elected Cox to continue repre senting them with 4,555 votes to Thomas’ 4,009 votes. Cox has served as director since 2020.
Oakley received 3,770 votes to continue serving District 5 to challenger Rachelle Sutherland’s 2,209 and Scott Powell’s 1,769. Oakley has been a director since 2013. Both Cox and Oakley will serve three-year terms.
PEC received the election results from Survey & Ballot Systems, a third-party administrator who handles the election ballots.
This year, the ballot also included an option for PEC members to voluntarily enroll in PEC’s Power of Change Program that supports local nonprofits in Central Texas.
The certified results were announced by SBS at PEC’s Annual Membership Meeting on June 17 in Johnson City. This year’s meeting included highlights from 2021 and remarks from CEO Julie C. Parsley and Board President and then-District 2 Director Emily Pataki. The re-elected board members were seated at the June Board Meeting, which was held immediately after the annual meeting.
The board then elected new officers with District 3 Director Mark Ekrut named as president, District 1 Director Milton Rister as vice president and District 6 Director Paul Graf as secretary/ treasurer.
For more information on PEC’s elections, visit pec.coop/elections.
