Co-op town hall with shareholders provides clarity, provokes questions

The Big Horn County Co-op board met with members as part of its town hall series last Tuesday, Jan. 27 at the county fairgrounds in Basin, with its new General Manager Jim Gauker fielding questions from the membership and former employees.

Gauker was joined by senior Co-op staff as well as local board members Luke Foss, Chris Bullinger and Tim Flitner.

The town halls, which have continued throughout the Big Horn Basin, are the brainchild of Gauker, who took over as CEO of the flagging Co-op following Randy Carlholm’s departure last month. Gauker, in an interview with the Standard published on Jan. 23, said he hoped to win back customers who felt betrayed or left out, and acknowledged that becoming more transparent with the membership was a first step toward hopefully earning back their trust.

The inaugural town hall saw members primarily focus on the financial health and viability of the company. Gauker was candid in his answers, telling the assembly that it was exploring options to liquidate not only the Worland C-store property as previously reported in this paper, but other assets and properties as well. 

On the subject of debt versus positive net worth — that is, if one’s assets exceed their liability — Flitner told the membership, “Yes, but not by near as much as we’d like. It’s pretty scary.”

Members also questioned the Co-op’s failure to pay dividends or equity in the last several years. Gauker told members he understood their frustration, but pleaded for them to consider doing business with the Co-op rather than withhold their money as “it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.” Gauker stated member equity is still intact and will remain intact as long as the company endures; however, if the company is unable to become profitable, it will be unable to pay its dividends or any equity to the membership due to its financial obligations to its lenders.

Although the company’s financials were the primary topic of the night, members also questioned the length of time that board members have served. Among those from the area, Bullinger, the board treasurer, has served for 20 years; Foss, for eight; Flitner, for a little over a month. Several members questioned just how much board members had known about Carlholm’s failings and former employees who signed a letter petitioning for Carlholm’s dismissal in January of last year characterized them as uncaring.

Bullinger and Foss both said that they had little knowledge of what Carlholm was doing and were only able to form opinions based off of the information they were provided. They further disputed the charges that they did not care about the employee concerns, insisting that it did make an impact, although Carlholm was allowed to remain in his position for almost another year.

“I can tell you this,” Flitner told disaffected members. “Within the month — or even the year — this is a whole different look we’re getting now as far as information goes. I know I can find things out and a year ago, when I showed up (to a board meeting as a member), my head about exploded on what I couldn’t find out. You couldn’t have made a good decision in what I saw before.”

Gauker agreed, but also stressed to members that the way forward, if they were dissatisfied with leadership — including his own — was participation, something members in attendance agreed they would need to do. 

 “If you’re not being represented by your board,” Gauker said, “then the way to (solve that problem) is to vote different.”