May 28th, 2008
From Dick Schneider:
‘A fine company, an unfortunate lack of trust with the membership’

EDITOR’s NOTE: More than two dozen people are running for the board of directors of member-owned Pedernales Electric Cooperative including 20 for district 7 which encompasses much of western Hays County. PEC customers can vote online here or by mail through June 13 or at the cooperative’s annual membership meeting on June 21. The San Marcos Mercury is printing correspondence and commentary in our new Pedernales Electric channel in the Community Blogs section.

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Richard W. “Dick” Schneider

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Buda | District 7 candidate

» Candidate’s Web site

» Candidate forum video

Dick Schneider is a retired senior executive of Volvo GM Heavy Truck Corporation, Greensboro, NC, where he was Director of Retail Operations and President of WhiteGMC Trucks of Chicago (a holding company that owned 14 Volvo heavy duty truck, retail dealerships). He had overall responsibility for all operations of the Company Owned Retail Business which had gross sales in excess of $500,000,000 and employed over 800 people. In this role as Director of Retail Operations, he served on the Board of Directors of 8 of the retail operations. He was also responsible for development of the corporate master plan for disposition of the retail business while continuing and maintaining their on going business.

In his 16 year career with Volvo he also held many different positions within the company including, Director of Dealer Development, National Dealer Development Manager, and National Fleet Sales Manager. He also has served as an industry speaker and panelist at various transportation and equipment related meetings and seminars.

Upon retirement from Volvo, he spent time as Managing Director of Private Capital Corporation, Southeast. PCC is a financial consulting firm located in Navato, California, specializing in the design and implementation of Employee Stock Ownership Plans, (ESOPs). Mr. Schneider was educated at Wright College and the University of Illinois, specializing in Business Administration.

Mr. Schneider came to Texas in 1999, having been recruited by the owner of Lone Star Truck Center, a Volvo Heavy Duty Truck Dealer in Houston, to develop a new dealership business enterprise in the Austin, TX area. His duties included oversight of site selection, building design and construction, and hands on development of business plans; personnel selection and business start up. His position was on a contract basis.

Mr. Schneider is a founding member of the Buda Area Chamber of Commerce. Upon completion of his contract with Lone Star Truck Center, he offered his time and talent to BACC to serve as volunteer Chairman of the Board. After three (3) years of volunteer service he was offered and accepted the position of President and Executive Director of the Buda Area Chamber of Commerce. A position he holds today.

Why am I running for the Board of PEC?

I believe that PEC is a fine company with great service, competitive rates and great employees who are second to none. Unfortunately, due to many past management practices there is a lack of trust on the part of the membership.

I would like to personally thank the dedicated employees of PEC who also have suffered as a result of these management practices. Through these tough times, the PEC employees with their continued loyalty, excellent service and quality work have insured that the members have continued uninterrupted service.

If elected I intend to use my business and personal skills to help develop policies, guidelines and oversight that will help PEC and its dedicated employees regain the confidence of the members.

What I see as the problems at PEC.

• Lack of governance
• No transparency in transactions
• No open meetings requirements
• No open records availability
• Lack of Capital Credits to members

What needs to be fixed?

• Complete financial audit preferably with State Auditor oversight
• Complete review of Board compensation and benefit plans using best practices as a guideline for revised plans.
• Review of Senior Management compensation plans to insure that they are competitive in the marketplace
• Installation of travel and entertainment guidelines that are competitive in the market place.
• Develop a plan to systematically return Capital Credits to members without putting the company at risk

Richard W. (Dick) Schneider
962 W. Bartlett Dr.
Buda, TX 78610
512-914-8546
info@dickschneider.com