By Ann McCreary
The Okanogan County Electric Cooperative (OCEC) has implemented a new policy for distributing capital credits that allows members who are 80 years or older to request a payout on their outstanding capital credits at a discounted amount.
Applications must be received by the OCEC office by April 18. Distribution is scheduled during May. The application form can be downloaded on the OCEC website.
Conditions of the new special retirement distributions program approved by the OCEC board of directors include:
• Maximum amount of special capital credits to be retired by OCEC at this time is $40,000.
• A member requesting capital credits must be a person (not a business, LLC or governmental entity) who is 80 years of age or older by May 1, 2014.
• In the case of joint memberships, only one member needs to be 80 years or older.
•A copy of a government-issued identification (driver’s license, passport, birth certificate, etc.) will be required to verify qualifications.
•A member’s capital credit amount will be discounted at the interest rate of the co-op’s outstanding debt, similar to how estate payouts are now handled. There are no member-requested partial payouts.
Application forms can be delivered either by email to info@ocec.coop, by post to P.O. Box 69, Winthrop, WA 98862, or hand-delivered by April 18.
If the total amount of special retirement distributions sought by qualified members exceeds the total amount approved by the board of directors, then distributions will be made to retire the oldest capital credits of qualifying members first, such that capital credits retired in this manner occur on a first-in, first-out methodology.
