There are three districts in MVEC’s service area, determined by population. Annually, there is one director seat open in each of the three districts. Filings for a three-year term open in November and close late-January.
Election ballots will be mailed in March and are due back by mail to MVEC by April 6, 2021 – the day of the Annual Meeting.
In District 1, the candidates are Kirt Briggs and Tom Wolf.
Years as MVEC member: 21 | Spouse: Heidi Briggs
Occupation: Mayor, City of Prior Lake (2017 through 2024) • Consultant, Implantable/Interventional Cardiovascular Devices • Prior experience, 32 years healthcare industry leadership
Education: BA, Biology
Community Involvement: Extensive volunteer engagement participating in a host of activities supporting the service organizations across Prior Lake and in Scott County. • Have served on the Boards of the River Valley YMCA and Prior Lake Chamber of Commerce. • Served as Board Chair, SCALE* (2019-2020) (*Scott County Alliance of Leadership Efficiency).
Hobbies: BBQ Cooking, Woodworking, Boat building, Sailing, Golfing, Travel.
Goal as a Director:
- To provide members with an accessible advocate on the board. An advocate that listens before acting. An advocate that would offer a fresh perspective to the board while contributing a demonstrated ability of developing collaborative relationships while solving challenges to create solutions for moving forward.
- To advance initiatives that will provide members with:
- an unsurpassed level of customer service,
- an unparalled breadth of product offering,
- delivered at a high-value and reduced cost.
Briggs Campaign Contribution Report
Tom Wolf (incumbent) | Credit River Township
Years as MVEC member: 26 years | Spouse: Kellie
Occupation: Scott County Commissioner
Community Involvement: Lions Club, Knights of Columbus, Prior Lake Athletics for Youth, Chamber of Commerce, Friends of the Library. Member of St. Michael’s Church.
Hobbies: Tom enjoys gardening, cooking, playing piano, golfing and fishing.
Goal as a Director: My goals are to leverage my experience and director education as we transition our power supply portfolio to clean energy. This requires knowledge of what is achievable and affordable to our members, while maintaining reliability and safety.
MVEC’s service territory is very diverse, we must continue to be innovative and implement programs that recognize we are not a one-size-fits-all cooperative. The energy landscape is changing rapidly, and we must be nimble and flexible to keep up with the changes while maintaining our reliability.
I appreciate the support I have received in the past from our members and I ask for your support in this election. Thank you for your consideration.
Wolf Campaign Contributions Report
In District 2, the candidates are Bill Heinlein and Mary Leizinger.
Bill Heinlein (incumbent) | Chanhassen
Years as MVEC member: 51 years | Spouse: Mary
Occupation: 35 years at Control Data/Seagate Tech as Manager of Facility Administration. Managed a facility in excess of 700,000 sq. ft. • Developed and managed budgets, contracts, and cost control issues that involved an annual budget in excess of $20M. • Retired in 2004.
Community Involvement: Member Living Christ Lutheran Church, Chanhassen • Leader of small group Bible studies • Served as the church Treasurer for 5 years • Member of both the Men’s and Alleluia church choirs • Blood donor and volunteer greeter at the church.
Goal as a Director: Today with Government regulations and the different variations of power sources available for consumer use, from Solar, Win and Coal, reliability and cost become key concerns to be considered when evaluating which possible capable suppliers should be chosen. As power contracts are written for specific periods of time, decisions must be based on these factors. As you representative on the Board and as a user of the same power, I will work with the other Board members and do my best to ensure the decisions made by our Board are in Minnesota Valley’s and our members best interests.
Heinlein Campaign Contributions Report
Mary Leizinger | Victoria
Years as MVEC member: 16 years | Spouse: Patrick
Occupation, Education, Community Involvement and Hobbies: As a real estate agent, systems auditor and past member of two boards of directors during much of my 40-year career, I am well acquainted with the responsibilities of being a fiduciary to clients and members and putting their interests above my own. Now retired, I enjoy keeping up with local and national news and playing cards and Mah Jongg with friends. I hold both masters and bachelor’s degrees in Business Administration.
Goal as a Director: I see tremendous growth in electrical demand both from population growth and transitioning to electrical vehicles in the coming decades. It would be my goal to help our cooperative meet the demand for clean, renewable energy while keeping costs to our members as low as possible.
Leizinger Campaign Contributions Report
In District 3, Kevin Gibbs is unopposed
Kevin Gibbs (incumbent) | Le Center
Years as MVEC member: 41 years
Current Occupation: Self-employed; Skidder Done Services, LLC
Education: 38 years of crop and livestock farming with extensive residential and agricultural construction experience
Community Involvement: Currently MVEC Director of District 3 (6 years). Served on several boards: Cannon Valley Cooperative for 7 years, Minnesota Family Farms (producer-owned feeder pig cooperative) for 10 years, Le Sueur County Pork Producers for 3 years, and St. Mary’s Trustee for 10 years
Goal as a Director: I hope this message finds you and your families healthy and without hardship given the covid pandemic. So much in our lives today is unfamiliar. MVEC has also needed to adapt to unprecedented rearrangement. Our Board of Directors commends CEO Ryan Hentges, the Executive Team, and all employees for accepting the new protocol early on for safe, smooth continuation of MVEC’s business. My goal as director is to continue to form board decisions as a director interested in fair and equitable benefit for all of our cooperative members. Stable “at cost” rates and a dependable power grid is critical to all of us. I will seek continued learning, as power supply is a complex and unique business.
I am grateful for the trust and confidence by members in the past and will continue
to make a difference on your behalf.
