The Matanuska Electric Association board of directors took a surprise action during Wednesday's special meeting, selecting an interim general manager to replace Wayne Carmony, who was fired June 16.

A search committee, made up of board members David Glines, Katie Hurley and Janet Kincaid, reported that it had reviewed five applicants and selected Joe Griffith to serve as interim manager.

After an executive session Wednesday, the board returned to vote 5-2 to appoint Griffith, pending contract affirmation. Glines and Larry DeVilbiss voted against the appointment.

Kincaid said the search committee interviewed three of the five individuals who expressed interest in the position.

"One was not qualified and another withdrew his application," she said. "So we only considered the three. By a 2-1 vote we determined that Griffith was the best qualified."

Glines said he respected Griffith's qualifications, but rejected his selection in both the search committee and full board vote because of the process the board used to select a new general manager.

"We formed an ad hoc committee to do the search, advertised the opening purely by word of mouth and took some unprofessional shortcuts in arriving at this decision," he said following the meeting.

Glines said the fact that the full board didn't have a chance to interview each of the candidates and relied only on the interviews done by the search committee was an example of the shortcuts he felt were taken.

Kincaid said interviews done by the board were not necessary because the selection committee reviewed all the applicants and contacted the references for each of the candidates.

"We called people who were not even on their reference lists," she said. "In Griffith's case they were all sterling. We called former Anchorage Mayor Rick Mystrom, who supervised Griffith when he was the chief financial officer for the municipality."

Griffith's prior work experience includes a stint as the CEO at Chugach Electric Association. After guiding the state's largest electric utility for three years, he left the utility in 2005 following a change in direction by that utility's board of directors.

Before joining Chugach Electric, he worked for five years as the Anchorage Assembly's budget and program analyst. He retired from the Air Force in 1984, where had been a fighter pilot, an instructor at fighter weapons school, a Pentagon deputy director of operations and a 21st tactical fighter wing commander at Elmendorf Air Force Base.

Griffith has been chairman of the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce and active in Commonwealth North, the American Red Cross, the Armed Services YMCA and United Way. Since leaving Chugach Electric, he has worked as a consultant.

Kincaid said Griffith would begin serving MEA once contract negotiations are complete.

"It could be as early as tomorrow," she said. "At least that is when we plan to start talking with him about the contract."

Reach the reporter at darrellbreese.@alaskastar.com.