Washington-St. Tammany Electric Cooperative
Legal name: Washington-st Tammany Electric Cooperative Inc 1570
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 726027617
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Franklinton, LA, USA
- Phone
- Report Outage: (866) 672-9773; Slidell Office: (985) 643-6612; Franklinton Offic
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $119,441,613
- Expenses
- $115,920,072
- Assets
- $272,104,409
- Liabilities
- $208,886,277
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
16 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Francis Cefalu (Board President)
- Dennis Glass (Board Vice President)
- Dane Hocott (General Manager and CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- Dane Hocott (General Manager and CEO): $315,505 total reported compensation
- Walter Sylvest (Manager of Finance and Administration): $224,938 total reported compensation
- Bryan Jones (Manager of Engineering): $193,976 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Providing members with the best service at the lowest available cost (member-owned, non-profit). WST Electric Cooperative, Inc. serves the areas of Washington, St. Tammany, and Tangipahoa parishes, and the southern part of Marion County in Mississippi. The Cooperative has grown from an organization of 2 employees and no members and no electric lines to the present organization of 128 employees that serves over 50,000 accounts, has 183 miles of transmission lines, over 4905 miles of distribution lines, 7 transmission substations, 2 transmission switching stations, and 30 distribution substations. Washington-St. Tammany Electric Cooperative, Inc.'s main goal and objective since the establishment of the Cooperative is to provide its members with the best service at the lowest available cos.
What it reported doing in 2025
Provide safe reliable and cost effective electric utility service to Cooperative members in Southeast Louisiana and Southern Mississippi
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Other-operating. 100% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 87
- Transparency & Controls: 77
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 49
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 97.1%; rating input score 97
- Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 2.9%; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.35; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.77; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 1.4%; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 5.6% per year; rating input score 100; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 5.6% per year; rating input score 100; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 3.2% per year; rating input score 100; 19th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 2 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 97.1% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $115.9M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $316K · 16 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $15.8M reported
- Consistency: 43 of 43 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes executive pay
- Filing history: 6 filing years from 2020 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 16 filed money-flow records
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 47/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Audit committee oversight not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 57/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 18/100.