Friday, December 21, 2007

Talk is cheap - Thoughts on C.U. General Manager John Twitty's comments on the Vincent David Jericho Program, December 21, 2007

Okay, I've gotta say this about this:

December 21_6:50am_What does CU have to say about things in the Audit
Friday, December 21, 2007 - 42 - Guest John Twitty, General Manager of C.U.


What I heard was a lot of willingness to TALK, willingness to be RESPONSIVE, willingness to have a DIALOG, but no promises.

Beyond Twitty's vague statement that, "We take the audit very seriously," I'm just not hearing any real details about how Twitty plans to "be responsive." What? By running T.V. ads for public relations and telling every media outlet in the city, "We take the audit very seriously," with the addition of C.U.'s polished and paid for advertising slogan?

The most troublesome of all, to me, in the C.U. audit report, was the question of charitable contributions accompanied by the verbal statement of adamant belief from State Auditor, Susan Montee, that these charitable contributions are unconstitutional.

Here was Twitty's response to Vincent David Jericho on that issue:


"It's again, Vince, I think, an area that's ripe for some really good DISCUSSION and we intend to address that one in particular because it is such a policy based or philosophical CONVERSATION and those questions that you ask are certainly fair.

I would say that we would never, ever, at City Utilities, do anything, KNOWINGLY, to violate either the constitution or any statute, whether federal or state or the city charter, so if there are things that we need to do differently on a going forward basis in this area we certainly want to do them in a way that is acceptable and supported by the community."*


As a matter of fact, when I attended the press conference after the C.U. audit hearing Tuesday night, December 18, John Twitty would not commit to seeking an opinion from the Missouri Attorney General so that the city-owned utility could put this issue to rest, once and for all, with an opinion from the highest authority on constitutionality in the State of Missouri. Instead, he said there are other ways to determine whether it is constitutional for a city-owned utility to make charitable contributions out of PROFITS netted from their customers.

The Missouri State Auditor, Susan Montee, believes it IS unconstitutional and further stated that the city-owned utility should not be profiting from the electric services they provide to the public.

Again, at the press conference, Twitty said there are other ways to get opinions on that, but when you have a difference of opinion of this gravity between the State Auditor's office and a city-owned utility and choose to make your decision about the constitutionality of the policy based on the opinions of your own in-house or otherwise hand-picked attorneys, this citizen wonders whether C.U. plans to continue with the policy because as long as they do not seek the State Attorney General's official opinion they will not KNOWINGLY be violating the Missouri constitution and they can continue to make these contributions as they choose.

This would seem like the most OBVIOUS time to seek the opinion of the State's Attorney General, in my opinion.

Twitty said:

"If there are some of these kind of things that give people heartburn or heartache then I want to engage in the dialog with them to give them the information to at least from their own opinion."*


My opinion is that you should seek the opinion of the Attorney General on whether it is constitutional for a City owned utility to profit from the services they provide and then distribute those profits among hand-picked local charities, John.

Talk is cheap.

*emphasis mine.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

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Does not seem
that CU is in as big a mess as the City of Spfd. Of course they are working with about double the money...

CU only gets in difficulty when they mess with things other than power and water.

What would be of interest is a survey of CU and City staff,
I think they take turns hiring & promoting each others friends and relatives.

tom said...

What would one say if CU has covered up a huge problem downtown which is just waiting to be discovered??...

The details of this story are in the works and would blow the lid of this Peyton Place of a town.

If one were to take away the funneled money from CU that ends up somehow in the hands of the city, then that makes the city financial problem even worse.

Anonymous said...

from the look of the
"propaganda t-paper" this morning, I think the City now owns the darn thing.

Every major section was full of praise and glory for the local nitwits.

I did not know that Mr. T of CU is on some other paid boards. If this is so, what are they ??

I would think his CU salary, almost as much as the President of the USA, should make him consider CU to be a full time position.

Anonymous said...

The whole Saturday newspaper was printed just to wreck VDJ's weekend. My VDJ radio now comes on by itself and it does not even have an alarm.

The stem cell guy Donn Rubin, forgot to state how many Missouri millions had been provided so far for "life saving cures."
How many researchers/ per million dollars/ do we have in the State of Missouri?? Seems like new cures were found in Wisconsin & Japan but the our guys have not found anything yet.

Is Mr. Rubin a researcher, or just one who helps out "waiting for life saving cures." ??

How much of this money have gone to our elected leaders ?? Are they using Missouri funds to change constitutions in other states to provide more "life saving cure" funding ??

How much of these funds will go to "State Constitution Investors" who want to profit now, while waiting for "life saving cures" ?

As we have all paid for the life saving cures once, where is the location to line up when they become available ???


looks like a Happy New Year

Jackie Melton said...

"The whole Saturday newspaper was printed just to wreck VDJ's weekend....

Is Mr. Rubin a researcher, or just one who helps out "waiting for life saving cures." ??"

Oh my heavens, Anon 4:40, I think you've hit on something, here!

The whole 2 part State AUDIT thing was set up just to wreck the weekend of City Utilities, Sprangfield City Government and perhaps even ( :0 ) Springfield's Partnership for Prosperity!!!??? Is STATE AUDITOR Susan Montee a qualified auditor or just one who helps out, waiting for money saving recommendations???

Clearly, this "stem cell guy," Ronn Dubin, dubious character that he is, has answered the call of the public to research lifesaving cures for purely political reasons! Just another dread "witch hunter," like that Susan Montee auditor girl.

Why he must entertain some future, insidious plan to run for elected office and is seeking media attention to bolster his otherwise purely witch hunting activities to stir up trouble in SPRANGFIELD, MISSOURI! Certainly that'll put him on the political map of the century and provide him a magic carpet ride to the Senate. But why stop there??? He could find himself in the very top "decider" position! Yes, that's the ticket: RONN DUBIN, dubious (life-saving-cure-guy) character for PRESIDENT, 2012!!! Yee haw, and stuff lak thet. :)

Yeppers! Hippy Happy New Year to you!

Anonymous said...

I just try to help out with a few comments when I can. Never have been right too many times as you may know....

Hope Vince has had a decent weekend.

Do people throw the paper in his yard when there is something in it he has to read??

I would suppose he gets five or six copies a day...

c

Jackie Melton said...

"I just try to help out with a few comments when I can."

...And a fine job you do, C! ;)

Happy New Year!

J.

Anonymous said...

I do not have a radio show
and I
did not get a blog for Christmas....

c

Jackie Melton said...

Heh, I GOT you a blog for Christmas! You must have missed it! Email me and I'll make sure you find it.