New Woodburn Community School

SCOTTS RUN PUBLIC SERVICE DISTRICT – A GOOD THING DESTROYED

Ben Conley’s Scotts Run article (see below) in the Dominion Post today reveals some of the wrongs of the Scotts Run Public Service District (SRPSD) takeover by the Morgantown Utility Board (MUB). What a stench the article helps lift the lid on. Surely Conley owes much of that article to the public justice efforts by Jill Ware and by the active concerned citizens of Scotts Run. Conley’s article shows that the Morgantown/Monongalia County “good ol’ boy” network sneaked around behind the public’s back and then unlawfully rammed through the SRPSD takeover by MUB, under the guard of the Monongalia County Sheriff.

It will take ongoing public pressure to see that the needed constructive result comes about, a reversal of the SRPSD takeover by MUB. Especially failing continued public pressure and exposure of the intransigence, more likely are a few hand-slapping admonishments of officials by officials. The SRPSD Board, and the County Commission, and MUB now appear ever more negligent and wrong, sneaking around out of public sight, and then backed by the County Sheriff’s office, shoving the Scotts Run takeover down the public’s throat. The Morgantown City Council looks similarly negligent and wrong in rubber stamping the highly dubious takeover, opposed by the public, an unlawful takeover.

As for the state Public Service Commission (PSC), the jury is still out. At least the PSC referred the MUB takeover of Scotts Run to an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), who reportedly has until December 19, 2013 to rule.

There certainly is enough evidence, law, and public need for the ALJ and PSC to reverse the takeover. And, who knows, the ALJ could properly or best rule to do so. It’s likely that the pressure from the SRPSD activists ensured that the PSC did refer the matter to the ALJ.

There is zero evidence that the SRPSD takeover by MUB is in the public’s interest. Hopefully the PSC is not tightly connected to the local good ol’ boy, buddy/buddy network and did not refer the case to a good ol’ boy “friendly” ALJ.

It’s far from cynicism to understand that such “good ol’ boy” or buddy/buddy political connections exist and are used to mutually back scratch. What else explains former County Commissioner Asel Kennedy’s stocking the SRPSD board with his think-alike buddies? It appears that Larry Taylor got it right in his letter to the Domion Post Editor: the SRPSD destruction was the revenge of Joe Tennant and others enabled by his network of buddies that apparently includes Asel Kennedy, whose political network obviously included Bill Bartolo and Eldon Callen on the County Commission.

Everybody is helping a buddy out. That there was a real need to destroy the SRPSD is absurd. But buddy/buddy political connections exist at the local level and at every other level, and across levels, not pervasively, but commonly. Meanwhile, 2 boards, 1 commission, and 1 council have all already approved the SRPSD/MUB takeover, with another commission making friendly noises, so the ALJ might almost have to be a stranger from a strange land to go against the tide of official approval, even if there is no buddy/buddy back scratching going on. How many strangers in a strange land exist in West Virginia officialdom?

That said, it would be good for the public to catch a break with the ALJ, to stay the hand, at least for a moment, of all the buddy/buddy back scratching and rubber stamping. That would be something. Though maybe not enough. Read the rest of this entry »

HOW A FEW INDIVIDUALS CAN DESTROY A PUBLIC ENTITY

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MONONGALIA COUNTY GOOD OL’ BOY NETWORK STRIKES AGAIN

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HOW TO DESTROY A PUBLIC ENTITY IN FIVE EASY STEPS

About fifteen years ago, Scotts Run Public Service District (SRPSD) was created by concerned residents of the Scotts Run watershed to provide municipal sewerage services to the people of Scotts Run, who had long resorted to costly and unreliable individual efforts. The nearby Morgantown Utility Board (MUB) had refused to extend its municipal services to the Scotts Run area, so the SRPSD was formed to provide services where MUB would not.

When the Scotts Run Board (appointed by the Monongalia County Commission) would extend a new sewer or water line to a particular area of Scotts Run, all the residences near the line were required to hook up to it, presumably for economic and health reasons. Some individuals, a minority, opposed hooking up – presumably because they could afford individualized services, such as cesspools, that they preferred. For the majority of residents, and for the area in general, the municipal line was both preferred and needed. However, some residents remained opposed to these community building efforts of the Scotts Run PSD.

How To Destroy A Public Entity In Five Easy Steps

1. During the past year or so, shortly before his retirement from the Monongalia County Commission, Asel Kennedy (who lives near the Scotts Run area) led the effort of stacking the governing board of the SRPSD with individuals who opposed the PSD.
2. The Monongalia County Commission filled three of the five SRPSD board seats with individuals opposed to the operation and continued existence of the SRPSD: Joe Tennant, John Morris, Virgil Coulter. The remaining two SRPSD board seats were left unfilled by the county commission.
3. The new SRPSD board moved swiftly to dissolve the SRPSD by the spring of 2013, in terminating the SRPSD employees and requesting that MUB “take over” the SRPSD.
4. MUB officials, under protection of the Monongalia County Sheriff’s department, physically took over the office and garage and infrastructure of SRPSD.
5. The collaborating Monongalia County Commission and the rubber-stamping Morgantown City Council voted to approve the MUB “take over” of the SRPSD, pending the expected state Public Service Commission (PSC) approval. The PSC had been quietly contacted by local officials months prior to the local “take over.”

The good ol’ boy network strikes again. See related details of the Scotts Run PSD takeover below in the very informative and insightful letters to the Dominion Post editor by Larry Taylor and Jill Ware: “Protest against closure, acquisition of area PSD” and “No compelling reason to merge PSD with MUB”.

On June 30, 2013, the Dominion Post published a very revealing and very petty and ludicrous letter by SRPSD board member Joe Tennant who – in responding to Jill Ware’s June 22 letter to the editor – notes that he and the other two SRPSD board members did not sell the SRPSD. He is correct. However, the reality is much worse than a sale of the SRPSD. Joe Tennant and the rest of the SRPSD board simply gave away the millions of dollars worth of SRPSD assets, along with the entire SRPSD customer base, to MUB. And they got nothing in return for the residents of Scotts Run. They just gave away a public entity that had millions of dollars more assets than liabilities. And not only did they get nothing for the Scotts Run residents by requesting the MUB “take over,” they gave up the best opportunity for many additional residents of Scotts Run to be hooked up to municipal sewer, since PSDs are eligible for grants and funding for which city utilities like MUB do not qualify. Thus, in noting that the SRPSD was not sold, board member Tennant makes plain something much worse: that the SRPSD was given away for nothing.

Ludicrously, Tennant implies that there are secret facts known only to the SRPSD board and to the County Commission that justify the dissolving of the SRPSD and its “take over” by MUB. The good ol’ boys know more and better, you see, they know secret things not known to the public. Trust us, blindly, you can trust us, they would have the public believe. What a joke. These are public issues. These are public entities. Such public actions could and should only be made for public reasons, in public venues, with a lot of public involvement. Tennant’s swiping at Jill Ware continues petty and spiteful to its pathetic end, and is included below for public amusement.

Meanwhile, the petty, spiteful, and vindictive maneuvering against Jill Ware continues in another form. The petite mother of three has been arrested for supposedly poking SRPSD board member Virgil Coulter at an SRPSD meeting in Morgantown City Council chambers.

The scandal that is the SRPSD dissolution and take over stinks high and wide. The stench is most concentrated with the SRPSD board and the Monongalia County Commission. However the Morgantown City Council and the Morgantown Utility Board both smell bad in this as well, going so readily along and allowing the take over. Meanwhile, we in the public don’t come off so well ourselves, having been utterly asleep, allowing the good ol’ boy network to operate at will, to the public’s detriment.

Read the rest of this entry »