A certain person has suggested I “correct” my posting called Sampling of Electric Bills, Old DHS and New, on the grounds that I got it wrong about why District 428 can’t pay its bills.
On the contrary, no correction is needed. Due to the small sample size and obvious adjustments made to one of the bills, I took pains NOT TO come to any conclusions.
No, the figures for the June charges and balance due for the new DHS were not accidentally transposed! There were significant downward adjustments made on that bill.
That is one reason why I am making no claims about the bill charges being particularly representative.
Yes, I did also say that I found the unpaid balances startling, but AGAIN: I drew no conclusion from it.
If this person were a member in good standing of the City Barbs community, I would invite him to post the ADDITIONAL information he’s found. Unfortunately, he was banned for life years ago and this kind of thing reinforces the decision.
2 comments
Comment by Ivan Krpan on November 19, 2011 at 10:01 am
This banned individual is pro spending and pro tax increase to the hilt Lynn. Any time someone has the nerve to say anything something that he is a proponent for, he will try to discredit the person who is asking the question or drawing the concern.
He is a joke and personally I feel a prime example of what is so wrong in this world today. I believe he truly believes that if he wishes to have public services of a certain quality or high standard then everyone should chip in for his better good. What is a little tax here and a little tax there if it is going for the betterment of the community?
I am also tired of him and others in his camp saying that just because someone points something wrong out in government today that they are against it. He has done the same to me and I supported the last referendum that will eventually cause financial demise to this community all because a certain power group within the community got greedy and self absorbed in what they want without applying any sense of reason and future thought to what they were doing. I am not speculating when I make these comments either, I have heard straight from their mouths, they have been documented in minutes in meetings and by votes they cast even though deep discussion pointed out flaws in their calculations.
This banned individual also seems to prop himself up onto a pedestal of eliteness and power in this community by repeatedly taking credit for being able to get the ear of the mayor, a council member, the city manager or some other person who happens to be sitting in a seat of importance that day. He is very good at running interference for them but people need to wake up and realize that he really has zero credibility when it comes to actually accountability and transparency in local government.
It’s also amazing to me that when you look at the big donors to the Renew:DeKalb Schools campaign that along with many of the banks, companies vying for work on the school project, amongst others that he is also a donor and pretty proud of it though when all of the miscalculations and mistakes were brought up after the referendum he seemed to fade away from coming to meetings while the discussion for responsible building of these schools were going on.
Your report on the utilities at the new high school was an eye opener and not a story that school officials thought they would have to put out. I’m afraid that in the last hour here while many little fires are being put out with respect to the construction that resulted from the referendum that many little incidentals are being placed together to all be wiped off the board at one fell swoop and hidden into the $110 million referendum and the eerie amount of interest that will be paid by this community over the course of the next 25 to 30 years.
What is even scarier to me is how many dollars are being used from the referendum money that were NEVER used for any part of the 2 new schools but merely and creatively incorporated somehow into an expense line that was attributed to that construction. I’m sure that there are those dollars but we will unfortunately never know especially when so many in this community seem very willing to look the other way every time someone does point out an irregularity or mispending.
Comment by yinn on November 19, 2011 at 10:29 am
I’ve read in the newspaper that the school district is short $950,000 so it would have been very, very easy to come to a conclusion about why the bills haven’t been paid on time. I didn’t, because I knew I didn’t have enough data to do so.
Instead of getting credit for restraint, I’m asked to make a “correction.” This makes me suspect, just as you do Ivan, that the real objection was to my putting out any numbers at all.
Incidentally, after I wrote the post I asked the person who wanted the “correction” to remove me from his e-mail list, yet another unwanted e-mail has just landed in my inbox.
I’ve been harassed (via e-mails and attacks at another blog) once before due to putting out information here (this story: http://www.citybarbs.com/2007/08/14/conflict-of-interest-no-12498/#more-138). I won’t put up with it. I hope the e-mail is only to say “goodbye” and there won’t be others. But I’ve got a folder ready just in case.
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