Mayor William Stortz is unhappy with the way a firm hired by the city to try to secure refunds from Connecticut Light & Power is handling the task.
That unhappiness may help to undercut the campaign of Republican mayoral candidate Ken Johnson, who owned the firm at the time city leaders hired it to help rake in as much as $500,000 in wrongful streetlighting charges over the years.
Johnson, who sold his Municipal Energy Consulting Group firm in July, was hired last winter “for his skills” in pursuing CL&P, the mayor said.
But Johnson gave up his interest in the firm rather than have anyone question his ties to the contractor.
Last month, however, the new president of Municipal Energy, James Krone, told Stortz in a letter that Johnson would represent the company in a meeting with city officials about the issue.
“Even though he has no financial gain from this contract,” Krone said in the Aug. 16 letter, “he is willing to participate in these discussions.”
Stortz refused to meet with Johnson, calling him “an unpaid volunteer.”
“Since you have indicated he no longer has any relationship with Municipal Energy, his participation would not be appropriate without all the proper insurance coverage,” Stortz wrote in response.
The mayor also questioned whether the city should provide access to its records to Johnson “without some assurance that the city will be protected as to the use of such information,” thought it’s unclear how Johnson’s use of public records could harm the city’s position.
When Johnson couldn’t attend the session, Krone sent an attorney instead.
“He is not the utility man that we originally hired,” Stortz said.
The mayor said that at this point he is not even sure who Krone is. “We have no resume or credentials” to show that Krone has the longstanding utility experience that Johnson possessed, Stortz said.
He said Krone appears to live in Florida, which hampers the ability of the city to work with him.
“We don’t know technical advice and guidance Mr. Krone has,” the mayor said.
Stortz said he’s not the only one worried about the direction things have taken.
Some city councilors, he said, “are somewhat chagrined as to how things are going.”
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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
10 comments:
Bill:
Go home..you have no understanding of this issue..its way over your head.
Let them do thier work without your usual micromanaging.
Stortz: its time to stop micromanaging and actually get a grip on what is truly happening in Bristol. You need to grow up and stop trying to pull down a fine candidate like Mr. Johnson for your own personal reasons. You are not running again, so get out of this election and actually do something.
And take your side kick puppet, Ellen with you!
Bill:
On behalf of the Republican Party (unofficially), I say thank you for purposely attempting to sabotage the new mayoral candidate. I assume I will not be seeing you at future Lincoln Day Dinners. I also hope you are never honored by the party for anything but being vindictive.
Bill:
Are you finally getting the message?? No one wants you!!!
Bill:
You are dispicable. You would not be in office if it weren't for us, yet as you exit public life you stab us in the back. You should be ashamed of yourself. But like many other pompous fools I'm sure you make an excuse for your vindictive, self-righteous, bullying, petty, behavior. Good riddance.
I'm sure that there are some legitimate legal/contract concerns that should be considered now that Ken has resigned from the company. However I do not believe that Stortz is managing the situation well. I think it would have been better for him to meet with Ken and his former partner to determine what the best course of action would be to continue the research so Bristol gets all the money they are owed from CL&P.
If Bill is trying to get out of the contract with Ken's company, he should just do so and not make so many waves while he is backing out.
Bill is doing to Johnson, what he tried to do with Ward, discredit him! Bill wants Ellen to win because he does not like Ward or Johnson. Its nso secret Bill is working with Ellen, just look at the "scripting" fiasco.
Stop being vindictive Bill.
Bill Stortz doesn't have the authorization to back out he needs the support of the City Council and the City Council wants Bristol to obtain as much money as they can.
This is free money Bill for Bristol that could be used to offset a future tax increase. Are you trying to screw Bristol as well as Ken Johnson?
Ken Johnson has the right to run for Mayor and so did you. If you weren't afraid of losing to him you would have run too, however, you must have gotten the message that the Republican Town Committee was solidly behind Ken Johnson.
Please for the sake of bristol which you have disgraced enough, stay out of this election, and just go about your business as any other Lame duck would do.
This will never be resolved. We should just take what CL&P offered us and let it go at that. It's not like anyone is going to find the real number that they owe us and each day that this goes by without being resolved is just that much more money (in interest) that we are losing.
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