Crow Eaten Here
First the facts.
Below I stated that our “former City Manager, John Lawton, was receiving compensation for acting as an SME trustee.” Electric City Power Board member, John Gilbert, investigated this matter, and came up with the following explanation:
The pre 2007 SME tax returns show that John Lawton received “compensation” as a trustee of SME while serving as Great Falls city manager. People have publicly speculated that Mr. Lawton received cash compensation from SME and therefore violated the City Code. As an ECP board member and CPA, I felt obligated to follow up on this and to report my findings publicly.
The short answer is that Mr. Lawton did not receive the reported payments from SME. The long answer follows.
Trustees of SME “receive” $250 for attending a Board meeting. In the case of representatives of the City of Great Falls, the $250 is never actually paid to any individual. When the City receives its monthly electrical bill from SME, the $250 “compensation” for attending meetings is subtracted from the cash amount the City pays SME for electricity. The reduction in the electrical bill is included in non-operating income on the ECP financial statements. I physically examined accounting source documents at the Civic Center that show the $250 per meeting amount being subtracted from the SME statement and subsequent wire transfer. I did this for selected documents while Mr. Lawton was city manager and after his retirement. The non-operating income is readily apparent on the monthly ECP financial statements.
In 2007, SME apparently concluded (and properly in my view) that since the City’s representatives receive no actual payments from SME, no amount should be reported on the compensation line for these individuals on the SME tax return.
As far as I am concerned, this issue can, and should be, put to rest.
It’s hard to argue with that. So far so good.
Then I spoke with Rich Ecke from the Tribune about this, and he asked me if I thought my original piece was responsible since I pretty clearly stated that Mr. Lawton received the money.
Initially, I weaseled around the issue, arguing that my subsequent comments (“unless he paid these sums over to the City of Great Falls”; “Did he pay his compensation over to the City? Who knows?”) qualified my initial statement that Lawton “was receiving compensation for acting as an SME trustee.”
I’m not going to quibble. He’s right. I shouldn’t have written that sentence as clearly as I did. I was wrong for doing so. Hopefully, Mr. Ecke won’t savage me too hard in the Tribune tomorrow, but if he does…oh well. I deserve it.
As to why I did not simply pick up the telephone and contact the City, or serve another FOIA request, I can only say that I do not have a great deal of confidence in City representations after all that has transpired on this matter. I’ll go with the documents, thank you, even if that means my interpretations are occasionally inaccurate.
Finally, Ms. Balzarini and/or Tim Gregori and/or Randy Boysun have apparently assured Mr. Ecke that SME members did vote to approve compensation to trustees as required by state law. I can’t respond to that. SME records are confidential.
UPDATE: Tribune story.
Everyone makes mistakes. However, honest people admit their mistakes. Thus, you show yourself to be honest.
Well done, Gregg. You ‘fessed up, ate a little crow, and remained honest. I’m satisfied.
At least you try to find the fire in all this smoke. Someday the box will be opened.
As one who’s dine on crow, I can say it’s not a tasty meal, but occasionally a nutritious one. Well done on fessing up.
I’m sure the Tribune is enjoying this after all the crap you’ve given them over the years. It’s not like you don’t deserve it!
It’s good this is resolved but we’ve yet to get justice on all the records. The forms
in question do show who received the compensation and a layperson could only draw certain conclusions unless they went further as Mr. Gilbert did. The question is now who’s voting and where’s the compensation going.
Coleen Balzarini: 1
Gregg Smith: 186,242
Let her enjoy the moment.
Gregg and many others have asked for public documents concerning the cities dealings with SME for years and gotten pretty much nowhere. This has caused suspicions to almost everything the city now or has done with this venture. They have brought this on themselves and the Tribune should know this. I don’t see the Tribune asking the hard questions that Gregg does and if they did perhaps the light would shine through for our community. Open the lock box and expose the truth for a change…..
Gregg, I guess the mainstream media DOES read the blogs, huh? How come
they didn’t break the FM990 news to ‘clear the air’ on this issue that’s been
raised on many occasions. Also, the fact that 2007 shows no compensation
as compared to the 2005 and 2006 payments is most curious in itself. Why did
it take two years to change the compensation reporting? We sometimes ‘eat crow’ but by that standard, city hall would be ‘eating the whole flock’ by now. I
thinks it’s hubris – and not avarice – that’s afflicting some in city hall. We’ll
see who ‘eats some more crow’ when we finally get to see the ’secret’ city communications.
Good question, anonymous. Was the Tribune more focused on showing that the bloggers were wrong than it was on getting the story about SME compensation?
Gregg, I am not sure that the bloggers have been proven wrong!