They're almost as bad as NES

IG: Over 1,000 IRS workers misused gov't charge cards, agency lenient on discipline 

More than 1,000 IRS employees over a two-year period misused their government credit cards, and the agency has a tendency to be overly lenient in disciplining them, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said in a recently released audit report. (link)

That  sounds very familiar, just a larger agency with more people than the Nashville Electric Service. NES had hundreds of misused charge cards and and Amazon accounts, instead of more than 1000.  No one ever lost a job or went to jail due to malfeasance at NES and the agency was lenient on discipline. That sounds a lot like the IRS. You may have missed it. Except for Channel 5, our local media did not cover the scandal very much and the Council never took any strong action. It is not over however. The tenacious citizen activist Ken Jakes continues to seek justice. To read the comptrollers report about our own corrupt government agency, see here . For a lot more information about the NES scandal including viewing the channel 5 report follow this link. 

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Decosta Jenkins, CEO of the corrupt, scandal-ridden NES, is highest paid Metro employee.

Decosta Jenkins once again ranks number one on the list of highest paid Metro employees at $367, 078.40 a year, a $21,881.60 increase from his 2012 income. NES employees are seven of the top ten highest paid Metro employees. NES employee's hold 44 of the top 100 highest paid positions in Nashville. Think of that the next time you pay a high utility bill. The next time you hear of some little old lady on a fixed income who can't pay her electric bill, remember this.

One would think that being some of the highest paid civil servants in Davidson County that upper brace would not be tempted to trade NES services for free golf games, dinner show tickets, dinners and nights of lodging at Gaylord's Opryland hotel. One would think that they would not be tempted to use NES credit cards to purchase items for personal use on Amazon and eBay.

Instead of getting an increase in pay for serving as CEO and President of NES, Decosta Jenkins should be fired and unemployed. For more on the top 100 Metro Salaries, see Nashville Today, April 18, 2013 For more on the mismanagement and corruption at NES see here, here and here.

For more on the top 100 Metro Salaries, see Nashville Today, April 18, 2013

For more on the mismanagement and corruption at NES see here, here and here.

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Let Ken Jakes speak at the special Council Committee meeting on NES!

There will be a special called joint meeting of the Metro Council Budget & Finance and Rules-Confirmations-Public Elections Committees on Monday, February 4, 2013, at 3:00 p.m. in the David Scobey Council Chamber at the Metro Court House regarding the recently completed audit of Nashville Electric Service. Electric Power Board Chair Robert McCabe and NES President Decosta Jenkins will be there to address Council members in detail and answer questions regarding findings and recommendations from the recent audit.

To provide a little background: Citizen activist Ken Jakes following the trail of some suspicious activity involving NES, used freedom of information request to view thousands of records of letters, invoices, emails and other documents. He spend months looking over records and found what he was looking for but also found much more. He turned the information over to the State Comptroller which conducted an audit which revealed massive theft at NES. NES bigwigs had accepted thousand of dollars worth of golf games, overnight lodging, meals and drink, and tickets to shows in exchange for providing services to Gaylord.

In addition to Gaylord payoffs, the audit found a single source contract for cable written in such a way so there was only one provider of the product and found a questionable financial relationship between an NES employee and the provider of the cable.  Other criminal activity discovered included employees of NES using NES credit cards and pay pal accounts to make purchases for their own use.

What NES employees were engaging in was criminal activity.  If an NES customer was stealing electricity by illegally tapping into a power line, they would be prosecuted. If someone was stealing NES wire and selling it for scrape they would be prosecuted.  No one has been prosecuted for the criminal activity at NES. The audit findings were presented to DA Torry Johnson and he refused to indict.

Not only has no one been charged with a criminal offense. No one has even lost their job.  Some people ought to be in jail and a lot of people ought to be fired. This is being swept under the rug. NES has instituted changes in policy so this type of criminal activity is less likely to happen in the future, but that is not good enough. There should be punishment. The Council needs to hear from Ken Jakes. This issue should not be treated as simply a department that got a poor audit.

Ken Jakes has asked to speak to the joint committee meeting, writing the following email:

From: Ken Jakes
To: Councilmembers@nashville.gov
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2013 8:34 PM
Subject: Request to speak

Budget and Finance ( Chair Lonnell Matthews )

Rules and Confirmations ( Chair Anthony Davis )

And all of The Metro Council

Council Members, I would like to request to be able to speak and address the special called meeting on 2/4/13 regarding the Comptrollers report findings on NES. Many of the issues in the Comptrollers report were uncovered by me researching over hundreds of Thousands of public records. Coming from NES you will only hear from one side of the fence. You the representatives need to hear first hand, many of the issues.

Thank you,

Ken Jakes.

615-347-3379.

He got the following reply:

From: "Lonnell Matthews" matthews

@gmail.com>

To: "Ken Jakes" jakes@comcast.net>
Cc: Councilmembers@nashville.gov
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2013 11:00:41 PM
Subject: Re: Request to speak

Mr. Jakes,

I hope you and your family are doing well.

The special called meeting to discuss the recent of audit of NES is intended to give Council members the opportunity to address questions and concerns to NES staff and board members.  This is not intended to be a public hearing, so unfortunately your request to speak cannot be granted for this meeting.

In order for you to have the opportunity to have your specific concerns address I suggest that you forward your questions and concerns to Council members.  If inclined, they will be able to bring up your concerns during the special called meeting.

Thank you in advance for your understanding.

Ken responded saying, "I do understand that it is not a public hearing. I also understand that any citizen can come before a meeting of the Council members if a motion is made and seconded and passed by the present members. It can be permitted and I am asking and requesting due to the serious issues that the exception be made."

Since Ken Jakes was the one who discovered the wrong doing and knows more about it than any single other person, he should be allowed to address the Council.  I fear that the Council will hear one side of the story and never take any action. The Council needs to hear from Ken Jakes. Please ask your Council member to let Ken Jakes address this committee. Also, the people need to let their Council member know that they are disgusted by the criminal activity at NES and the mismanagement. Let your Council member know they should push for criminal charges being brought against those who committed crimes and that Degosta Jenkins who heads NES should be fired. 

Some times the Council is more conscientious if they know the public is watching. I plan to attend the committee meeting on Monday afternoon to provide moral support to Ken Jakes and to observe. If you can do so, please attend this important committee meeting.

Please contact your council member and ask him to let Ken Jakes make a presentation to the committee.

Below is more information on this issue:
Ken Jakes tells NES Board Decosta Jenkins must go!
Ken Jakes turns up the heat on NES 
Formal ethics complaint filed against NES's Decosta Jenkens. Public needs to demand action!
Audit of NES shows an outrageous lack of ethics (link to article by Gail Kerr)
Some NES employees need to go to jail, a lot ought to lose their job. (with Channel 5 video)

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Ken Jakes tells NES Board Decosta Jenkins must go!

Ken Jakes appeared before the NES Board today and told the Board that they should fire NES executive director Decosta Jenkins. 

Ken Jakes is the long time citizen activist and former Metro Council candidate who uncovered massive criminal activity on the part of NES. Such criminal activity including accepting thousands of dollars of perks and benefits for use by NES brass in exchange for NES services provided to Gaylord, misuse of credit cards and pay pal accounts involving private purchases with NES credit, a conflict of interest and manipulation of purchasing specs to benefit a particular provider of cable and more. Ken discovered these criminal activities by using freedom of information request and poring over hundreds of email exchanges and other records.

As a result of Ken's effort the State Comptroller conducted an audit of NES and confirmed what Ken's investigation had uncovered. The information was presented to Davidson County District Attorney Torry Johnson but he declined to prosecute. At today's appearance before the Board, Ken said, "This is not the end of this. I am taking this issue to the Federal Attorney."

To be allowed to address the board, Ken had to make his request in writing and had to get unanimous Board approval. They only allowed him five minutes. Ken declared that criminal activity had occurred and read to the board the following segment from Metro Charter: 

The officers, agents and employees of the board are prohibited from appropriating or using any of the moneys, revenues, assets or property of the board, or of the metropolitan government, or its credit either directly or indirectly by way of donations for festivities, exhibits, shows, lectures, pageants, excursions, decorations or parades, and shall not give or grant to any person or persons any reduction or other benefit of any kind in rates or service by the board, nor shall they make or allow any discrimination in favor of any purchaser of power, light, current or other service not enjoyed by others of the same class and taking power under like conditions; provided, nothing in this article shall prevent participation in normal electric promotion activities.

"How much clearer, could it be?" Ken asked. He also referenced a section of the NES employee manual that says much the same thing.

Most of the NES Board meeting was spend adopting policies to address the issues raised in the audit. A new credit card policy took credit cards away from over 100 employees and left only eleven procurement professionals with credit cards. The State audit had found substantial misuse of credit cards. The bylaws of the Electric Power Board were amended; a new travel expense policy, a new policy manual, a new procurement and materials policy manual, a recommendation to  retain  a firm to provide third party review of the Internal Audit Function, and a "Corrective Action Plan in Response to the State Audit Findings" were approved.

While it is good that the Board is addressing the finding of the audit and taking corrective action, why is no one in jail for grand theft? Why does  Decosta Jenkins still have a job?

There was no media present covering today's important Board meeting.

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Ken Jakes turns up the heat on NES

Ken Jakes has contacted the TVA board to inform them of the wrongful actions of NES and the misuse of Public Funds. Below is his communication to the Board. I have removed Ken's phone numbers from this communication in order to protect him from harassing phone calls. If you want to talk to Ken about this issue, email him. I am sure he would welcome hearing from you. I have highlighted and underlined portions of the below communications to call attention to particular wrongful action of NES contained in the press release from Justin Wilson, State Comptroller.  Rod

---

From: "Ken Jakes"
To: Board@TVA.gov
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2013 3:58:16 PM
Subject: Fwd: Comptroller Review Finds Improper Purchasing Practices, Credit Card Use and Other Questionable Activities at Nashville Electric Service

Hello, my name is Ken Jakes and I live in Joelton Tn. The Comptroller's Report I am forwarding below originated from wrongful actions that I discovered while researching thru Hundreds of thousands of public record. I want to report for the misuse of public funds. I want to get with our State and Federal Senators and Congress, however I want to report to TVA as well. Please contact me.

Office 615-xxx-xxxx
Cell 615-xxx-xxxx
Home 615-xxx-xxx
Fax 615-227-1863
Email Ken.Jakes@comcast.net

Thank you,
 Ken Jakes

---

From: "Kevin Wisniewski" <kwisniewski@newschannel5.com>
To: "Ken Jakes (ken.jakes@comcast.net)"
Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2012 9:32:15 AM
Subject: FW: Comptroller Review Finds Improper Purchasing Practices, Credit Card Use and Other Questionable Activities at Nashville Electric Service

From: Blake Fontenay [mailto:Blake.Fontenay@tn.gov]
Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2012 9:02 AM
To: Blake Fontenay
Subject: Comptroller Review Finds Improper Purchasing Practices, Credit Card Use and Other Questionable Activities at Nashville Electric Service

 

State of Tennessee Justin P. Wilson, State Comptroller

For Immediate Release: Dec. 13, 2012 Comptroller Review Finds Improper Purchasing Practices, Credit Card Use and Other Questionable Activities at Nashville Electric Service Nashville Electric Service (NES) has paid one manufacturer and its distributor more than $17 million over the last eight years for electric power cable that was not properly bid, a review by the Comptroller’s Division of Local Government Audit has found. NES, a governmental utility company that supplies electricity for Nashville and surrounding communities, has paid Kerite Company more than $13 million and its distributor, Utilicor, more than $4 million since 2005 for electric power cable. The review found that NES has had an exclusive arrangement with Kerite and Utilicor since 1998, although NES could only provide records for cable purchases beginning in the 2005 fiscal year. During interviews with representatives from NES and Kerite, Comptroller staff members learned that the utility company’s specifications for electric power cable were tailored to match the type of cable provided by Kerite. A field superintendent for NES, now retired, also promoted Kerite’s products while performing consulting work outside of NES, at seminars and in conversations with officials from other utility districts.  These activities were not disclosed on the employee’s NES conflict of interest disclosure statement. The Comptroller’s review uncovered other serious issues, including improper use of an NES credit card by the utility company’s vice president/chief information officer. Reviewers found the vice president commingled personal and business accounts when making purchases on eBay and Amazon. Many of these accounts were established in the name of NES.  The vice president also established a PayPal Extras MasterCard in his name using an NES procurement card as collateral.  The same vice president admitted to selling surplus NES items on eBay without authorization or knowledge of his supervisor. The vice president also admitted to interviewers that he had given an information systems contractor an NES credit card and allowed that individual to make purchases on behalf of the utility company for 12 years. And the vice president used an NES credit card to purchase items such as printer ink and computer supplies that were readily available in the utility’s storeroom. Other issues identified in the review include: ·        A contractual arrangement with Gaylord Entertainment which allowed senior personnel and other employees from NES to attend events and play golf at Gaylord-owned properties free of charge in exchange for the lease of NES transformers. These ‘hospitality packages,’ which appeared to have no benefit to NES ratepayers, were valued at more than $70,000 over the last six years. ·        NES employees made personal purchases on NES credit cards. ·         A half dozen NES employees received reimbursement for education or training programs based on altered documents. “The issues uncovered during our review are very serious and I applaud NES officials for the corrective measures they have adopted in response to our findings,” said Comptroller Justin P. Wilson. “As our report indicates, there are still additional steps that we believe could be taken to reduce the chances that similar problems will crop up in the future. I want to commend not only my staff in the Division of Local Government Audit, but also representatives from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation who assisted us in our work.” The findings of the review have been shared with the local district attorney’s office. To view the report online, go to: http://www.comptroller.tn.gov/repository/CA/2011/NESReport.pdf My comment:  While it is nice that NES has made corrective action, why is no one being charged with a criminal offense? This amounts to theft. If someone had stolen some NES copper wire and sold it for scrape they would be prosecuted. Some top level people at NES should go to prison and a lot of people ought to be fired! On January the 24th at 10:30 am Ken Jakes will be making a presentation before the NES board. I will be attending to show my support.  Anyone wishing to attend will need to check in at the front desk of NES on Church Street by about 10:00 am. You will need to show photo ID and be escorted to the board room. Any and all that can attend, please do so. The NES board needs to know that the rate payers are outraged with the illegal and wrongful actions of NES.

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Show NES your outrage! Support Ken Jakes.

From : Ken Jakes

Originally I was to go before the NES power board on January 23rd at 8:30 a.m. to address the board on the issues in the Comptrollers report, many of which were discovered by me searching thru thousands of records. They have now changed the date to January the 24th at 10:30 am. Anyone wishing to attend will need to check in at the front desk of NES on Church Street by about 10:00 am. You will need to show photo ID and be escorted to the board room. Any and all that can attend, please do so. They need to know that the rate payers are outraged with the illegal and wrongful actions of NES

NES should not get away with criminal action. To read more about this issue follow see here, here, and here.  I plan to attend this NES board meeting. Please join me to support Ken and to let NES know we are outraged about the illegal and unethical activity the agency has engaged in. Rod

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Formal ethics complaint filed against NES's Decosta Jenkens. Public needs to demand action!

Citizen-activist Ken Jakes has filed a written complaint against Decosta Jenkens for unethical and criminal behavior. Below is a copy of his email to the Mayor and members of the Council asking that the Mayor ask the NES Board, which is appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the Council, to terminate Mr. Jenkins contract. Below is the email letter. I have edited the email by removing Mr. Jakes phone numbers.

From: "Ken Jakes"
To: "Metro clerk" , mayor@nashville.gov
Cc: Councilmembers@nashville.gov
Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2012 11:00:09 AM
Subject: Ethical Complaint to file against Decosta Jenkins

To mayor Dean, our Metro Council, and Metro Clerk,

I am forming in a written complaint for the unethical behavior against Decosta Jenkins as the leadership of NES. Decosta Jenkins himself signed the contract between Opryland and NES where it benefited only he and other employees of NES. It had no benefit to the rate payers of Nashville and Davidson County and the area that NES provides. All that was gained from this action was a loss of revenue for the rate payers which we have to replace within our electric rate charges. All the free perks on the back of the rate payers were taxable income which NES has provided to me that they did not keep records. This in itself is a violation of law and it is my opinion that a violation of law is a criminal offense.

The Metro Government has to have in place policy against this type of actions. How does Decosta Jenkins say we will address this issue when in my opinion he is as guilty as the wrong doing of the employees. I ask that you Mayor Dean, address this and ask the NES Board who you appointed to terminate Decosta Jenkins. I ask the Metro Council to address in what ever way it can proceed. I ask the Metro Clerk if this is not the proper procedure to file an ethical complaint against Decosta Jenkins, then to contact me so I may take each step necessary to file this complaint. I will place my contact information below so should any of you wish to contact me please do so,

The people you represent do not want this swept under the table,

Ken Jakes

office 615-xxx-xxxx

Cell 615-xxx-xxx

Home 615-xxx-xxxx 

Ken has also written Laura Tidwell, legal counsel for NES forwarding her a copy of the complaint and asking that  his complaint be placed on the NES agenda for the next meeting. Here is an excerpt from that letter:

I am requesting that you as Legal Council for NES follow through with my request to make sure it is filed the proper way to be address and placed on the Agenda for the next meeting of the Board to be addressed. The 17 million dollar contract that Decosta Jenkins stated on Channel 5 , was an error on his part, was public revenue. Part of that revenue came from me through my electric rates. In my opinion it is nothing short of Bid Rigging.

We do not need Decosta Jenkins in leadrership of NES WITH THESE TYPES OF ACTIONS. Tory Johnson may say he will not make criminal prosecutions but all know it was wrong. I can assure all if Decosta is not terminated it is not over yet. I will just proceed to Federal Investigations of Fraud and misuse of Public Funds. Who knows, maybe they will with hold Federal Grants and Funding until they can get to the bottom of the situation. I am on a crusade for the rate payers of NES that have been abused. I would hope that you would feel as I. Laura, my battle is not with you, however handle this for what it is, Public Corruption. Do not let Decosta Jenkins harm your Legal Profession in my opinion defending his actions. Just something to think about.

In a separate email to the Metropolitan Clerk, Ken includes appendix three of the Metro Charter. Below is a relevant portion of that Charter provision concerning NES.

The officers, agents and employees of the board are prohibited from appropriating or using any of the moneys, revenues, assets or property of the board, or of the metropolitan government, or its credit either directly or indirectly by way of donations for festivities, exhibits, shows, lectures, pageants, excursions, decorations or parades, and shall not give or grant to any person or persons any reduction or other benefit of any kind in rates or service by the board, nor shall they make or allow any discrimination in favor of any purchaser of power, light, current or other service not enjoyed by others of the same class and taking power under like conditions; provided, nothing in this article shall prevent participation in normal electric promotion activities.  

The public need to rally around this issue and not let the people at NES get off with a simple promise to do better in the future. Corruption like this should not be accepted as business as usual. Tory Johnson needs to pursue criminal indictments, the mayor needs to pressure the NES board  to fire Jenkins and the Council needs to hold hearing on the matter and apply pressure. Also, since NES is chartered by the State and subject to state authority our State senators and representatives need to demand changes at NES. 

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Audit of NES shows an outrageous lack of ethics

by Gail Kerr, The Tennessean, Dec 16, 2012- A scathing audit of Nashville Electric Service shows that $104.50 from your light bill payment went to buy a baby gift for an NES board member.

The buyer? NES’ chief financial officer.

Are you hot under the collar yet?

How about this: The public utility wrote specifications to “circumvent” proper bid procedures when buying $17 million of power cable. “Circumvent” is such a polite word. They might as well just call it what it was: bid rigging.

But wait! There’s more! (read more)

My Comment: I am hot under the collar. This is an outrage! It is theft. Crimes have been committed. Some people ought to go to jail and a lot of people ought to lose their jobs!

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Some NES employees need to go to jail, a lot ought to lose their job.

Ken Jakes

From Ken Jakes... Brother and Sister Patriots, Please watch Channel 5 @6.00 p.m. regarding NES. This is just the tip of the iceberg and already Torry Johnson ( District Attorney ) says there will be no criminal charges. HOW ON EARTH CAN THERE BE NO CRIMINAL CHARGES. We can not let this be swept under the table as usual. Please help me contact the entire Council and State Representatives so they will know the people are upset. Review the Comptroller's findings and ask yourself if there was CRIMINAL ACTIONS. Clear is Clear to the people who's public funds are being misused, the only cloudy issue is with Torry Johnson.

NewsChannel5.com | Nashville News, Weather

By Phil Williams
Chief Investigative Reporter
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Nashville Electric Service purchased more than $17 million in cable under a no-bid contract, while an NES vice president used utility accounts to buy and sell items on eBay and Amazon, a new state audit concludes.(link)

My Comment: This story broke due to the hard work of citizen-activist Ken Jakes.  Using freedom of information request to gain access, he spent hour upon hour poring over NES records, emails, and invoices to expose this wrong doing on the part of  NES. Ken is rightly incensed that what clearly appears to be matter of criminality is being brushed aside by Tory Johnson.  

Surely people at NES should know it is not appropriate to purchase personal items on Amazon with company credit cards.  That is theft. It should be treated as a such. Writing specs in such a way that only one company can bid on them ought to be a crime if it is not.  Charging alcoholic beverages on the company credit card is clearly wrong. Some people ought to go to jail and a lot of people ought to lose theri job and top management needs to resign.

The next time you hear of some little old lady getting her electricity cut off, think about the kickbacks that NES chiefs got in the form of room nights and expensive tickets to shows at Oprtyland Hotel and all of the free services NES gave Opryland.  

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Tennessee Comptroller’s Office commenced a review of NES. An audit team......

The message below was sent by attorney Laura Tidwell of NES to the Metro Council members. As they are considering process and policy changes now, one must wonder, would they had there not been an investigation? I believe you know the answer to that.

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "Tidwell, Laura" <lstidwell@nespower.com>
To: "'councilmembers@nashville. gov'" <councilmembers@nashville.gov>; "'blond6660@aol. com'" <blond6660@aol.com>
Cc: "'elease. waller@nashville. gov'" <elease.waller@nashville.gov>; Roseanne Hayes <Roseanne.Hayes@Nashville.gov>; Erin Williams (Mayor's Office of Neighborhoods) <erin.williams@nashville.gov>; "'scott. wallace@nashville. gov'" <scott.wallace@nashville.gov>; "Zimmerle, Joan" <JZimmerle@NESPOWER.COM>
Sent: Monday, August 27, 2012 6:12 PM
Subject: News Story

Members of the Metropolitan Council,

You may have seen a Channel 5 story regarding NES on Thursday evening. The story indicated that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) is conducting an investigation into certain matters at NES.

Following an “investigative news report” earlier this year, a number of Council members requested an audit of certain areas of NES operations. As a result of that request, the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office commenced a review of NES. An audit team from the Comptroller’s Office has met with a number of NES employees, and NES is aware that a TBI agent was present during several interviews. NES has cooperated fully with the Comptroller’s Office and will continue to cooperate.

The review has prompted NES to consider several policy and process changes. We are awaiting a final report from the state and will address any issues identified in the report.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Laura

 For more on this story see this and this. 

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TBI Confirms Nashville Electric Service Investigation

The investigative work of Ken Jakes is paying off.


TBI Confirms Nashville Electric Service Investigation
By Phil Williams, Chief Investigative Reporter

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Nashville Electric Service has found itself at the center of a potential criminal investigation.

A spokesperson for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation confirmed Thursday that the agency is looking into questions first raised by NewsChannel 5 Investigates, along with some new questions.

Those new questions involve allegations of potential bid-rigging on an NES contract.
Sources with knowledge of the investigation emphasized it is still very much in the preliminary stages.

Our NewsChannel 5 investigation first raised questions back in late April about a contract for NES to provide services to Gaylord Opryland's big Christmas spectacular. (to read more and see the Channel 5 video)

My Comment

Ken Jakes

Kudos to Ken Jakes for a job well done

This is serious stuff. NES big wigs personally benefited with free rooms and meals and tickets to shows in exchange for free equipment, labor and transformers on an intimized invoice for the lights for A Country Christmas. The invoice was for $ 56,000.00!
 
Ken Jakes is not mentioned in this story but this would never have come to light if not for the hard work of Ken Jakes. He spend hundred of hours poring over email records, reports and contracts and battling NES to force them to comply with his Freedom of Information request. He then turned the information over to the Attorney General and leaked the story to Channel 5.  There is much more that may come to light. This is just the tip of the ice burg.

I asked Ken if he could shed more light on this story and he said, "All I can disclose is what the News report gave. I have  been asked by the special agents involved in the case, because it is an ongoing pending investigation, to not disclose any further information. I will tell you I have thousands of other public records that NES has not provided and I have forwarded those request to the special agents."

Ken Jakes is a citizen activist who has exposed government corruption and mismanagement on numerous occasions. He is tenacious and untiring. He deserves a metal.

Ken is a former candidate for an at-large seat on the Metro Council.  Last Council election, all of the sitting at-large members were reelected without a runoff. Next council election the at-large members will be term-limited out. I hope Ken runs again. We need someone like Ken Jakes on the Metro Council.

In the meantime, we owe Ken Jakes a big "thank you" for all of his hard work in investigating and exposing corruption and mismanagement.

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Ken Jakes filing formal NES complaint with the Comptroller of the State of Tennessee

Ken Jakes, a former candidate for Metro Council and  local citizen activist with a history of exposing abuse of power, mismanagement and corruption by department and agencies of local government, has today initiated the process of filing a formal complaint against the Nashville Electric Service, charging NES with accepting show tickets and gifts in exchange for $56,000 of electric service.

Below is the letter Mr. Jakes wrote to Justin Wilson, Comptroller of the Treasury:

From: "Ken Jakes" <ken.jakes@comcast.net>
To: "Justin wilson" <Justin.wilson@cot.tn.gov>
Sent: Tuesday, May 8, 2012 11:36:36 AM
Subject: Fraudulent activity believed by NES

Mr.Wilson, my name is Ken Jakes and I would like to make an appointment with you to show you information where I believe that Nashville Electric Service has been fraudulent with the revenues owed them by Gaylord. Many of the Brass or upper management have received gifts in lieu of a payment for an invoice that I have where NES invoiced Gaylord. I hold a contract between NES and Gaylord which mentions in lieu of payment of this particular invoice they are providing such gifts as show tickets, dinner tickets, free parking passes, free room nights in Opryland Hotel, and free Golf Passes.

I informed Phil Williams of Channel 5 who saw the need to report this on an investigated report. I will post the link that shows just some of the information that Phil Williams used in his reporting. I have numerous documents to provide additional information.

I have emails where employees are saying that Gaylord is giving them free tickets and another employee responds that he would like to have eight show tickets.

The contract specifies in exchange or lieu of payment of $ 56,000.00 dollars owed by Gaylord they will furnish to NES as Gaylord call it a " Value Added Package." How in the world could these be FREE TICKETS ?

Please allow me a moment of your time to share what I hold for your review.

Link to just a few of the documents I provided to Phil Williams.
 http://t.co/pEVSvqKA

Thank you,

Ken Jakes

I appreciate the effort of Mr. Jakes in uncovering this latest outrage. Ken does Freedom of Information request, battles people with something to hide, and then spends day after day  pouring over hundreds or thousands of emails and reports and records, following leads and rumors to discover and document corruption. Ken is not a law enforcement official or an auditor nor an investigative news reporter.  He is a citizen who believes in justice, good government,  and honest and efficient government. Thank you Ken Jakes.

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Gaylord bribes NES with lavish perks, while little old ladies get electicity cut off.

By Phil Williams,Chief Investigative Reporter,Channel 5, NASHVILLE, Tenn. - If you go to Nashville Electric Service, they'll expect you to pay your electric bill in full. But for years, the folks at Gaylord Opryland have been getting a bit of a break on the bill for their big Country Christmas spectacular -- in exchange for tickets to the big shows and other perks that have gone to some of NES's top brass. "Why don't they just pay what they owe like everybody else?" asked NES customer Ken Jakes.(read more)

This is nothing short of bribery. Someone ought to go to jail! The Council should hold hearings. The DA should investigate and bring charges!

Look at what is revealed:

 In 2010 alone, a Gaylord summary shows that it gave NES:

• 120 tickets to the ICE! show -- valued at $24 dollars each
• 25 tickets to Louise Mandrell's dinner show -- $70 each
• 30 tickets to the Rockettes -- $84 each
• 25 certificates for rooms and parking at the resort hotel -- each worth almost $300

How could anyone with a conscience countenance a system that lets Gaylord give free tickets to expensive shows to NES executives and in turn get a break on their electric bill, while at the same time elderly little old ladies get their electricity off for non-payment?

Ken Jakes had to do Freedom of information request and spend hours pouring over NES emails to discover this outrage. It is now exposed, something should be done about it!

Ken Jakes is to be applauded for discovering and exposing this outrage. 

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