Coatesville Halloween Parade

About the "COATESVILLE SOLAR INITIATIVE (CSI) CONDITIONAL USE HEARING"

I don’t know if KEARES Electrical Contracting, INC developers of the planned solar array in Caln that will power the Veteran’s hospital planned it that way or if it is serendipity but a mostly solar powered military hospital (Coatesville VA Medical Center) is a perfect fit for our new military.

SEE:

COATESVILLE SOLAR INITIATIVE (CSI) CONDITIONAL USE HEARING 

Thursday, October 06, 2011 at 7:00 PM 

Last updated 9/14/2011 11:50:14 AM

Some people are already aware that the satellite driven communications like streaming video and GPS mapping that are now a part of everyday life were developed more than a decade ago by our Department of Defense. I know about it because a DoD employee friend of mine's team developed that satellite communication system. Several everyday ceramic materials and computer systems were developed by NASA. Before that the internet was developed, again by the Department of Defense, as an assured communication system in the event of a nuclear war. New technologies that grew into “can’t live without” products and enormously profitable industries grew out of our military’s and NASA’s technological need.

Gasoline and electric rates have not zoomed upwards because our economy is in a severe recession. A lot of people are not driving to work because their jobs are gone. Several businesses that used electricity do not exist anymore. Once the economy comes back gasoline prices will zoom upwards, companies will use electricity and electric cars will make more demands on our electric grid.

Electric companies love solar arrays. Solar is an ideal fit for mitigating sharp demands on the electric grid because they produce during the peak demand hours for electricity.

Just in the last year solar power start up costs have dropped dramatically. Solar generation is very close to parity to coal generation. If the coal, oil and gas industries seem desperate it's because they are well aware that their end is near.

Right now our military is poised to make a permanent and wide ranging transformation from fossil fuel dependence to renewable energy. Our entire society, our industries, our corporations and infrastructure will follow in their footsteps.

The US Marine Corps has transformed its forward operating bases from fossil fuel dependent to renewable on site energy generating systems. Our US Navy is planning a “Great Green Fleet”.

“The energy risks and challenges facing DoD are evident in its energy profile.  It is the single largest consumer of energy in the United States and one of the largest institutional energy users in the world, having consumed 819 trillion BTUs of energy in 2010. Oil products accounted for 80 percent of DoD’s final energy consumption. In 2009, DoD used more than 375,000 barrels of oil per day, more than all but 35 countries. 

Another 11 percent of DoD’s energy is delivered in the form of electricity. DoD’s oil and electricity use are reflected in the department’s emerging organizational structure for advancing energy innovation.   Fuel is primarily used for operational energy requirements and is in the purview of the newly created position of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Operational Energy Plans and Programs, currently held by Sharon Burke.  Operational energy has been referenced by DoD as the “energy required for training, moving, and sustaining military forces and weapons platforms for military operations.” The energy risks and challenges facing DoD are evident in its energy profile.  It is the single largest consumer of energy in the United States and one of the largest institutional energy users in the world, having consumed 819 trillion BTUs of energy in 2010. Oil products accounted for 80 percent of DoD’s final energy consumption. In 2009, DoD used more than 375,000 barrels of oil per day, more than all but 35 countries. 

Electricity is primarily needed to fulfill the energy requirements of fixed installations and bases.  Installation energy management is overseen at DoD by the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Installations and Environment, Dorothy Robyn.”

FROM:

The honor in being a Republican is gone.

If you are a regular reader of this blog you probably know that I like several of the local Republican officials here in South East Pennsylvania. That’s because they came up 30 years ago or so when being a Republican was still honorable.

People like Mitch McConnell, Eric Cantor, Newt Gingrich, George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Sarah Palin, Scott Walker, Michele Bachmann, Pat Buchanan and Rick Perry have made the title Republican a badge of dishonor. They have made the Republican Party the political party for thieves and fruitcakes.

Maybe there is still hope for the Republican Party but it sure doesn’t look that way right now.

Grilling of Coatesville Finance Director and the GL Specialist who suddenly skipped off to India.

A long time city employee, a GL Specialist (General Ledger Specialist) with access to cash and the ability to delete finance files abruptly leaves for India when there is at least $168,000 unaccounted for. Not even a whimper about it from City Hall.  

Some Coatesville residents paid their trash bills and other bills in cash and one of the people who took that cash in payment was, you guessed it, the GL Specialist Dharmesh “Raj” Kalaria.

There is nothing from 2 members of the Coatesville City Council but a grilling of the finance director. That same finance director who discovered the missing $168,000 and that same finance director who discovered the delinquent trash bills of 3 city council members and that the city overpaid sick pay and vacation pay to another city council member when he had a part time job with the city.

We all know that whistle blowers usually are fired. Ms. Bjorhus is probably checking her LinkedIn right now.  Guess you have to be very careful just who you blow the whistle on in Coatesville.

This is sections of the Finance Report of the City of Coatesville Finance Director Stacy Bjorhus at the Coatesville City Council meeting on Monday September 26, 2011.

Make sure you listen to the recording below. The tone of the voices is important.

At 6:24 on the recording:

“This month it has been extremely rushed between everything we’ve been trying to do; learn a new task, GL. Because as you’re aware or may not be aware, Mr. Kalaria walked in 10:30 Monday morning on August 22^nd and left.

We didn’t have any cross training. There was no information about where the files were…”

At 7:19:

“He would also upload from the raw data that came in from the accounts payable and the cash receipts…”

At 7:57:

He left with inventory at his desk. We had no idea where his files were. Where he downloaded information from; we didn’t have the benefit of any of that information.

Mr. Brazzle,

“As a director do you feel that it’s important that you knew how to do the GL?”

Ms. Bjorhus,

“That I knew how to do the GL?”

Mr. Brazzle,

“Yes…

Ms. Bjorhus,

“Not necessarily….Anyplace I’ve ever worked the finance director had assumed that the GL maintenance was done by the GL maintenance. It’s basically a clerk’s function. I would review and give Mr. Kalaria journal entries based on things that I thought need to be corrected. But actually getting in knowing which modules to pull, knowing when a payroll came in how the upload was done; no. And Mr. Kalaria kept that information to himself. He did not look for assistance. He did not look for information…

9:28-

You want someone in the department who is overseeing. Not to be able to get in and manipulate the data. You want one person to have that access. One person is responsible for controlling the GL.  If you have more than one person controlling the GL then you can have chaos. It’s basically part of the separation of duties…

10:36-

When Mr. Reed was here, I had requested for Mr. Kalaria have less influence on the GL but Mr. Reed had defended Mr. Kalaria’s position as being the sole determinate of the GL. And he did have rights in the system that I did not think he should have but management had deemed that they were warranted. All I could do is look at the data confirm the entries going in; look at the audit trails monitor.

Mr. Simpson,

“You know Mr. Reed is gone.”

Mr. Brazzle,

“What about Mr. Rawlings, did you bring it up to him?”

Ms. Bjorhus,

“Yes”

Mr. Brazzle,

“And what did he say?”

Ms. Bjorhus,

“He felt that….”

Mr. Rawlings, “The Finance Department is in a transition. We have the auditor coming in one day a week to try and help Stacy out to make sure that things are being properly posted. I’ve authorized additional part time to help do the clerk work within the Finance Department. And of course I’ve talked to council about getting an assistant to the Director position going to split some of the duties up…

Mr. Brazzle,

“I got all that but my question was not just answered. When she brought this to your attention what did you say?”

Mr. Rawlings.

“Which part?”

Ms. Bjorhus,

“About Mr. Kalaria’s involvement with the, in deleting files, having the ability to delete the files.”

Mr. Rawlings,

“Was that where we got into the system of administrative… there was a lot of names, on the, what do you call it, the software?”

Ms. Bjorhus,

“But also in terms of …”

 Mr. Rawlings,

“You mean what he could take off it?”

Ms. Bjorhus,

Right; there was, Mr. Kalaria was the GL maintenance and that was his function. That was his job function. We had recently redvised his job function.”

Mr. Simpson,

“Did you specifically go to Mr. Rawlings and say he’s in charge of GL maintenance and we need to add more people to help with this?”

Ms. Bjorhus,

“O know, O know, I only, I advised Mr. (Rawlings) about Mr. Kalaria’s permission to assist in deletion rights. But even Mike Lewis who comes in, our lead auditor does not; you have one person to do the GL. And look, we’re scheduling web training which is coming up. I had hopes to have that position filled and held off on the training but in this point in time we’ll have the training, Carol and I will go and sit in on it….

14:13:

Ms. Jorgensen,

“We need much more sophisticated accounting systems and we’re working with 4Gov. And what we need is some stability in our accounting system. That’s what our issues have been for the last, how many years? The last 4 years.”

Mr. Simpson,

“And it seems like we had a system in place.”

Ms. Jorgenson,

“OK, and it’s not there anymore.”

19:33:

Ms. Bjorhus,

“We did not have good closure numbers from 2008, couldn’t get them. So we move into 2009 and you still have bad numbers and then you go through 2009. But remember in March 2009 is actually when the city moved from Cassel to 4 Gov. So for the first three months of the year they were taking receipts in Cassel and expenditures out of 4 Gov. It wasn’t until 2010 that they reconciled the first three months of 09… OK so now we’re in 010 and our ending numbers are better; all they are, are better.

Mr. Simpson,

“Well we already had a financial accounting of 010, correct?

Ms. Bjorhus,

“A statement, yes.”

Mr. Simpson,

“But there won’t be an audit because there’s not enough, there’s insufficient data to do an actual audit correct?”

Ms. Bjorhus,

“Because the auditors could not come to good numbers again.”

Mr. Simpson,

“So I’m a little bit confused when you say now is not the time.”

Ms. Bjorhus,

“We’re still knocking down numbers you’re right. Are we back in 08? No we’re not back in 08. We’re very, very far in 2011.

Mr. Brazzle,

“So we’re guaranteed to get an audit in 2011?

Ms. Bjorhus,

“Yes, not a statement, an audit.”

See:

Some city officials owe trash bills

Published: Thursday, June 09, 2011

By ERIC S. SMITH
Staff Writer

COATESVILLE — Three City Council members, two Redevelopment Authority members and one city employee have outstanding trash bills owed to the city, according to city documents.

See:

Coatesville council pursues new look at billing

Published: Tuesday, September 27, 2011

By ERIC S. SMITH
Staff Writer

See:

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

Can the FBI, in India, interview people that worked in the USA?

This is also interesting for historical background:

FRIDAY, JANUARY 14, 2011

Reposting a recording of Keith Gargus speaking about Coatesville’s financial software

Can sitting Judges help to write legislation?

Maybe I’m wrong but I thought that Judges couldn’t write or assist in writing legislation.

That's the first two pages of Judge Koon's letter to the City of Coatesville. The entire document is below:

"COATESVILLE — The city has created a new position for an employee to perform general labor in the public works department and write citations for code violations such as high grass, grafitti and excessive or illegal trash. 

The employee would split time between labor and code enforcement, according to city officials. Salary and other details regarding this position have not been released. City Council authorized city staff to create the position and seek applications. 

During an April 11 meeting, Councilwoman Ingrid Jones said she opposes 'creating a position for someone who was not qualified in their current position."

MORE AT:

Coatesville creates job with dual responsibilities

Published: Monday, April 18, 2011

By ERIC S. SMITH, Staff Writer

On Monday evening Judge Koon will swear in Harry Troupe in his new position:

Gee why do you think the ADL was so very interested in Coatesville’s Bloc of Four Government?

- Hatewatch | Southern Poverty Law Center - http://www.splcenter.org/blog -

Montana Freeman Leader Dies in Prison

Posted By Bill Morlin On September 21, 2011 @ 3:33 pm In Antigovernment, Extremist Crime, patriot | 4 Comments

"LeRoy M. Schweitzer, the one-time leader of the Montana Freeman and a dean in the antigovernment “Patriot” movement, has died of apparent natural causes in the federal “Supermax” prison in Florence, Colo. The 73-year-old Schweitzer was serving a 22-year federal prison sentence related to crimes prosecuted after the longest police-standoff siege in U.S. history."

Religion is the key to the Freemen's beliefs, and they spell them out in their legal documents:

• There are two ``seed lines'' within Genesis: one from Adam and Eve, descended through their son Seth, and one from Satan and Eve: ``Simply put, Eve had sex with Satan and then Adam,'' writes Skurdal. Cain, their offspring, went into exile after killing Abel, mating with the ``beasts,'' or mud people created before Adam: ``It is the colored people, or the jews, who are the descendants of Cain,'' says the ``Edict.''

• Events recorded in II Kings show that the children of Israel were scattered after a war with the Assyrians, or Edomites, and all the tribes but Judah went into exile. These became the northern Europeans, or Aryans.

• Thus, white people are the true children of Israel; black people and other races are merely soulless ``pre-Adamic'' races. The satanically descended Edomites now call themselves the Jews.

This system of beliefs is called Christian Identity, and its presence is probably the single greatest common denominator among all the various fragmented factions of the radical right wing in America. It is practiced by the neo-Nazis of the Aryan Nations, by the leaders of the Militia of Montana, by remnants of the Ku Klux Klan in the South. Its foremost preacher is the Rev. Pete Peters, a Colorado-based minister whose 1992 gathering in Estes Park -- drawing such luminaries as Col. James ``Bo'' Gritz, John Trochmann, Ku Klux Klan leader Louis Beam, and onetime Pat Buchanan adviser Larry Pratt -- is often credited with being the chief formative event behind the militia movement.

The core beliefs of Christian Identity are so far astray from those of mainstream Christianity -- and so repellent to so many average Americans -- that they induce in the religion's followers a cult-like closed mindset: a sense of persecution coupled with self-righteousness that is supported by the group's social peers. True believers -- often drawn from the ranks of the disenfranchised -- will not be dissuaded by any amount of logic and reason.

 They live in a kind of alternative universe, complex and wholly unlike anything in mainstream life. It is populated by soulless non-humans, satanic conspirators and a handful of true Christians who abide by ``God's law.'' By closing off the other world, they reinforce each other's beliefs in the confines of their tight social circle. At the stark, isolated setting of the Clark ranch, this cycle has reached intense proportions, especially as the Freemen's leaders have scoured a library full of law books for documents, rulings and obscure citations that will reinforce their beliefs. Coupled with a siege mentality, the beliefs have spun a web that fully ensnares those inclined to join it, putting them outside the reach of longtime neighbors and friends, even family members. Forget about law enforcement officials.

In the Freemen's world, the Federal Reserve is a Jewish hoax, money is merely counterfeit currency printed by the conspirators, taxes are an illegal form of blackmail by a renegade corporation that calls itself the United States, and the courts have placed themselves above God's law, thereby issuing a series of satanic and perverted rulings that are destroying the nation.

FROM: 

Patriot Spring: Showdown in Big Sky Country

By David Neiwert

Copyright 1996, Pacific Rim News Service 

THURSDAY, JULY 28, 2011

Pat Buchanan dumped Larry Pratt because of Klan connections & Pat Sellers picked up Pratt. I wonder what Sellers thinks of Anders Breivik now that Buchanan endorsed him.

Debriding the festering wounds in Coatesville’s Government

There is a legacy in the City of Coatesville's government from the Walker Administration. I believe that parts of that legacy have led to festering wounds among the City of Coatesville employees.  I think that if those wounds are not resolved by investigations there will be a strong odor in the air in Coatesville from festering wounds.  

I believe all the posts below had origins in the Walker Administration and are related to each other:

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

Can the FBI, in India, interview people that worked in the USA?

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

Concerning threats to City of Coatesville workers

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

August 22, 2011, I asked “Is it true that Raj from the Finance Department didn’t show up to work today and that he is on his way to India?

SUNDAY, AUGUST 21, 2011

Were there were physical altercations between a city employee and Forensic Auditor Manny Dechter?

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2011

Jarrell Brazzle received benefits as a part time City of Coatesville employee. Allegedly, he was not entitled to those benefits.

 

TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2011

In 2007 the PA Commonwealth Court ordered landlord Amrit Lal to pay the City of Coatesville $110,000. It never happened.

 

TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 2011

Is the missing $160.000 the sticking point on approving City of Coatesville finance reports?

SATURDAY, MARCH 19, 2011

An excellent comment was made in regards to: The first duty of a new City Manager is to make the streets safe

MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 2011

Be sure and read Karl Markings “Goodbye and Thanks”