‘Privatizing’ Cobb EMC for profit and power
The 35 criminal counts filed against Dwight Brown, former CEO of the Cobb EMC, accuse the once-powerful executive of conspiring to steal millions of dollars from the 200,000-member electric co-op.
The list of alleged crimes is stunning, as is the amount of money that Brown is said to have diverted into his own hands. Reading the indictment is a little too much like reading the plot line to a John Grisham novel, in which powerful people in a community conspire to perpetrate and cover up a major scam, and to intimidate their critics into silence.
Of course, it’s impossible to know how the charges in the indictment will be resolved. A jury will have to hear the case and decide, and as we were reminded in the Casey Anthony murder trial, predicting how a jury will weigh complicated evidence is a job for the foolhardy.
Brown’s attorney, former Gov. Roy Barnes, claims that his client is innocent and expresses amazement that Brown has even been charged. As Barnes describes it, Brown stayed within the law, even as he interwove Cobb EMC’s business with his own private profit-making efforts.
Perhaps so. Perhaps not.
Matters of right and wrong, however, can be easier to clarify than matters of legality and illegality. And in this case, the means by which Brown seized and held control of the co-op for so long were flat-out wrong and unethical.
If Barnes is correct — if those tactics turn out to have been legal as well as wrong — legislators have an obligation to tighten state law to prevent actions such in the future. Because they just don’t pass the smell test.
Issues of criminality aside, it is clear that Brown abused his authority for his own personal gain, enlisting a complacent board of directors to do his bidding and ask no questions. He has behaved not as a public servant obligated to protect the interests of co-op members, but as if he himself were the co-op proprietor, entitled to handle affairs as he wished. He did not serve, he ruled.
In fact, the true scope of Brown’s arrogance did not publicly emerge until after a 2007 AJC investigation into his business arrangements with the co-op. When co-op members began to ask uncomfortable questions and demand answers, Brown tried to silence them. When members turned to the courts to get answers and information that they were due by law, Brown used co-op coffers to fund a legal fight against them.
Eventually, in 2008, Brown and his board of directors were forced to accept a settlement of the civil action filed against them. As part of the settlement, the co-op was required to hold new board elections for at least four seats within 120 days.
Today, in 2011, those elections have yet to take place, even though every current director is by now serving an expired term. Instead, Brown and his board tried to extend their dictatorial control by changing co-op bylaws regarding elections, touching off yet another long legal fight. That battle ended last month, when the Georgia Supreme Court ruled 6-1 against Brown and his board.
As another part of the 2008 settlement, Brown had agreed to step down as CEO no later than Feb. 28, 2011 and “not seek an extension of his employment with Cobb EMC.” Brown did retire as required, technically abiding by the settlement. But his board of directors immediately announced that it was rehiring their indicted leader, claiming it could find no suitable candidate other than their indicted CEO.
Cobb Superior Court Judge Stephen Schuster put an end to that bit of deviousness last month, ruling that Brown could not be rehired. And in what may be an ominous sign of judicial impatience, he also ordered the 10 current board members to appear in his courtroom at 9 a.m. on Aug. 12.
Criminal or not, it’s hard to exaggerate how brazen and arrogant the former CEO and his close circle of supporters have been through all this. If their behavior is not illegal, it ought to be.
– Jay Bookman
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74 comments Add your comment
Jm
July 15th, 2011
7:50 am
Who cares. Obama is destroying our economy and our country’s future. Doesn’t really matter too much frankly (Cobb emc).
Thomas
July 15th, 2011
7:51 am
Good Friday morning and thank you for this very informative piece. One could spend a lifetime winding around through all of the public utilities. CEO salaries are shocking but can pale in comparison to what goes into calculating rate base.
Adam
July 15th, 2011
7:55 am
If Barnes is correct — if those tactics turn out to have been legal as well as wrong — legislators have an obligation to tighten state law to prevent actions such in the future. Because they just don’t pass the smell test.
And as long as it doesn’t end up before the current Supreme Court justices, maybe legislation like that has a chance.
Jm
July 15th, 2011
7:56 am
Whatever Thomas. Then deregulate or let the government take them over then I guess to solve your frustrations. Of course, most muni owned power co’s are trying to exit because they suck at running power plants and it’s a scale business. And you guys don’t like deregulation.
Adam
July 15th, 2011
7:57 am
Wow, this trickery is just off the charts. I see a Law and Order episode in the future about stuff like this, or maybe a made for TV movie.
Adam
July 15th, 2011
7:59 am
Jm: Would not new laws to prevent this kind of stuff from happening, if he has in fact acted legally, be considered “regulation?” How then, Jm, do you justify not regulating actions such as the ones detailed in Jay’s blog post?
Mary Elizabeth
July 15th, 2011
8:04 am
Adam, I left you a message around 1:30 a.m. last evening. I hope you read it. No need to respond. Just wanted you to read what I said to you.
Left wing management
July 15th, 2011
8:05 am
Adam: And as long as it doesn’t end up before the current Supreme Court justices, maybe legislation like that has a chance.
True. Amazing thought, isn’t it?
You can still have a decent shot at justice just about anywhere in this legal system aside from the Supreme Court at the top, which is now a virtual Kangaroo Court.
md
July 15th, 2011
8:12 am
“That battle ended last month, when the Georgia Supreme Court ruled 6-1 against Brown and his board.”
Do some of you even read the entire piece??
Jimmy62
July 15th, 2011
8:16 am
Left Wing: By virtual kangaroo court, I assume you mean that they make decisions based on the law, rather than how they wish things were?
Fred
July 15th, 2011
8:17 am
Good old Roy Barnes. The Georgia Democrats failed answer to Nathan Deal. Fight “fire with fire.” Or in this case run a crook against a crook for Governor.
Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive……
and folks wonder why I say i will follow neither party of crooks………
1811/1801 - 0311/0317
July 15th, 2011
8:20 am
Jay:
With all that is going on in the world this is it for this morning ?
1811/1801 - 0311/0317
July 15th, 2011
8:22 am
Headline: “Feds ask court to reconsider order demanding halt to enforcement of the ban on openly gay troops in military.”
getalife and Obama hate gays.
Jeff J
July 15th, 2011
8:24 am
You didn’t mention that the Board of Directors is using EMC funds to pay Roy Barnes’ fees, and that the first indictment was thrown out by a Barnes’ appointed judge (Flournoy)- who also had a long history of business dealings with the Barnes family. The good judge’s reason for throwing out the indictments? The front entrance of the new courthouse was closed for construction during the indictment readings, and he felt poor old Roy couldn’t find his way into the courtroom to defend his client.
Adam
July 15th, 2011
8:26 am
Fred: The origin of the Julian Calendar began in 46 BC. Even well prior to that time, the seven planetary bodies I mentioned (including Sun and Moon, excluding Earth) were well known and still generally thought to be circulating the Earth (geocentric). The Julian Calendar introduced 2 more months into the Roman Calendar, which had 10, each consisting of 30-31 days (both calendars). Neatly fitting 365/366 days into the calendar started here, with the Roman and Julian Calendars, though the measurement was not as precise as the later Gregorian Calendar.
So to the point of days. In the Roman Calendar, a week of EIGHT days was used, considered a market week and known as a nundinal cycle because somehow the first day of every week was considered both the first day of that week and the last day of the previous week at the same time (nine days by fuzzy math, eight days total). The seven day week was later adopted into the Roman calendar and solidified in the Julian Calendar. But WAIT, other cultures had been using a seven day week as early as 6th century BC! We’ll look at that next, but first it is important to mention that different cultures throughout history have used anywhere from 3-13 days to represent their “weeks.” Someone, somewhere had to decide when it was going to be standard to have 7 day weeks and 12 months. That was the Julian Calendar.
The furthest back I can find a seven day week in documented history is on the ancient Indian calendar, where they based their calendar partly on Astrology, and named their days after the planets as follows:
Sunday = Surya (the Sun)
Monday = Soma (the Moon)
Tuesday = Mangala (Mars)
Wednesday = Budha (Mercury)
Thursday = Guru (Jupiter)
Friday = Shukra (Venus)
Saturday = Shani (Saturn)
Why do only some of our English names look like the planets, but others don’t? Glad you asked. This is because our naming convention comes from the Germanic Languages. You can click the link for more detailed information, but a couple of Norse gods are in there: Thor for Thursday and Frigg for Friday. Basically, our naming convention for days is a melting pot. Many Latin based languages still have the naming conventions tied to the planetary names, like Martes for Mars, or Tuesday, in Spanish.
Hope this has helped back up my claim. The More You Know.
Adam
July 15th, 2011
8:28 am
md: “That battle ended last month, when the Georgia Supreme Court ruled 6-1 against Brown and his board.”
Do some of you even read the entire piece??
Yes, and that was on some specifics, if your point was all about the potential legality of his actions. Many of those charges are still “unresolved” in the mind of the defender, and are unrelated to that particular ruling.
Fred
July 15th, 2011
8:30 am
Adam: and Genesis was penned when?
Loran, Whatayagot
July 15th, 2011
8:33 am
This is one of the few times I’ve ever agreed with Bookman. It looks like thry’re eventually going to nail Brown, and one of Bookman’s favorite people, Roy Barnes, can’t stop him. How can Barnes sleep at night? He’s had plently of practice.
bhorsoft
July 15th, 2011
8:33 am
As a member of Cobb EMC I am disgusted. Even keeping this crook on as a “consultant” doesn’t pass the smell test. When there finally is an election with the board I will make darned sure I’m there to vote. Every one of these skunk board members needs to be run out of town on a rail.
Adam
July 15th, 2011
8:36 am
Fred: For all I know, the “seven days” is a lost in translation error, much like “The Red Sea” being mistranslated from “Reed Sea.”
But, assuming it’s not, the Hebrews who wrote the Torah had a pretty good grasp of mathematics and I am sure I could find evidence they knew about the 7 heavenly bodies and studied astrology/astronomy as a single science.
Call it like it is
July 15th, 2011
8:36 am
Well theres a shock Barnes right in the thick of a high profile case, with lots of money on the line, defending someone with deep pockets who more then likely is stealing money from hard working Ga citizens. And people wonder why it was so hard to pick between Barnes and Deal for governor.
Left wing management
July 15th, 2011
8:38 am
Jimmy62: “By virtual kangaroo court, I assume you mean that they make decisions based on the law, rather than how they wish things were?”
I’m perhaps speaking out of turn here by making a larger point about the Supreme Court of the United States, not Georgia, in connection with Adam’s point. If I jumped to conclusions there, I apologize to all concerned.
But my point here is twofold: first, we can’t be surprised when we discover cases of corporate corruption like these — and I suspect there will be many more like these in the years ahead — given that they are merely the natural outcome of an ideology that has been preached for a couple of decades now which holds that private corporations are the divinely ordained form for all human affairs that are handed down from God for us to profit from, and that if you can claw or bribe or con your way to the top, there’s a magic money pot waiting there for you that you in a way deserve because you were the one clever enough to make it to the top of the heap; and second, that we now have a legal system that subscribes to and reinforces that ideology at the very top because the political arm of that ideology has seen to it that the courts are stacked with it.
some guy
July 15th, 2011
8:40 am
Wow, Jay is not blogging about how evil the GOP is! I guess he got tired of being Obama’s water boy and his knees got tired practicing his false idolatry of Obama.
Powerless?
July 15th, 2011
8:40 am
Jay, I rarely agree with you on anything, but you have nailed this one. Dwight Brown is scum. He sells off the assets of Cobb EMC to Cobb Energy and then appoints himself head of both. So not only is he receiving two salaries, he “loaned” himself $2 million dollars (interest free) only to have that “loan” forgiven by the current crooked Board so he could buy preferred stock in Cobb Energy. So he was drawing two six figure salaries, receiving $256,000 in dividends/year from Cobb Energy and had a $2 million dollar loan “forgiven”. Wow. And people on here don’t think it’s a big deal. No wonder ethics in our society is at an all time low. Dwight Brown needs to go to jail.
Doggone/GA
July 15th, 2011
8:40 am
“and Genesis was penned when?”
Earliest known copies are dated to First Century BC
Peadawg
July 15th, 2011
8:48 am
It’s all the GOP fault.
Oops….wrong blog. I’m used to Jay blaming everything on the GOP the last few days.
Fletch
July 15th, 2011
8:49 am
But, but, but, everything should be privatized. Who better to police business than business itself?
Look closer
July 15th, 2011
8:52 am
Cobb EMC has operated like Brown’s personal piggybank for a long time. Why spend millions of dollars for naming rights to the Cobb Energy Center at the Galleria? There’s no competition for electric power suppliers in GA. That money should have been returned to the members, as all margins are supposed to be when you belong to a co-op. But I bet it got Dwight Brown box seats at the CEC for the foreseeable future. The board should all go–and be ashamed at their lack of responsible behavior.
@@
July 15th, 2011
8:52 am
Cobb Superior Court Judge Stephen Schuster put an end to that bit of deviousness last month, ruling that Brown could not be rehired. And in what may be an ominous sign of judicial impatience, he also ordered the 10 current board members to appear in his courtroom at 9 a.m. on Aug. 12.
Kinda like giving the judge the finger, eh?
Jack
July 15th, 2011
8:55 am
Brown must be a Republican or Bookman wouldn’t be on his case.
Schrodinger's cat
July 15th, 2011
8:57 am
I’ll wait for the verdict
Midori
July 15th, 2011
8:58 am
that 7:50 illustrates pure total derangement syndrome.
pray tell – just how, exactly is he doing that?
educate me.
Soothsayer
July 15th, 2011
8:59 am
Here’s today’s funnies.
Midori
July 15th, 2011
9:00 am
Jack – it’s not Jay’s fault that the scumbags he writes about happen to be Republicans.
He does take Democratic scumbags to task as well.
You just don’t want to admit it.
carlosgvv
July 15th, 2011
9:00 am
Jay, more and more we see “powerful people in a communiity conspire to perpetrate and cover up a major scam”. This is becomming so common that for every one the authorities uncover, probably there are many others never discovered. Unfortunately, this is not going unnoticed by our children and they are growing up believing that no one can be trusted.
Marie
July 15th, 2011
9:00 am
Lawdy, Lawdy, Lawdeeeeeeee, no one cooler temperatures are coming to the metro ATL today. For the 1st time this week, Jay has written a well-reasoned, well thought out article that makes sense. I have always said that Jay and Cynthia do a much better job when they stick to local issues, but, for some reason they both have foot in mouth disease and can’t help but dabble in areas that are beyond their paygrade.
Doggone/GA
July 15th, 2011
9:01 am
“For the 1st time this week”
You know, any time you think you can do a better job, blogspot.com is ready when you are
MAKO
July 15th, 2011
9:03 am
Good article Bookman…now, how come you didn’t make mention of the Unethical actions of the Defense Attorney Roy Barnes. The same Roy Barnes (who as Governor) appointed the judge that just happened to toss the original indictments against Brown. The same Roy Barnes that intentionally sent a underling attorney to the courthouse to hear and recieve the indictment but somehow forgot to tell the underling that he needed to go to another entrance to gain access to the new courthouse, the same Roy Barnes that court officials had previously informed of the opening of the new courthouse opening and which door to enter. Yes, the same Roy Barnes that then used the line that the Indictment was illegal because the attorney wasn’t present when Grand Jury issued the indictment because his man was denied access to courthouse…when truth be told ole Roy wanted his minion to be late. That’s what I call Unethical. One more question for you Bookman…explain how Brown is paid more than the CEO of Georgia Power Co, just asking ’cause inquiring minds would like to know! Oh, silly me, that’s why Cobb EMC has the highest rates in the entire state.
Beth Merkelson
July 15th, 2011
9:04 am
My poor sick mother likes Dwight Brown
Mary Elizabeth
July 15th, 2011
9:04 am
“He did not serve, he ruled.
In fact, the true scope of Brown’s arrogance did not publicly emerge until after a 2007 AJC investigation into his business arrangements with the co-op.”
——————————————————–
Excellent column.
Also, the AJC has been doing a great job for months as watchdog for the public’s interests. Public servants must always be servants of the common good, and not retain power simply to be self-serving. That includes politicians – of all political persuasions.
BTW, I recommend that any who are interested in journalism see “Page One: Inside the New York Times,” which is playing at the Tara Theatre this week. It makes you proud of journalism, overall, in its efforts to tell the truth, thereby keeping our national institutions honest.
From the review:
“Those of you who don’t work for a newspaper also may be interested in what it’s like on the inside – how stories are generated, how editors and writers interact, etc. For what it’s worth, it’s an accurate portrait. (Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle)
md
July 15th, 2011
9:05 am
No Adam, it was in reference to your (and sfd’s) post regarding the inference of a Supreme Court not up to the task, when this same piece shows the SC on the right side 6-1………..
Peadawg
July 15th, 2011
9:06 am
MAKO @ 9:03
B/c it’s ok if you’re a Democrat.
Adam
July 15th, 2011
9:07 am
md: Come on, you know we both meant the US Supreme Court, not the GA Supreme Court.
Adam
July 15th, 2011
9:08 am
Peadawg: Yes, I am SURE that Bookman has never spoken out AT ALL against Barnes ever, just because he was a Democrat.
md
July 15th, 2011
9:09 am
“You know, any time you think you can do a better job, blogspot.com is ready when you are”
Think Jay might be a big enough boy to speak for himself……out of curiosity, why do you always feel the need to do his bidding?
md
July 15th, 2011
9:12 am
“md: Come on, you know we both meant the US Supreme Court, not the GA Supreme Court.”
And exactly how is one to assume that given the subject is in reference to a State issue and actually mentions the State SC…………we can’t read minds………….only words………
Midori
July 15th, 2011
9:14 am
actually MD – if she hadn’t said it, I would have.
what is it with people always coming here to complain about the subject matter?
either go elsewhere or write your own. — simple as that.
Jay doesn’t have to have subject matter approved by the likes of —————-
@@
July 15th, 2011
9:15 am
If Barnes is correct — if those tactics turn out to have been legal as well as wrong — legislators have an obligation to tighten state law to prevent actions such in the future. Because they just don’t pass the smell test.
Pretty soon we’ll have more laws than people. It’ll become so convoluted, the average citizen will be left in the dark.
Just give Brown the juice OR, for those opposed to the death penalty, put ‘em all on a deserted island…they’ll kill each other in their efforts to survive.
Adam
July 15th, 2011
9:16 am
md: Well I could argue about that, but we both knew what we were talking about, and I can see, based on words only, why you would not have necessarily known. So I retract “you know” from my previous statement and just simply offer the clarification.
Adam
July 15th, 2011
9:17 am
Correction to my last, even: “Well I could argue about that, but LWM and myself both knew what we were talking about, and I can see, based on words only, why you would not have necessarily known.”