Ken Jakes was not allowed to Speak at NES 'dog and pony' show

Ken Jakes was not allowed to address the special joint Metro council committee meeting last night called to review a recent NES audit that revealed massive criminal activity and mismanagement.  Jakes is the person who simply as a concerned citizen investigated and exposed massive corruption and criminal activity at NES.  As the person who knows more about the criminal activity and the culture of corruption at NES than anyone else, in my view, he should have been allowed to address the Council.  It is disappointing that no one on the joint committee spoke up even advocating that Jakes be allowed to address the Council.  Instead, the Council only heard from NES.  Apparently, NES spokesmen were permitted to equivocate, explain, and wiggle their way out of the charges against the agency being taken seriously. I was not at the meeting and am hoping Channel 3 filmed it.  If so, I will post it.  I am also looking for more information about what happened.

Since Ken Jakes was afraid he would not be allowed to speak, he had emailed a list of suggested questions for Council member to ask. Below is an excerpt of that email:

The illegal contract between Gaylord and NES was made and entered into by Decosta Jenkins.

Ask him does the contract have his signature on it indicating his knowledge and acceptance.

Ask him if he has the Back ground profession of a CPA.

Ask him how on earth a man with a CPA back ground with expertise in accounting would not know it was illegal to swap 71,000.00 dollars of public funds for free gifts and perks for himself and other high ranking management of NES  when it did not benefit the rate payers at all.

Ask him did he use or accept from the contract any of the following free perks or gifts

1. free golf passes

2. free show tickets

3. free dinner and show tickets

4. free parking passes

5. free room nights in the Opryland Hotel.

In the Metro Charter Under article 42 and 43 appendix three ( Electric Power Board ) it states the following :

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.

Read this and ask the Chairman is this not a clear definition as to what Decosta Jenkins entered into with the contract between Gaylord.

Ask Decosta Jenkins if he believes that good leadership leads by example and is it not correct that the NES employee manual under 2.02 ( b ) prohibits employees from accepting the free perks from Gaylord in the illegal contract and how can he lead if he excepted the free perks himself.

Ask Decosta Jenkins, if he stated on channel 5 that the 17/million bid rigging contract was an error on his part. Ask Decosta Jenkins if the rate payers are paying him 345,000.00 dollars a year salary plus other benefits and considerations to make 17/million dollar errors. Ask the Chairman if he believes the rate payers believe they got the best return on their 17/million dollar investment with no competition in the bidding process. 
( Illegal contract with Gaylord --------Decosta Jenkins)
17/ million dollar bid rigging contract -------Decosta Jenkins )

Nes had 160 credit cards issued, they have now since my findings and other issues by the Comptroller reduced it to 11 credit cards, wow !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They had employees making charges on NES credit cards on Ebay, Amazon, BabiesRus, employees taking surplus from NES and listing on ebay and selling, Credit Card issued to an individual who was not even an employee of NES.

Employees willfully and intentional falsifying government documents for reimbursements and payments from NES.Lavish meals on Credit Card while in Nashville not Traveling ( Are you ready to party, my opinion ). 

All this under the watch and leadership of --------Decosta Jenkins ( who is minding the store ? Why are we paying him 345,000.00 a year ?)

NES establishing a PRECEDENT, that anything goes within NES. They are not above the law. I am sure when I get this to the Federal District Attorney he will see it for what it is, public corruption in the worst way.

Please ask these questions and others that you have. The rate payers need justice.

How much of this was asked and how hard council members pushed, I don't know.  According to Ken Jakes, the NES performance was a "dog and pony" show and NES avoided straight answers. Below are excerpts from a follow up email to some members of the metro Council:

I want to thank you for attending the meeting regarding NES and also inform of some misleading statements.

Charlie and Phil, I recall both of you addressing if Decosta Jenkins had received any of the free perks. He responded back he used a room that he paid for and a golf pass. He never mentioned that he used dinner show tickets. I have emails to verify that.

He also stated that they did not ask GAYLORD for the free perks they just provided. This is totally false. The contract calls for the specific invoice number and dollar amount not to be paid in exchange for the free perks. How can this not be asking for them ?

Did everyone notice how much there answers were of the present instead of the past. They did and Decosta did use free perks in the past regardless of what they did this past Christmas after the issue was being investigated.

Their answers were nothing more then a dog and Pony show for the public. And I don't believe in my opinion that the Chair gave an honest answer regarding if his company had these issues, the employee would hold that position.

Let me just say thank you and let you all know that it is not over yet. There are avenues that can be taken to get this to the US District Attorney and I make that commitment to you all.

I am glad to see Ken is not going to let this drop. I wish a member of the  Council would take up this cause. Corruption like this should not go unchallenged and unpunished. Also, I hope some ambitious attorney sees the failure of Torry Johnson to indict as a campaign issue and Johnson finds himself facing a serious challenge next election.

Just an observation:  Back when newspapers had more staff and we had two local dailies, they would have been competing for this story. There would have been daily exposure of the corruption and the press would have dug deep. Now, with one half of a newspaper their is less scrutiny of things like this. While citizen activist and bloggers can fill some of the void left by the absence of newspapers, the absence of aggressive investigative reporters makes corruption much easier to get away with.

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