Court Day!

Good morning neighbors,

An exciting morning here in Vinita, Oklahoma. A court hearing involving three of the defendants on the automatic water meter lawsuit will take place this AM.

Three of the defendants are asking to be dismissed from the lawsuit. One of the men I don't know, but the other two are well known to me. The former mayor of Vinita and the former city administrator of Vinita are two of the three that are requesting a release from the lawsuit.

My question is, why would those two even think they should be dismissed? Two of these people held trusted positions in city government and on the board of this trust that was created.

Did they try to protect the city and residents from potential financial abuse?  My opinion is NO!

Did they sign contracts and money releases  allowing money to proceed to Ron Gates and his company Connex?  YES!

A lot of this money was released before goods were ever received. All of the money was handed over before the goods were paid for and the system completed.

Were there any safeguards put in place with the contingency that the money would be released as the work proceeded?     NO!

Were there caveats in the contracts stating that the system had to be completed and working by a certain date? NO!

And the system is still broken and I for one am of the opinion that it will never be a good system, but we're still paying $12,575.00 per month for another approximately nine years.

And that's how the lawsuit began. Today is just a baby step in the process of seeking justice for Vinita's people.

I'm going to the hearing now and I'll be back a bit later with a verdict from the judge on whether they'll be released from the lawsuit. I fervently hope they won't be released.

Okay, I'm back from the court hearing on whether the defendants will be dismissed from the lawsuit. One of the lawyers stated that the former city administrator gave a letter of resignation and he should be dismissed. The problem with that is the trust board never held a meeting to accept that resignation, so he's still a member of the board of CCA.

City Attorney Steidley argued the case for the city. The former mayor of Vinita never tried to resign from the board of CCA.

Simply put, the judge ordered the CCA board to meet within 30 days. He didn't tell them what had to happen, just to meet, so we will have to wait another 30 days to find out what happens.

That's, that's all folks.

Until Later,
Okie Girl @ Home