July 18, 2012 McGuffin "Officially" Returns to MUC 5-2.

After getting five councilmembers, State Rep. Don Miller, and State Sen. Steve Southerland to serially reject twenty-one other people and to change state law for him, George McGuffin was re-appointed to the Morristown Utility Commission (MUC) in a 5-2 vote yesterday.

Paul LeBel made the motion. Kay Senter seconded it. Voting for McGuffin were LeBel, Senter, Garrett, Bivens, and Jinks. Voting against were Mayor Danny Thomas and Gene Brooks.

The law that was changed for McGuffin  in 2012 was an appointment process that had been approved and put in place by the vote of the people in a 2001 referendum election.

Just prior to yesterday's vote, Councilman Gene Brooks asked City/MUC Attorney Dick Jessee about the legality of political ads and signs that MUC paid for during the 2001 referendum telling Morristown residents to Vote "FOR" the MUC Private Act. Jessee repeated that MUC could provide "information" about a referendum but hesitated to answer Brooks' specific question about whether MUC could go beyond information to telling people to VOTE FOR the MUC referendum question.