May 24, 2012 McGuffin Itching for Council To Reject Twentieth MUC Nominee

MUC (Morristown Utility Commission) named three people this morning to its twentieth list of nominees for the Board seat currently held by George McGuffin. 

McGuffin, who has served on MUC for over 34 years, chaired the meeting at which he was dutifully nominated by his fellow MUC Commissioners along with two good people (Peter Cantwell and Jay Smith) who are window-dressing and throw-away nominees whose names are used to fill out the required slate of three.

McGuffin desperately wants to be re-appointed.  He has been mightily frustrated and  inconvenienced by having to go to the state legislature and get state law changed just to ensure that McGuffin finally gets back on the MUC Board.  The McGuffin Law went into effect on May 1, 2012. It overturns the local voter-approved MUC appointment process and puts the McGuffin Law appointment process in place .

For McGuffin, trampling on the little people and wiping out the 2001 referendum votes of 3,202 people has been a distraction and a bother, but the power is obviously worth it.

Harold Nichols is the McGuffin sidekick and business partner and MUC Commissioner who made the nominations this morning.  Nichols does a great job of keeping a straight face as he brags about the newest nominee Jay Smith and then says of Council: "We'll see what they do." 

Earth-to-Harold. The LeBel Five (Paul LeBel, Bob Garrett, Kay Senter, Claude Jinks, and Chris Bivens) will do just what McGuffin wants them to do and just what you and the other MUC Commissioners (Max Biery, Lynn Elkins, and Gene Jolley) want them to do. 

They'll reject the Mayor's nomination of anyone other than George McGuffin--just like they have done WITH YOUR BLESSING to the nineteen other nominees not named McGuffin! 

And then, bless your little heart,  the McGuffin Law will let MUC's next candidates go straight to the City Council. The LeBel Five will reappoint McGuffin, and all will be right in little Morristown.

For McGuffin and Company, those twenty rejectees are just throw-away nominees and stepping stones for McGuffin to walk on to get what HE wants---another five-year term.

May 14, 2012 McGuffin Describes the "McGuffin Law" As MUC Prepares Its NINETEENTH List of Candidates

George McGuffin, 34+ year member of the Morristown Utilities Commission (MUC), is tickled to death that the McGuffin Law passed its last step and received final approval by FIVE councilmembers on May 1.

The McGuffin Law changes the appointment process for MUC Board members from what 3,202 voters approved as part of the 2001 MUC Referendum Question to an appointment process that McGuffin, local State Rep. Don Miller, local State Sen. Steve Southerland, and five councilmembers want in 2012--WITHOUT A REFERENDUM.

MUC has submitted EIGHTEEN lists of three MUC-approved candidates to Mayor Thomas for the past 9-10 months.  Mayor Thomas has submitted one of those MUC-approved candidates to the City Council for approval or rejection. All EIGHTEEN have been rejected. Why?  Their last name is not McGuffin.

EIGHTEEN people have been rejected by City Council to keep anyone else from taking the "McGuffin seat" on MUC. The MUC-appointment process that was approved by the people in the 2001 MUC Referendum has been changed for McGuffin.  State Law has been changed for McGuffin.

In the video above, McGuffin presides over Thursday's (May 10th) special meeting of the MUC Board at which time MUC selected its NINETEENTH list of three candidates to submit to Morristown Mayor Thomas.

Harold Nichols, a current and/or former business partner of McGuffin, nominates Terry Brimer, Peter Cantwell, and for the NINETEENTH time, drum-roll please, George McGuffin.

McGuffin starts the meeting by reading about how the voters made changes to the MUC Private Act  IN A REFERENDUM in 2001. Then MUC Manager Jody Wigington steers him to the section about how the FIVE councilmembers amended and overturned the 2001 voter-approved appointment process on May 1, 2012. 

[The FIVE councilmembers who have been party to rejecting EIGHTEEN people and who have snubbed the PEOPLE and changed state law in order to force the appointment of the ONE and ONLY PERSON they want (McGuffin) are Paul LeBel, Kay Senter, Bob Garrett, Claude Jinks, and Chris Bivens.]

Finally McGuffin adds that Mayor Thomas' nomination of Randy Harville, who was on the EIGHTEENTH MUC LIST, was rejected by Council (5-2) on May 1 under the new McGuffin Law and that MUC will send another list to the Mayor.

McGuffin then explains that the newly-ratified McGuffin Law provides that MUC has to "send the Mayor three names today and if he follows suit (and dares to refuse to appoint Me/McGuffin)...as he has done for eighteen times, then we'll have one other time that we have to send names to him and then it will go directly to city council."

Gene Jolley, a current and/or former McGuffin business partner, says "Just one more time after this one?"

McGuffin says "That's the way I understand it."

General Manager Jody Wigington then makes an interesting comment about City Council having the right to make the decision after the third rejection of the Mayor's nominee. "I guess they could choose to do it that day or not."

Probably "not" that day.  The McGuffin Law says that MUC has to provide a full list of three candidates to the Council after receiving notice that a nominee from the third list submitted to the Mayor did not receive a majority vote.  

After the five Councilmembers get through rejecting every person in Morristown who isn't George McGuffin (well, twenty of them), MUC will have to announce a meeting at which a full list of three candidates will be named to submit directly to the Council.  That list, like the twenty before it, will include George McGuffin.

Then LeBel, Garrett, Senter, Jinks, and Bivens with the blessing of and thanks from the irreplaceable George McGuffin can officially put McGuffin back on the MUC Board.

After overriding a referendum (without a new referendum), after rejecting TWENTY PEOPLE (17 under the old appointment process and 3 under the McGuffin Law) and after changing state law, a key part of the Morristown power structure will remain in place.

The-powers-that-be will be happy once again.