Playing Whack-A-Mole With Rumors Racking Up TDC Project Wealth For Delaware's Local Private Sector

 (Gene Kern - News Journal image for Burke's front page story today)

A lot of rumors are flying around about private sector wealth being or to-be-generated for the local individuals who've been squawking the loudest in favor of the project. 

For instance, the "Brian McGlinchey and Gene Kern are family" rumor is now thoroughly debunked. But we know Brian's been in on this deal from day one (attending the DEDO Infrastructure Committee meeting) and it's fair to wonder how much his DEED affiliates stand to gain from the project.

Another points out that, since Drinker, Biddle and Reath LLC showed up on the DEDO Infrastructure Committee application on Exhibit A (Find it HERE - thank you Melissa Nann Burke) as local legal counsel for the Data Centers LLC, does that imply that Markell is especially shilling for his former COS and now DBR partner, Tom McGonigle? 

Moreover, RAPP (Residents Against the Power Plant) are going through channels to ask the UD legal team's compliance officer to investigate any possible financial conflicts of interest that may exist between TDC LLC and any top school administrator or Trustee which includes Jack Markell and Patrick Harker ex officio ~

Dr. Harker is a member of the board of directors of Pepco Holdings Inc. and Huntsman Corporation, and a founding member of the board of advisors of Decision Lens Inc. He previously served as a trustee of the Goldman Sachs Trust and Goldman Sachs Variable Insurance Trust. Dr. Harker is a Class B director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, and a member of the boards of directors of the NCAA–Division I, Christiana Care Health Systems, First State Innovation, Catholic Relief Services and Easter Seals of Delaware. He is a member of the Regional Leadership Initiative Steering Committee at the Council on Competitiveness, a member of the CEO Council for Growth at the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and a trustee of Howard University.

Two other trustees also served with the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia in some capacity......And there's Ken Whitney ~

Ken currently serves as a Senior Managing Director for Blackstone's Private Equity group, and has been intimately involved in establishing and overseeing new businesses at the firm including BlackRock and the firm's real estate, credit and placement businesses.

Stuart Grant ~

Mr. Grant serves as litigation counsel to many of the largest public and private institutional investors in the world.

Michael Geltzeiler ~

Mr. Geltzeiler is Chief Financial Officer and Group Executive Vice President of NYSE Euronext. He joined NYSE Euronext in June 2008 and is also a member of the Management Committee. He is responsible for all aspects of finance, treasury and investor relations.

Howard Cosgrove ~

Mr. Cosgrove serves as chairman of NRG Energy, Inc.

Just sayin' ~ Board of Trustees Bylaws ~ SECTION 1.4. TRUSTEE CONFLICT OF INTEREST POLICY 

SECTION 1.4.1.Scope. The purpose of this Conflict of Interest Policy is to protect the University’s interest if a transaction or arrangement to which the University is a party might benefit or might be seen as benefiting the private interest of a Trustee. 

SECTION 1.4.2. Policy. It is the policy of the University that Trustees shall act in a manner consistent with their fiduciary duty and responsibilities to the University, and that, should they have a conflict of interest, they shall recuse themselves from Board consideration of the matter giving rise to the conflict of interest.

SECTION 1.4.3. Definition

Section 1.4.3.2. “Conflict of interest” means a situation in which a Trustee’s financial interest in a transaction for the provision of goods or services to the University for compensation or remuneration or his or her relationship with an organization compromises the Trustee’s independence of judgment, allows a Trustee to exploit his or her position for

personal or financial gain, or causes harm to the University’s reputation.

SECTION 1.4.3.4. “Affiliate” means (a) an organization of which a Trustee is an officer, director, trustee, partner, employee or agent; (b) an organization in which the Trustee has a material interest; or (c) any spouse, parent, or child of a Trustee.

SECTION 1.4.3.5. “Material interest” means a financial interest in an organization by virtue of (a) ownership of five percent or more of the organization’s outstanding stock or comparable ownership interest in a non-corporate entity; (b) a paid consulting or employment relationship with the organization; or (c) receipt of a gift, favor, benefit, or service from the organization if the cumulative value of all such gifts, favors, benefits, and services received by such Trustee from such organization in any twelve-month period is $100 or more.

We do also know that the well-established energy and infrastructure development and investment firm Glenfarne Group, listed as lead capital partner on the DEDO application, has been replaced with a no-one-knows-who-the-hell-they-are firm Lexden Capital that just happens to have hired Alan Levin's DE GOP friend Tom Ross.

A comment rescue of mine from Kavips' blog yesterday ~ Wow. Newark. What A Big Power Plant You Will Have!

Our group finally got our hands on the application the Data Centers LLC submitted to the DEDO Infrastructure Committee in April. We passed it to city officials and it caused a huge reaction! Here is what I will be writing about once the News Journal does their story out on it. Haven’t checked the paper yet this morning:
Newark’s Planning Director, Maureen Feeney Roser, rejected Duffield Associate’s request on Friday for the zoning confirmation DNREC needs to process the Data Centers’ Air Permit application for their site on the UD STAR campus. State law says that permits like these need to have the zoning confirmed.
Duffield’s request was denied by the city based on discrepancies between TDC’s public statements and those found in the DEDO application for Infrastructure funds back in April of this year.
The Planning Director writes that she had just found out about the terms in the application although she and the city manager [and Rick Vitelli, Electric Dept.] were at the DEDO committee’s April meeting and had written the public sponsorship letter necessary for the project to be considered (all of that unknown to Council at the time).
And so does that mean that none of Newark’s top city administrators had bothered to read the Data Centers’ application for infrastructure funds they’d endorsed?
Amy Roe, on behalf of our group the Residents Against the Power Plant, FOIA'd the application from DEDO and immediately submitted it to the city on Wednesday, October 30, 2013 high-lighting the gross discrepancies. The city passed the application along to special counsel Max Walton who [likely] evidently told them, yes, it blew a huge hole into the zoning justification that the power plant was only an accessory use.
I also see on the DEDO application that TDC is using the local firm, Drinker, Biddle and Reath, as counsel. If only their clients hadn’t MISCHARACTERIZED so much to the city’s planning dept, planning commission, council, public, etc. etc. The DEDO application and this letter should be up online at the No Newark Power Plant website by now.
Also, News Journal reporter, Melissa Nann Burke, has had the DEDO application for over a month but said she didn’t understand the implications. It is fortunate that our group got it in to the city the nick of time.

I thought I would post that comment here because it points out the question of why the hell would Newark City Manager Carol Houck have penned the public sponsorship of TDC's application on April 5, 2013l  [and a prior one on November 16, 2012] without having read the grant application? And if she did read it, why didn't she catch all of the inconsistencies stated in these last eight months that stuck out like a sore thumb? Was this yet another example of supposed professionals sucking up TDC's talking points and spitting them out?

DELAWARE INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT COMMITTEE ~

April 25, 2013

PUBLIC MEETING 

THOSE PRESENT:

Director Alan Levin, Chairman

Secretary Shailen Bhatt

Representative Helene M. Keeley

Mr. Michael Ratchford

Senator Robert Venables

Representative Quinton Johnson

 

The Data Centers, LLC – Mr. Gene Kern, Mr. Andrew Wolf, Mr. Michael Bednar, Mr. Brian Honish, Mr. Harry Gravell – Building Trades, Mr. Andy Lubin and Mr. Brian McGlinchy - LECET, Ms. Maureen Feeney Roser, Ms. Carol Houck and Mr. Rick Vitelli - City of Newark, Mr. Robert Krizman, Mr. Fred Wass, Mr. Cob Bauer, Mr. Brendan Duval, Mr. Sam Lathem; Mr. Al Kemp, Newark Post;

Read Michael Ratchford's bio in case you're interested HERE

And finally, a friend just pointed out that TDC's jobs total in the DEDO application (and as referenced in its September Q and A), calls for 10 full time landscapers: 5 for each weekday and 5 for each weekend day for a grand total of 10 FULL TIME JOBS FOR LANDSCAPING STAFFERS. Who lives IN THEIR WORLD?

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/814566-tdc-infrastructure-grant-application-dedo-1.html

Update: from another friend ~

WAKE Technology Services, inc. one of two tenants list on the DEDO application, is one of Gene Kern's companies. Excellent to have one company he runs by services for another he wants to build. I guess this is putting his own money in the project. Read his bio below. It's a hoot!

http://www.waketsi.com/company/executive-team/

~*~