Why would any Essex Councillor or ELK Board member vote opposed to getting an valuation of a company they/we are sole shareholders of ?
Monday May 3rd Council received a report to look into the value of E.L.K Energy:
That Report Office of the CAO-2021-01 entitled E.L.K. Valuation Request prepared by Chris
Nepszy, CAO dated May 3rd, 2021 be received, and
That Council requests the Board of E.L.K. Energy Incorporated (E.LK.) to obtain and fund a
valuation of E.L.K. Energy Incorporated.
Councillor Bowman said he was not in support the motion because of the cost to ELK to do this. He believes the audited financial statements we receive each year should be enough.
Councillor Vander Doelen believes “he is not going to vote for the hidden agenda”.
Mayor Snively says as far as infrastruture ELK is in fine shape. We have financial statements every year. If we decide to sell then we should put the final touch for value. We had discussions on different things they are doing at the board and to me its very healthy.
Majority of Council did want to know the value of this asset.
Where does this sit now? With the ELK Board, and knowing that the 3 council members that voted no are also ELK Energy Directors said no to finding out the true value ( condition) of ELK I doubt they will support it at the ELK board level. What does that mean? It means we may not have any more answers to all our questions until there are new members on council and on the ELK Board.
What does their asset management plan and picture of the company’s overall infrastructure health look like? I do not know, but I do not want to rely on a few sentences said by some of the board members, the ELK board meetings are closed. Since the Board meetings are closed the shareholders can never know what happens in the board room. Pretty crazy if you ask me. Why are the closed? Another good question, since the Town is the SOLE shareholder.
Something else I find interesting is that the ELK Board did not host a meeting in May- the same month the shareholder asked for the Board to discuss the evaluation! This is important and could lead to a lengthy conversation on the topic, why cancel a meeting when frankly your shareholder has a BIG request on your agenda.
The mayor saying the utility is ” very healthy” is not good enough to all the residents and businesses who want reassurance that we are not going to continue to experience power outages or flickers that are costing thousands of dollars in damages. We need to know that on our end the business we own, ELK is doing its part to provide safe, reliable power.
Both the Town of Kingsville and the Town of Lakeshore recently had ELK Energy as a delegation at their council meetings. To view these meetings please google Lakeshore TV, find the Nov 10th 2020 meeting and watch item 6B. For Kingsville, find the Nov 23, 2020 council meeting and watch that video. The Lakeshore one is a standalone segment which is easy to find, the Kingsville clip starts at the 45-minute mark. Watch all 3 in order to understand the big picture here- elected officials are asking questions and want answers.
