Laserfiche WebLink
<br />Transcript of Comments Made by June Allison on September 19, 2005 <br /> <br />I am an attorney in Mecklenburg County and I am here representing Juba Aluminum <br />Company and we felt that Mr, Smith might be speaking tonight, in fact, passing out his <br />pamphlets, so I wanted to speak on behalf of Juba Aluminum. And also commend this <br />commission for what it has done and continues to do. We've heard that there is a conflict <br />of interest, we have heard that term bandied about, as if it is a fact, and with more than a <br />little righteous indignation and there is a lot of information on that site that is a matter of <br />opinion and not fact. So Juba Aluminum is a good corporate citizen of this county and <br />has been for many years, and it takes that role very, very seriously. And it doesn't take <br />these accusations lightly, In any other context, they would be scandalous, but of course <br />any citizen can make any charge it wants to make in a public forum as Mr. Smith has <br />done. But if anybody is really concerned about whether there is a real conflict of interest, <br />you do what this commission did. And you talk to the County Attorney. You have a very <br />able one, Mr. Hartsell. Commissioner Juba, when this issue arose, did what she should <br />do. She talked to the attorneys at the Institute of Government who are there to advise <br />commissioners in this situation. And Juba Aluminum talked to my firm about whether or <br />not a conflict of interest existed. Let me assure you that all of those attorneys who looked <br />at this issue said there is no conflict of interest here. There is no conflict of interest. There <br />is no ethical concern. This is a political issue, So don't think that anyone should be <br />misled by that. The Institute of Government did render some advice to Commissioner <br />Juba and that advice was don't vote on this issue. She did not vote. She did what she <br />should have done, which is recuse herself from a vote. There has been no suggestion she <br />influenced the decision to recornmend Turner Construction, She did not. She did not vote <br />so she couldn't have influenced this commission. She did not even vote. And Juba <br />Aluminum is not going to participate in this in any way shape or form. We have the CFO <br />here tonight from Juba Aluminum who will verify that Juba Aluminum has not and will <br />not bid on any projects for Cabarrus County during her tenure and they won't, here to do <br />to so would clearly be wrong and there is no intention that that happened. In fact, that <br />will not happen. Thank you, <br /> <br />A-Co <br />