 By David G. Hanger June 04, 2007
All of this and much more has been submitted to each individual member of the Borough Assembly. This journey begins with a simple question: Did the purchase of Regions Bank by Alliance Bank actually result in this "bank error" that was reported in the Ketchikan Daily News, and was this in fact the reason why the Borough did not receive the almost $200,000 interest it was due? The answer to that question is that Regions Bank was not purchased by Alliance Bank. According to the report submitted to the Assembly, Jerry Jenkins was introduced to the Prospect Heights City Council by one Carl Arnal, a business associate of Mr. Jenkins. Carl Arnal was indicted for fraud and theft charges in Arizona in June 2003, and the case was settled out of court for $975,000 in restitution. In addition Arnal had his insurance license revoked for forgery on July 1, 2002. Apparently, Arnal and Jenkins were trying to make 20% commissions on the Prospect Heights bond issue when, finally, some local folks there woke up and stopped the bond issue with a referendum. Further research into the Borough minutes indicates that Jerry Jenkins said to the Assembly that the so-called bank clerical error was not the fault of RKG, but the fault of the bonding company. On this point the report is very specific, "the bonding company is RKG." In other words Jerry Jenkins owns the bonding company. The right hand did not know what the left hand was doing? The Ketchikan Borough attorney seems to be more concerned with the well-being of Jerry Jenkins than he is with the well-being of this community. Did he fail to caution the Assembly about not reporting Jenkins's default to prospective lenders? When notified of this pending report (outlining the due diligence that was never done), the Borough attorney expressed alarm and concern, and asked for an early copy of the report. After vociferously expressing his concern, rather than protecting his community our Borough attorney has informed the Assembly that the Borough cannot foreclose because of the special new clause in the recently re-written contract that so long as Jenkins keeps up his revised payment schedule the Borough will not foreclose. Who wrote that clause into the contract, and who recommended it be accepted? More pertinently, why does it take the efforts of a few concerned private sector individuals to do a basic background check on a company, an individual, and the banks that will be handling millions of dollars worth of Borough assets? Who was supposed to do this research BEFORE we got into a contractual arrangement, and why was this not done? And how much paid Borough staff time is now going to be wasted trying to spin this embarrassment into something that it is not, to hide the truth from you? David G. Hanger and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sitnews.
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