Have you ever noticed how someone can be the ‘ring leader’ and get other people on board for some project or cause, and then the next thing you know, the initiator leaves the scene, and in no time, can’t be found, while the rest of followers are left ‘holding the bag’ wondering how this could have happened.
That might be the route the Naperville city council is taking with regard to the Smart meter debacle. The flag carrier and trumpet blower for pushing Smart Meters on the residents of Naperville has been council member Robert Fieseler. Initially all the other eight council members joined Fieseler like lemmings in lockstep supporting the Smart Meter fiasco and forcing residents into compliance.
Some things changed since the inception of this charade including two council members leaving the council; one was booted out during the election, and the other wisely knowing it was time to leave, wisely decided to leave. Two new council members were added; Steve Chirico and Joe McElroy. Neither has done anything to change the decision or question the sanity of the program, however neither bear the responsibility of the initial decision. One council member (Doug Krause) has “seen the light” and the folly of his original thought supporting Smart Meters and has since then come to his senses by reversing his position and now supports the residents of Naperville.
Of the remaining five members of the council, two typically follow the crowd (Judy Brodhead and Paul Hinterlong) and will tag along for a ride anywhere. That leaves three remaining; Mayor Pradel who has stated this will be his last term as Mayor, and Kenn Miller who is leaning towards not running again for council, so that takes them out of the picture. That leaves council member Grant Wehrli ‘holding the bag’ for the ill-conceived idea of forced installation of Digital Utility Meters (DUM), not-so smart meters.
That takes us back to the ‘ring leader’ council member Robert Fieseler. How is he trying to take himself off the hook and leave Wehrli holding the ‘bad decision’ bag? Fieseler wrote an article for the trade journal ‘Applied Design’, which implied that those opposing Smart Meters had legitimate concerns. Some of the concerns of the Naperville Smart Meter Awareness group include health, privacy, cost, security, and the hot topic (pun intended) of Smart Meters overheating and causing fires.
It appears that councilman Bob Fieseler is out-smarting councilman Grant Wehrli on Smart Meters. I suppose you could say that Fieseler’s catch phrase for his next election could be, “Follow me….I’ll be right behind you.”
http://digital.bnpmedia.com/iphone/article.php?id=1156405&id_issue=123753&src=&ref=
Does Mr Fieseler show greater interest for perspective clients than he does for the citizens of Naperville who he is being paid to represent? His advice to appliance designers, “In the end, the smartest appliance designers will be those who listen to smart grid opponents and accommodate their legitimate concerns.”
How about it Councilman Fieseler? Accomodate your citizens as they are trying to protect their children’s health, family privacy, security, property and civil rights! What’s with the double standard?
Fiesler’s full article above…original was just blocked unless reader had membership
Day 6: Naperville’s website still down. Yet Council thinks that our electric company has the same resources, cash and talent to secure our electric grid as ComEd against Chinese and Russian military hackers? It’s my opinion that the Naperville Electric Company is more at risk for foul play, as professional, and amateur hackers will have a field day experimenting with a small, underfunded electric system to try out their plans.
Council forced 57,000 wireless smart meters on its citizens, which allow for 57,000 points for hacking before they even tested the system on a small area?
It’s my opinion that our Council is more interested in being “popular” with the management and staff than they are guarding the Naperville citizens and their hard earned tax money. Who’s asking the tough questions? Which council member trusts but verifies what management is doing? A weak board (the Council) always leads to big mistakes in companies and cities. They are not using their oversight responsibilities properly, leaving the citizens who pay them facing health, security, privacy, and their civil and property rights at risk.
The lack of tough questions, the frequent voting in lock step should make citizens wonder if programs are being decided ahead of time, behind closed doors, and under who’s if any influence.
Imagine 6 days without power! Or all our personal information hacked, or we find out that our children have become ill from being blanketed 24/7 with RF radiation, in their family rooms, play areas, schools, libraries, even bedrooms.
This is from Fiesler’s own article in the Appliance Design article. Where is his voice standing up for the citizens?
“Security. With customers able to access their usage information and control their smart appliances via the internet through e-portals provided by the utility, it’s easy to see that those same portals and communication paths could be hacked into by those intending to cause mischief and, worse, those intending to cause damage.”
More from Fieseler in the Appliance Design article: He admits that there is a study that demonstrates that “smart meters” are more dangerous (actually there are numerous) but he is not a voice for the citizens to allow them to protect their children and families, without economic punitive penalties.
“Health risks. With the proliferation of wireless devices, many believe that electro- has reached dangerous levels. For every study that shows smart meters and smart appliances produce only a fraction of the radiofrequency emissions of microwave ovens, wireless phones, garage door openers, and other wireless devices, there’s a study that shows they’re just as or even more dangerous. Since it’s impossible to prove that smart devices are indeed harmless, better to just accept that some people won’t be swayed by facts that undermine their fears.”
No question Mr. Fieseler , Krieger and Pool were the architects of this growing fiasco while the rest of council (lead by a mentally retired mayor) rubber stamped the program without reading the proposal much less knowing anything about it.
With the exception of the Peabody coal/power plant deal which has gone south and will cost us big bucks because of 2 to 3 billion overruns, the electric company had done a good job of modernizing and hardening our infrastructure.
In 2009 some of these people saw a unique opportunity to fleece the citizens by introducing smart meters into the equation.As has been the case so many times they voted 9 to 0 to pass anything the city manager put in front of them especially when supported or initiated by one of their own (Fieseler).
They had no idea that people would even notice much less care. When confronted with opposition, in their arrogance, they decided to slap down opposition by marginalizing then using illegal tactics to eradicate opposition.
The chickens have come home to roast and these turkeys lead by Fieseler are now feeling the heat and they will shortly find someone(s) to throw under the bus.