To the editor:

David Smith, in his Nov. 10 “Rescind rebate” letter to the editor says, “Giving the public’s money to private companies is a serious matter, and the commission has a duty to seek public input and obey relevant laws before acting.

I wonder why it is that these situations so often come up where citizens need to remind commissioners of their duty?

I wonder also why it is that I have for years asked several current and past Lawrence city commissioners to give my own company’s economic development proposal some amount of consideration and have found so little interest among them. It seems the problem is I have not requested any public money from the commissioners nor offered any ownership in my company to commissioners in exchange for a pledge of public money. It is my firm belief that it would be unethical to do so and probably illegal as well, but this seems to be the way business is done in Lawrence.

I have also sought to make the public aware of my proposal in order to get public input but the local media has refused to make the proposal known to the public even though I have provided a considerable amount of information as to why I believe it would be highly beneficial to the local economy to locally develop alternative energy technology.

Les Blevins,

Lawrence