Wake-up call for sleeping Westar board

The Eagle editorial board has raised this question before: Just what was Westar Energy’s board of directors doing while executives David Wittig and Douglas Lake were committing all of their appalling abuses?
Well, it’s clear what they weren’t doing — their jobs. And they’re finally paying for it. Wittig, Lake and company board members and executives were forced to pay Westar $12.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed on behalf of the company. The suit said the executives “breached their fiduciary duties to Westar and its stockholders.” Considering the abuses that occurred on their watch, that language seems mild.
Posted by Melissa Cooley

3 Comments

  1. Jed
    Posted September 5, 2005 at 1:03 am | Permalink

    Considering that Westar has an official monopoly, the DA’s office should charge them with theft from their customers and stockholders, and haul them off to jail.The KCC staff wasn’t doing it’s job of overseeing Westar, and should be replaced.White-collar criminals are still criminals and should be treated the same as any other robber.

  2. Jerry Winkelman
    Posted September 5, 2005 at 10:24 am | Permalink

    Last time I checked, some of those Westar or Western Resources directors are still on their board of directors. Others such as the former chancellor of Kansas University fled. Names of biggies and politicians who received benefits such as complimentary flights on the company jets, paid for by Westar’s electrical power and gas service customers (you and me) haven’t been revealed yet by the news media that I have seen. A huge debt of 3.6 billion dollars was amassed by Westar under Wittig and Lake. This has been reduced in part by selling off valuable assets such as their natural gas utility company. Also non-regulated businesses which were draining the company are mostly gone. Once again Kansans were ripped off big time by its leaders.J.Wink

  3. Jack
    Posted September 5, 2005 at 10:39 am | Permalink

    As the former Mayor of Wichita, you have to give Bob Knight credit for one thing…he was sounding the alarm about Westar long before anyone else.