Waseca will have to wait for former Enron CEO

WASECA, MINN. -- This is a friendly, welcoming place, a billboard announces at the approaches to town, no matter how long you plan to stay:

"Waseca. For five minutes. For a lifetime," it says.

Or in the case of former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling, for 24 years and four months -- maybe.

Convicted in May on 19 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and other charges related to the 2001 collapse of the Houston-based energy giant, Skilling was to present himself today at the federal prison in Waseca.

But he won a last-minute delay Monday when the U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans issued a stay of the order requiring him to report by this afternoon.

The stay was granted only to give the court time to consider Skilling's request for bail pending an appeal of his conviction, the Bloomberg News Service reported late Monday.

"We'll welcome Mr. Skilling to Waseca just like anyone else," a smiling Mayor Roy Srp said Monday, before the stay was ordered. "Except he'll have to stay behind iron bars and razor wire.

"Nobody in Waseca has any compassion for Mr. Skilling," Srp said. "But a great many people in this community have compassion for the people who were bilked out of their pensions and life savings.

"The Enron scandal has a lot of people interested in corporate America, in what is appropriate and what is not," Srp added. "That's why this is important."

The Waseca prison is a converted college campus where he'd likely share a dorm-style "room" with other federal felons.

It would be a marked step down from the Houston mansion where Skilling -- federal inmate No. 29296-179 -- has been confined since his sentencing in October, his movements monitored by an electronic ankle device.

Once the nation's largest wholesaler of gas and electricity, Enron collapsed in 2001 shortly after Skilling's resignation as CEO, wiping out thousands of jobs, investments and pension accounts.

But Skilling's scheduled arrival hardly put the people of Waseca in a lather, the mayor and others said.

"We don't usually see anybody who's going into the prison or know what's going on out there," said Dean Worke, co-owner of the Pheasant Cafe.

"I do think people take this kind of crime more personally," he added. "People work a lifetime to retire, and all of a sudden that dream can't be fulfilled. But I haven't heard a lot of people talking about it."

Amy Stanek, working at a Waseca print shop, said that she watched a documentary on the Enron collapse and believes it would be "good to see justice being served" by Skilling's incarceration.

Like the mayor, she wondered whether such a high-profile prisoner's presence would draw attention to Waseca and "be a little plus for our economy ... though we like to be recognized for other things, like our good values and good places to eat."

Virginia Collins, who was doing some Christmas shopping, said that she has a friend who works as chaplain at the prison.

"He'll take care of him," she said. "Maybe get him back to religion."

Smaller paychecks coming

Traci Billingsley, a spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, said Monday that the low-security Waseca prison operates five dormitory-style units, each holding 150 to 275 inmates.

Waseca's current inmate population of 1,070 includes a full range of federal felons, she said, including bank robbers, white-collar criminals and drug offenders.

All inmates must work if they are medically able, Billingsley said, with most earning between 12 and 40 cents an hour for preparing food, cleaning or maintaining the grounds. Some inmates earn a little more -- up to $1.15 an hour -- working in a prison factory, making uniforms, license plates, bedding, furniture or other products.

Skilling's salary in one year as Enron CEO was $132 million.

If he ultimately comes to Waseca, he would have access to basketball courts, stationary bikes and other recreation. "But there's no swimming pool or golf or anything like that," Billingsley said. "It's definitely not a country club."

Srp, 54, a manager for the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad, has lived for 20 years in Waseca (pop. 10,000, about 80 miles south of the Twin Cities).

He was a City Council member when the University of Minnesota-Waseca campus was closed in 1992 and converted to a prison despite opposition from residents, who feared the impact of a prison's walls and wire -- and perhaps dangerous or infamous inmates.

"Losing the college was a big disappointment to our community," Srp said. "But when the prison folks expressed interest, we were excited about that. And they've been a welcome addition. There have been absolutely no problems."

While people lamented the loss of the college and worried about the impact of a prison, "the guards and the others who work there -- they're in the community now, and we know them," said Loren Lauver, who runs a video store.

Of Skilling, he said, "I'd rather see him come in than some mass murderer."

Wide interest in Waseca's potential newest resident -- Srp has had interview requests from the Houston Chronicle and the BBC, among others -- "may put a few more people in our motels and restaurants," the mayor said.

"I understand there are a lot of people down in Texas who are especially looking forward to ... the doors closing behind Mr. Skilling."

Chuck Haga • 612-673-4514 • By CHUCK HAGA crhaga@startribune.com