Posted on 03/22/2006 2:26:27 PM PST by ncountylee
The Times Picayune reported today that seeking a contract to remove thousands of flooded and wrecked cars from New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin's administration recommended that the city go with the highest quoted price for the job, a review of the 14 proposals submitted last year shows (see entire article here) .
The Times Picayune reported that the chosen proposal, a $1,000-per-car bid from Colorado-based CH2M Hill, was nearly triple the cost of at least three other bids, records showed.
The New Orleans paper read that the gap between CH2M Hill and the other companies cannot be precisely ascertained, because not every proposal included a price, and some of those that did listed tasks that others did not.
In a statement issued today by her press office, Mayoral candidate Peggy Wilson had some harsh words for Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco.
“It has become quite apparent that neither the Mayor nor the Governor is willing to issue an executive order to put an end to this insane idea of paying $1000 per car, $23 million to remove the abandoned vehicles from our streets," Wilson Said.
"I issued a news release on Monday calling upon these two to stop this deal," said Wilson.
"No response brought another article today," said Wilson.
"Due to this lack of response, I call upon the office of the U.S. Attorney today to thoroughly investigate this deal to determine if the issue suggests corruption and immediately move to stop the contract."
"Something is drastically wrong here in New Orleans; dumb and/or corrupt government is killing our city. The nation is watching, congress is watching, we have got to get it right and get it right now.”
Developing...
Is this Denver company connected to Democrats, specifically the Clintons in some way? They need to be investigated. They may even need to have the bright light of the new media searching out the details of this obviously corrupt deal. The old lib-dem msm certainly won't pursue it.
Check this out. CH2M Hill has the contract to run city services for Sandy Springs.
From what I can find on the FEC's site, the big cheeses pretty much hedge their bets by giving to both parties. That said, this deal still stinks. Especially if Nagin's going to try to stick federal taxpayers with the bill.
BTTT.
Politicians in Louisiana has always held themselves above the law.
In Louisiana it is their way or you don't do business.
I would suspect that this Katrina fiasco will enrich many a Louisiana politician and their chosen relatives and friends.
Thats the way it has been for the last 200 years and thats the way it will stay.
this deal may have a long-term oder....
Could the other bidders actually handle the volume of vehicles? What if the low bidder isn't done in 15 weeks, 6 mos, a year? What environmental issues do they have to deal with? the oil and gas were still in the vehicles, so you can't drain them in the street, yet they might leak during transport. A spill could result in damages and fines. Etc...
That being said, Nagin's office should have an immediate response that shows the exact reason for their recommendation.
Brilliant! Then, the kid could sub out the work to the TX outfit.
carolyn
>Here's the company's PAC, ifo on donations to candidates. Jindal's on there. So's Landrieu.<
From looking at their list, so are a lot of well-known Republicans.
"Brilliant! Then, the kid could sub out the work to the TX outfit."
Thats exactly what I was thinking!
Charge NO $1000 per car and and sub the work out to the Texas company. Tell them if they get it done quicker you will sell them the cars for $50 a pop instead of $100. Then when they are all cleared out go back to Nagin and demand a performance bonus for getting it done in half the time.
Limbaugh talked about this the other day. He mentioned that a TX company had offered to haul away all the cars, get it done in 15 weeks, and PAY the city of NO about $100 per car. The company would crunch the cars, haul them away, AND pay the city.
I think he mentioned the total cost would have been $5 million instead!??!
How much you wanna bet the city isn't going to be picking up the tab for this? Wanna guess who will be? I heard last week that only $0.10 of every $1.75 in federal aid money actually gets to the contractor performing the work. There ae a lot of hogs lined up along this very long troth.
Since New Orleans is already below sea level, can't we just install a valve and hit "Flush"?
Wonder if the other 49 can sue? Or maybe that useless sod, Spitzer, in NYS's case, could actually do something useful.
If you can get elected in Louisiana you are entitled to anything you can steal. That's the rule in America's banana republic. Been that way forever.
Shepard Smith just reported on FNC that the Feds, meaning US taxpayers, are going to pick up the 34 million dollar tab for this sweetheart deal....
WTH? For $1000 per car I'll go down there and push them out of the city myself....
Surely these cars have some scrap value and some/many of the components can be re-sold.
Before I saw this article I'd assumed that junk dealers would be competing for the privelege of taking out the abandoned cars without any charge to the city - boy am I naive, boy is Ray Nagin stupid and corrupt.
Anyone want to make a bet the company who is getting the $1000 a car is a close relative or friend to someone in city government. Ya think?
Actually, he is not dumb.
He KNOWS the media will IGNORE it.
He is making LOTS of money from it.
He can do ANYTHING he wants and get away with it.
He KNOWS he can get away with it by playing the race card IF anyone raises a peep about it.
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