Schwarzenegger may have pushed for General Motors to get lucrative state contract

SACRAMENTO - Despite state laws that require government officials to seek competitive bids on large purchases, internal documents reveal that state officials held a series of private meetings with General Motors during which they agreed to buy "flex-fuel" vehicles from the automaker - a month before a bid for such vehicles was ever issued.

Soon after, the state solicited bids to buy an entire fleet of flex-fuel vehicles designed to run on high-grade ethanol. General Motors dealerships won all of the contracts for ... 1,300 cars and trucks and $17 million in sales, because they were the only automaker that met the state's qualifications.

Legal experts said the sequence of events - and especially the no-bid pilot project - appear to run afoul of state contract laws, ... .

State officials insist they followed the law, but e-mails indicate that several key players expressed concern at the time about the appearance of wrongdoing.

The paper also reported that only GM vehicles - Chevy Impalas and Silverados - qualified to be purchased for the fleet.

But the new documents, provided by the state in response to a public records request, add considerably to the picture.

They show that the flex-fuel deal came about only after a state policy that prohibited the purchase was eliminated at the last-minute.

Soon after, the fleet contract was modified to add flex-fuel vehicles. An e-mail obtained by the Mercury News shows that just days before that modification was made, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared to be pushing for it.

Schwarzenegger has long-time ties to GM, having served as spokesman for the Hummer, ... received millions in contributions from the company to his charitable and political causes, ....

What is so wrong with what he has done?

Unnecessary products?
Are you referring to the States need for the vehicles, without knowing the use of them, its hard to know if they were necessary, if you’re referring to the actual product i think the Impala and Silverado are excellent choices for government vehicles.

Being that the Silverado has the highest fuel economy, the most reliable truck in the market, as well as having the best warranty; I really can’t see how it’s a poor choice.

Also along with the Impala, let alone being produced from the highest ranked factory in North and South America for initial quality and efficiency.

I don’t know what better vehicles you could suggest, especially vehicles that are flex fuel, that reduces the options to only a few, and General Motors makes the largest variety of said vehicles. American alternatives like the Chevy Impala has a 98% domestic parts content and the aging Ford Taurus, which used to be the number one selling car in America before the Camry (Today’s Camry has a 55% domestic parts content, which is down from 75% just a few years earlier.) took the top spot, has a 95% domestic parts content.

And you say purchased at an inflated price, this is far from the contrary!

If 1300 vehicles were purchased for 17 million dollars, that equates to approximately $13076. Now I’m not sure about you, but if California decided to sell those cars tomorrow, they could turn a profit. Due only to the principal Impala’s starting M.S.R.P. is $21940 with the flex fuel v6, and the Silverado equipped with nothing but the v8 flex fuel, starts at $19360. Receiving the vehicle at approximately 60% of to asking price, I wouldn’t assume that was inflated prices.

I can understand complaining about the fund it came out of, but how do you know these vehicles were not intended to transport people and equipment to help fix the disastrous highways of California

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