Several public comments preceded an announcement by Ald. Waldorf speaking for all of the aldermen that they would table the grant and not proceed with a vote. The public comments asked that the council not go for the grant but instead aim for a swimming pool.
The mayor later stated that he thought it was a mistake because this was an 80-20 grant, meaning we would only have to pay about 250,000, although we would have to upfront the entire amount and then be reimbursed for the 250.
On the swimming pool, the mayor would like to see it put up for a referendum to the voters and with the information that property taxes would have to be raised to maintain a swimming pool. He did mention that since the Friends of the Pool committee has now about $100,000, if they would be willing to put that into a splash pad, the city might be able to help with the additional funds needed for that structure. Granted some of that money would have to be returned to the donors as they only wished to contribute to a pool and not a splash pad.
The Public Works Committee is recommending that Test be rehired when their contract runs out. Ald. Waldorf and Ald. Lukosus made this decision. They studied some information from the Bureau of Statistics is what I think they said and then made their decision. As to the amount being over 20,000 and requiring the city to go out for bids by law, our city atty said it was not necessary if this is something like a "super vote" So they use the 20,000 figure when they want more contractors to bid and when they don't they don't. I guess this is what we call open and honest government just like Washington DC.
19 comments:
Make sure you watch carefully who gets a refund of their donation to the pool fund . This just keeps getting better.
When they put the landfill up for bid they saved 38% what is rush to renew test contract 4 months early beside the fact they contribute heavily to mayors campaign and certain alderman, 6 of 8 would have to vote for test for contract not to be sent for bid. Email your alderman and urge a no vote on this. We could save just short of a million dollars by bidding this project out, Mr. Harl there is the reserve your looking to have.
I think Harl was in favor of the bike path so his union buddies would have jobs.
The "Circle of Politics"! This would have even the best of Wall Street financers in question regarding a city which has a government official capable of wanting to fund "all" needed capitol for a grant and than stating they would be reimbursed everything but $250,000. Yet at this same meeting this same official telling an organized group of fund raisers for the pool that if they take their $100,000 and donate it to a splash pad - then MAYBE the city could cover the rest. Didn't (Bernie Madoff) go to jail for just such a pyramid scheme?
This was a bad move by the city council to not go along with the Mayor.
Last night is was rather entertaining listening to Waldorf mumble and fumble with all the phony baloney reasons why we should just give TEST another cool $3 mil. It was obvious Waldorf and Lukosus both are well aware that they have sold their soles with this no-bid contract. As a matter of fact it was apparent they all knew how wrong this was as it was happening right in front of them. I guess ther is an "ethical" point of no return when an elected official knows full well they are cheating the general public and they just act like it's business as usual.
The city of Peru is as screwed up as any I have ever heard or read about in the history of corrupt politics and crooked politicians.
Only Perez questioned if the contract should be bid.
One moral voice among all of Peru's elected officials and employees is a sad reality at this moment in time.
God help us all because our aldermen and mayor sure as hell reuse to!
The attorney stated it does not need to go to bid because of a super majority vote. Can anyone explain what this is?
Waldorf said it would be a 1.5% increase. The question is what is the 1.5 based on, and what is that in dollars and cents?
There is one more reason why TEST has to remain the contractor. At least a possible reason. If in fact the city has engaged in environmentally unsound or illegal practices, as has been inferred and even alleged on this blog in the past, can you imagine the leverage that lab would have with the city?
Suppose you took care of a little mercury problem here or there, or did some convenient analytics so demolition debris could go wherever it was convenient. That would make you very tightly bound to the city.
And they also are located here, where the competitor would not be located here.
It still should be bid, although if I were the competing lab, I wouldn't give much time and effort to putting together the bid.
10:36. If you remember that's exactly what happened with the engineering bids for airport engineer. All surrounding engineers know Chamlins will get the bid, so many didn't bother to bid it. Think of the money that could be saved with bids. That's supposedly the purpose of bids, to keep things competitive and save money, but I guess only Perez understands that concept.
Sealed bids is the only honest way to go. SIMPLE!
It is very troubling to think that Ald. Waldorf and Ald. Lukosus are making a decision as important and expensive as the water contract. And then we ask how did they come to that conclusion about TEST being the only competent company that could accomplish the maintenance of our water supply.
We will need to wait for the video for the exact words out of Waldorfs mouth but something like they made this decision by checking some statistics in some bureau. Maybe someone else at the meeting caught this exact words.
Then Atty Schweikert added a few words to the decision about the horror stories of past water treatment when the city controlled it.
Added to all this was the part that TEST played in the recent flood on Water Street where their employees assisted the public works department and some of the aldermen to prevent the flooding of the water treatment plant.
Has anybody thought about having vehicle stickers per year per vehicle at $35-$50 each. To pay for a pool? People can buy a one year sticker or a two year sticker. A pool would be nice, but raising taxes shouldn't happen with the economy as it stands. I have absolutely no idea what the estimate of residential vehicles there are. ?????
Attorney Schweikert has and is sitting in the chair of City Attorney for over 30 years and is fully aware that it is his job to inform the aldermen of their legal obligations when it comes to the legal requirements of competitive bidding when a city contract has billings of over $600K per year. His personnel feelings and horror stories are not a reason to NOT follow the law.
Recent information has associated this attorney and pickle ball player with misleading a member of the Recreation Board and neighbor of the pickle ball court into the creation of another recent horror story. Would someone who knows the complete facts of this incident elaborate upon it. If everything that is being said is true she and all other neighbors have additional reasons to be upset with the city.
So Atty gets $600K, Chamlin gets $800K and TEST only gets $500K for doing something really important? Priorities people, priorities!
Anon 7:55 No one has said that the C.A. gets $600K, what has been said is that TEST gets $600K/yr. without having to bid when city law states that anything over $20K/yr. is to be let out for open bidding. Follow the letter of the law 7:55 no matter how important what TEST does. There are plenty of other corporations that do the same thing as TEST and will bid. Lets have open bidding and give them a chance to see if they think they can do it for less. Presently 7:55 the priority is to obey the law. Next question is why is TEST getting a five year contract? This the 1st contract under the Harl administration and he is in his second term as Mayor.
The two aldermen who make up the Pubic Works Committee started to campaign for TEST at Mondays council meeting isn't it their responsibility to honor the law of open bidding in representation of their constituents rather than be Public Relation Representatives for TEST. Maybe the real reasons are that they are nothing but trained puppets vocalizing the numbers TEST feeds them not to say anything about who buys them their suds after meetings.
To 9:15 pm - Well said. You are well versed in the Peru "Suds Scandal" mindset of our elected officials. Waldorf and Lukosus must have needed a tall cold one after thoroughly licking the boots of Chris Perra after Monday's council meeting.
What a disgrace!
TEST spends months prior to a contract renewal fudging numbers so a square will fit into a circle!!! $44,000 a month is nothing to sneeze at and they have a vested interest in this contract!!! I'm sure big salaries have to be maintained!
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