TMC: Thirty Miles of Corruption

On the City Council Agenda for Tuesday May 09, 2011, it appears we have another request by Albert Webb and Associates requesting an increase in funding via the infamous “change order”.   This is in lieu of multiple allegations by city employees in a PE article two weeks ago involving favoritism by City Manager, Bradley J. Hudson.  What stood out, was that Chief Financial Officer, Paul Sundeen stated that Webb was only selected for 2 projects out of 22 over a 2 year period.  Yes there are a lot of two’s, but when you multiply them geometrically they become this.  I don’t know if it’s my visual impairment or just a little bit of “fuzzy math”, but you will find more than 2 projects over a 2 year period.  We took years 2008-2009, WEBB20082009    To be fair, take for instance 2008 and look 06/02/2008.  There are 12 payouts on the same day; why couldn’t the city just make one check, well we aren’t quite sure.  I understand they could be all be from twelve new individual projects which makes accounting sense, or one past project with twelve change orders (when vendors ask for more money), or several projects with change orders.

The recommended total budget according to this City Memorandum is as follows:

$352,000.00        Webb environmental consulting services

35,210.00        10% Consultant Contingency

24,750.00        Legal Fees

31,435.00        Planning, Fish and Game Fees

15,000.00        Misc. Postage, advertising, printing and mailing

    50,000.00        Staff administration to support the environmental review

$508,495.00        Project Budget Cost

($200,000.00)       Less additional amount approved by Council August 11, 2009

$308,495.00       Additional appropriation required

The key, is that they are claiming no fiscal impact to the General Fund.  Though they would like to finance this cost through funds available in the 2011 Unprogrammed Taxable Bond Account No. 9854800-440446.  This would be like using a credit card to fund the needed requested amounts.  Simply, the taxpayer would have to pay for this in higher property taxes at a later time, not to mention the additional interest.

This has also been brought to you by the usual suspects who are working hard to protect and serve the community at large:

Submitted by: newly christened Tina English, Interim Development Director

Certified to as the availability of funds: Paul C. Sundeen, Assistant City Manager/CFO/ Treasurer

Approved by:  newly christened Deanna Lorson, Assistant City Manager for  Bradley J. Hudson, City  Manager, because the assistant usually takes the fall in case something goes wrong.

..and of course the whole thing seems up to par with the City Attorney, Greg P. Priamos, otherwise we’ll just call Best, Best & Krieger for a consult.

It appears they already received 200K back in August of 2009, what did we get for this?  I hope it was at least a couple of signature pens and a notebook, but I digress.  But I don’t know that as of yet, but I do know they will be at City Council  requesting an additional $308,495.00 to help them do what they know best, continuing to figure what’s best for the Riverside Library with the additional of cost for legal fees, postage, printing, and of course we have to throw in fish and game fees.  What, you didn’t know about the deer hunting and trout fishing within the library.  Planning what you are going to hunt or fish for is one thing, but how much are Fish and Game Fees anyway?,  I can tell you they are not, anywhere near that amount.     Well the jokes on you as well as myself, the taxpayer if this passes, to the extent of $31,435.00 for planning and fish and game fees.   Hopefully will get a few more pens and a couple more cool notebooks this time.

UPDATE: May 10, 2011:  Without community imput, City Council unanimously passed Albert Webbs and Associates request for additional appropriations of $308,495.00  Matt Webb, president of the engineering firm denies charges brought about by Deputy Attorney, Raychele Sterling.  But it appears that sometimes doing the right thing can be the wrong thing, which appears to be the undefinable position the City of Riverside is taking.   Now Raychele Sterling remains on administrative leave.  But many our a little closer in blood lines than we think in River City.  It appears that Councilman Chris MacArthur and Matt Webb are distant cousins!  OK, it’s a stretch, they are not technically, but it’s been cleared by City Attorney Greg Priamos, all by himself and without a BB & K consult,  that there is no conflict of interest.  It further appears that Chris MacArthur’s aunt was adopted by Matt Webb’s grandparents when she was five.  But still no conflict.  Matt Webb acknowledges that he has known Chris for decades. I don’t doubt it considering the close family relationship.  But according to a Press Enterprise article regarding favoritism Matthew Webb, stated that he is a Riverside native with ties to local officials.  He has known council members William “Rusty” Bailey and Chris Mac Arthur for decades and is friends with Hudson.  In my opinion good ol’ boys and cronyism begans with close family ties, and I don’t mean by blood lines.  But what is important, we haven’t heard from City Council why the additional appropriation was awarded and needed by Albert Webb and Associates, and without the scrutiny the council ususally imposes on others requesting the same.