TMC: Thirty Miles of Corruption

There is gold in those streets I’m told, if you are a contractor that wins a city contract through the bid process in the City of Riverside, and the best part is you don’t have to be on top of the scoring due to the implementation of the Fuzzy Math Process. But according Tom Boyd, Deputy Public Works Director, paving a street twice has become a bit “fuzzy” as well.  Can anyone tell me where the accountability and responsibility lies?  I for one can say Tom Boyd definitely does not care about the expense to the taxpayer of a measly $17,000.00.  Please Tom, embrace and engage in the communication process, to do otherwise is costly to the community.  With your long work record with the city and your high level of experience, how does something as this really happen? There is nothing like a story which brews under the ground, and it begins in the sewers, then stinks to high heaven.  Tom Boyd states, “This appears to be an isolated mix-up, we haven’t changed anything. If it only happens once, there’s no sense in getting to exactly what happened.”  According to city sources it may occur quite often, Main Street Mall was another example.  But Tom, even if it only happens once, isn’t that one time to much? And an occurence to investigate?  I’ve known people in the Private Sector fired for lesser offenses than that.  I also understand the communication process should not be a problem; but Mr. Deputy Public Works Director, isn’t your  department right next to City Engineering?  Someone is breaching their fiduciary duty to the people once again.  A measly $17,000.00 may not be a lot for wonderfully vested paid position as Public Works Director, but during a time when many in the community are losing their homes, trying to pay their bills, and trying to pay for basic necessities such as placing food on the table, $17,000.00 is a lot of money.  That’s an insult to the taxpaying community.  Maybe Tom Boyd should give the $17,000.00 out of his own pocket, to replace what he should have caught.  The real question is two fold, are we just seeing imcompetance, or bid fixing by adjusting the scoring? That’s where the “fuzzy math comes in I’m told.  Could paving a street twice quite possibly be on purpose? The second time around it now cost the taxpayer $32,000.00 to do the street paving.  Tom Boyd says it’s the “high price of oil.”  I’ve had this conversation before, but it was about “high price of beef.”  Well in any case this what would be much more diabolical to assume, that is , to assume that there is something much diabolical occurring than meets the eye.  This would began to go into that territory of “favoritism” again, and just maybe, “money laundering”?  Comments Welcomed, and one final note, our streets are full of the proverbial “pot holes”, someone please introduce Siobhan Foster to one.