TMC: Thirty Miles of Corruption

First let’s start with the introduction of the Not Ready, City Official Players, City Manager Brad Hudson, Tom Boyd, Siobhan Foster, All City Council Members, Chief Financial Officer Paul Sundeen and City Attorney Greg Priamos, who are played by themselves.  We also have the Ready To Receive Contractor Players, Albert Webb & Associates and CDM, oh, not to forget the Incidental Law Firm Cihigoyenetche,Grossberg & Clouse played by themselves.  Now, the Whistleblowers are played by method actors Warren Huang, Craig Justice and Deputy Attorney Raychele Sterling. Well, now you’ve got a story.  Now tell me, who wouldn’t pay good money to see these theatrics play out at your local government owned Fox Theatre on a Saturday night, which by the way is currently presenting only the best in government entertainment.

The mystery begins with the alleged questioning of City Engineer Warren Huang by Riverside County DA’s office regarding a sewer design contract that apparently went to CDM: Camp Dresser & McKee.  This story all bubbled to the surface when Deputy City Attorney Raychele Sterling, who according to Greg Priamos Office, was placed on administrative leave, then they decided to fire her, for reasons still unknown.  Raychele received an email from employees  of the Public Works Department stating that they were directed by their superiors to assign projects to allegedly the Albert Webb firm, because Albert is a personal friend of Brad Hudson and wants him to receive as many projects as possible.  Raychele then sent an email to City Council Members in March 2011 alleging concerns to City Officials regarding these employees and the allegations of steered contracts to friends of the City Manager Brad Hudson. Also, emphasizing that the City Manager threatened to fire them if they complained or made as much as a diminutive inference to the process.   And of course, City officials have denied any wrongdoing and said an internal investigation found nothing improper.  So these employees are bad people? According to whom?  Is this why most fired city employees sue the city and settle? And the public never hears about it?  The cost becomes enormous, so enormous the  taxpaying community will never see the figures.

Being awarded a contract is all about who wins the bid by the scoring process.  The standard scoring process is based on past performances, averaging the numbers, getting a total, and voilà, you have a winning bid for a contractor.  But it always seems as when you don’t like the numbers you find the need to use the creative fuzzy math process.  Let’s see I got contractor “A”  but boss wants contractor “B”.   The accepted standard process gives me contractor “A”, but if I use the fuzzy math process, I get contractor “B”, boss is happy, I still have my job, which is important because I’m an at-will employee and life is good again.  Now that’s the situation, and of course you guessed it  the usual suspects always seem to keep bubbling up to the surface.

Albert A. Webb Associates President Matthew Webb said in April that the company has earned its jobs based on merit and that contracts with Riverside are only a small portion of the company’s  business. So the small portion of Albert Webbs business was as follows, but still trying to understand what part was small, wow, twelve payouts in a single day from the general fund?…and just received a $308,495.00 contract April 2011.  Albert Webb states he is also good friends with Brad Hudson, Council Members Chris Mac Arthur and William “Rusty” Bailey.  I’m sure it means nothing but I thought I just mentioned it.

Well Greg Priamos knows nothing and says nothing, Paul Sundeen says the allegations are baseless and that’s that.  Brad Hudson knows nothing and says nothing but hires the Law Firm of  Cihigoyenetche,Grossberg & Clouse around April 29, 2011 to investigate the allegations of favoritism on himself, and evidently they are still investigating them to this day.

Raychel Sterling wrote that according to the scoring sheets it showed CDM was not the highest ranked firm.   Now that Raychele was fired for bringing to light an injustice, does that make her a whistleblower?  This would enthrall the City again, into another brutal lawsuit.  City Council, do you know what is really going on in your back yard?  Greg, how much have you costed us, as taxpayers, in law suits so far?  Are you the next to go?  Well, we’ll just have to crunch the numbers on that one, I just know it has to be more than the cost of a junk bond.  Huang and Justice told Sterling that they were called into Public Works Director Siobhan Foster’s office, where “they were told that ‘she did not like the results of the scoring,’ and that the scoring needed to be ‘fixed’ so that CDM was selected” because Albert A. Webb Associates was to be a subcontractor on the job, according to the email.  Ahhh, now we are getting somewhere, so Siobhan Foster states to Huang and Justice that the numbers aren’t right and we need to go to the creative fuzzy math process.  Remember, the fuzzy math process is priceless and dependable, the numbers always come out the opposite of what you originally calculate. Remarkable!  What does Siobhan Foster have to say about this?  According to the Press Enterprise, Siobhan Foster did not return phone calls.  Hopefully, she is out filling pot holes, which I as a Riversidian have been complaining about.

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