Posts Tagged ‘city of riverside’

ALLEGED FAVORITISM OF ALBERT WEBB AND ASSOC., NOW A CHANGE ORDER FOR 308,495K

Posted: May 10, 2011 in City of Riverside
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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. 

RIVERSIDE: FIRED EMPLOYEE ALLEGES CITY OFFICIALS AWARDED MILLIONS IN CONTRACTS WITHOUT BID

Posted: May 9, 2011 in City of Riverside, Uncategorized
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About a week after allegations of favoritism hit the City of Riverside, a breaking release by the PE are allegations of improprieties claimed by fired city employee Sean Gill with regard to how city contracts were handled.  It has also been alleged by other indivduals, that the city of Riverside has a close relationship with PE, to the extent of having a worthy opinion before a story is released, as in the case of Chief Russel Leach DUI.  Regardless the suite claims that city officials gave millions in contracts without the contracts going out to bid.  Again the city is denying this claim, but I’ll tell you, it sounding alot like that old bug a boo we’d like to keep under the matt, “Favoritism”.  OK I said it.    But what is quite intriguing and diabolical is that the Riverside City Council was quite aware of this activity with regard to contracts not going out for public bid, this “in an effort to increase their political allies”.   Wow, quite blatent.  None the less, it is shameful time in the City of Riverside, when the atmosphere of trust is non existent toward elected and appointed government officials, that this makes the community have to take another step back.   It is also quite coincidental that Sean Gill’s comment completely disappeared from the comment section of the PE’s article Riverside: City Officials Dispute Favoritism Claims.  Evidently Sean Gill’s comment was as follows, taken from the Five Before Midnight Blogspot:

The city fired me when I tried to make people aware of their corruption. Its been going on for years. Brad Hudson, Siobhan Foster and Tom Boyd all deserve to be fired for their corruption along with half of the city council. People think Bell is corrupt, I hope they keep digging into the City of Riverside. If Ed becomes mayor, wait and see how much more work his firm receives.

—Sean Gill, to Press Enterprise comments

Again, this leaves the City of Riverside scrambling at damage control with the usual response, this time from Supervising Deputy City Attorney Jeb Brown, “We think that the case doesn’t have any merit and we look forward to defending it”.  I’ll bet you do Jeb.  This after Deputy City Attorney Raychele Sterling stated in a email to City Council,  that several city employees told her they were directed to give work to specific firms by superiors.  According to Chief Finance Officer Paul Sundeen the city has retained an outside law firm to do an independent investigation.  An investigation upon themselves? Any guesses on what this independent investigation will cover? Any wagers?  Well, we all agree that mishandling of contracts without bids cost the taxpayer in benefits they expect, and the taxpayer shouldn’t have to be hit with the cost due to the incompetance and quite possibly, fraud, of these city officials.  Besides contracts, I’m also thinking how many law suites have been settled out of court by the City of Riverside in order to cirmcumvent the limelight, but at what cost?  This is another investigation we need to dig into.  But again, we invite to hear from any elected or appointed official, the city of riverside’s side of the story.  We encourage you to comment.

UPDATE: FRIDAY MAY 20, 2011:  RIVERSIDE DEPUTY CITY ATTORNEY RAYCHELE STERLING FIRED!  The reason why the community of Riverside have become complacent to city news, is the type of third world politics displayed by elected and appointed officials within the walls of  City Hall.  Again, the city fires another employee in what appears for no other reason but doing the right thing.  But interesting enough, the City Hall offers her 6 months of paid administrative, yes, 6 months, to go away find another job and probably just be quiet.  You’ll never see this type of offer in the private sector.  But again the city is at a loss of words, especially when the taxpayer should be informed.  In the name of accountability and transparency we receive such responses  as,  “She was an at-will employee sitting at the pleasure of the city attorney, and … I determined that the termination of that agreement was in the best interests of the city”, as stated by City Attorney Greg Priamos.  But no firm reason as to the termination, and we may never know.   Possibly, if you have something on the city, you may receive one of Greg Priamo’s Iron Fisted Gag Orders, which is probably like having your mouth sutured before they place the duck tape on.  Greg, How much is this law suit going to cost the taxpayer?  Will you hire, contract or request assistance from Best, Best & Krieger and possibly good ol Ex Riverside County District Attorney Grover C. Trask?   …And since we do so much business with B,B&K is there any validity to the rumor that they may be taking one of the floors at City Hall?  …And Brad, How much is your ongoing investigation on yourself going to cost the taxpayer?  Not to mention, the cost of institutional memory ?  Hudson has requested an outside investigation to the allegations of favoritism of himself, so he hired Rancho Cucamonga-based law firm Cihigoyenetche Grossberg Clouse to do the investigation which ultimately may take a month.  But it gets stranger, one of the partners of the law firm Brad Hudson retained to investigate the email claims, is also a motivational speaker who specializes in magic,  and is the author of three critically acclaimed and bestselling books, “The Vitruvian Square: A Handbook of Divination Discoveries,” “The Masks of Tarot,” and “Bauta: Betraying the Face of Illusion,” in addition to his oracle/divination cards, “The Deck of Shadows.” This partner specializes in magic, thought-reading, and divination (Tarot, oracle cards, palmistry, astrology, and numerology).  I guess my question to the City of Riverside is, does this get paid through the taxpayer or the other side.  But this may be a good thing in Brad’s world, Cihigoyenetche Grossberg Clouse may be just the thing to take this investigation that one step beyond.

UPDATE:05/13/2012:  PRESS ENTERPRISE ENDORSES FORMER COUNCILMANL ED ADKISON, REGARDLESS OF THE ALLEGATIONS OF CONTRACT TIES WITH THE CITY AND ALLEGATION OF MISTREATMENT OF CITY EMPLOYEES.  MUCH OF THE RELATIVE FINANCIAL REPERCUSSIONS THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE IS EXPERIENCING CAN BE DIRECTLY RELATED TO THE DECISIONS MADE BY FORMER CITY COUNCILMAN ED ADKISON DURING THE YEARS OF 2000 TO 2007.

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