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BillPayer
F L I N T O I D
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18-21.9 Emergency Purchases.
Notwithstanding any other provisions of these regulations, the purchasing director may make or authorize others to make emergency purchases of supplies, services, or construction items when there exists a threat to public health that the emergency procurement shall be made with such competition as practicable under the circumstances. The requesting department shall produce a written rationale of the circumstances surrounding the need for an emergency purchase, the cost, and and efforts made to secure competitive prices.
If the authorized purchase is for less than $20,000, the decision of the purchasing director shall be final, and a notation will be made in the electronic record keeping for the purchase request. If time permits, the purchase should follow the requirements for approval thresholds of 18-21.3 competitive sealed bidding section ( and 18-21.4 Competitive sealed proposals Section 9.
18-21.3 ( Approval thresholds. The purchasing director, in consultation with the departmnt head shall jointly recommend the award of a bid under this section. If the bid award is less than $30,000, the decision of the purchasing director shall be final. If the recommended bid award is in excess of $20,000, it shall be approved by the finance director; if in excess of $30,000, it shall also be approved by the city administrator; and if in excess of $50,000, it shall also be approved by the Mayor. Any recommended
bid awards in excess of $75,000 shall also be approved by the city council.
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So the deal here is Weaver is giving the emergency contract to rizzo at over $133k for every two weeks of service. This is without city council approval. She's saying that since the money was already appropriated for "garbage" she doesn't need to ask the city council since they are no appropriating new funds. However, this seems to says that because the purchase is over the $75k threshold the city council must approve it.
Also, since she is in my opinion illegal retaining Rizzo/GFL on an emergency contract every two weeks shouldn't she actually be required to put out a bid request for the next two week segment? Although from what was said, the fund may already be out of money so this is moot.[/b] |
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Tue Oct 11, 2016 11:35 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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The trash business is treacherous. They have been trying to get the mob out of the trash contracting for years. Republic, according to some articles has shown a willingness to give bribes.
You need to be willing to look at some council as possibly accepting gifts and more . The stories are already out there.
I know of whistle blowers, who in the past, actually gave information on improper actions. Kumar (of Genesee Tower fame, actually had real estate transactions with former councilman Ed Taylor and his friend, Eric Mays. Mays hid his better than Taylor. I believe the newspaper called the Uncommon Sense reported on a house given to Taylor located on E. Carpenter Rd.
Council meetings in the past had a bit of "shadow government" going on with them. CDBG and Home funds were changed to benefit agencies favored by certain council members. I remember being dragged into meeting where a councilman was begging the Mayor for housing funds in his ward "so he could be re-elected".
It didn't matter if that agency was not following HUD rules or not. Some times the agency was on the brink of bankruptcy, but council wanted them to have money. That is partly the reason for so many of our HUD findings. |
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Wed Oct 12, 2016 4:15 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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You missed some of the really wicked past. Councilmen setting up another council woman on an alleged bribery. The Sheriff department had to investigate and disprove the allegations and discredit two citizens, one an innocent pawn,
When the US attorney entered into an agreement with Jackie Polar over her plan to finance a scholarship with $500 annual forced donations from party store owners, two on council called for her resignation. She lashed back, at times near tears, with allegations of racism and calling one council a drunk and wife beater. Can you picture a councilwoman having to bring in her coworkers and friends to prove she is not racist.
A daughter-in-law of one councilman gave a written statement of brown paper bag payments from strip club owners and drug sales by the councilperson's family in the same clubs. The allegations were not in the divorce records but all of the other allegations were. The FBI supposedly followed up but the family tightened ranks. |
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Wed Oct 12, 2016 4:29 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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The way council sometimes votes-you approve what I want and I will approve what you want- also is a way to look past approving appropriations that are only valid on the surface. You cannot overlook the improper actions of failing nonprofits. Fundraising is just as important for them as for any politician. HUD will not fund any agency 100%, so they need sources of funding to pay their bills.
Complaints rolled in about kickbacks, cronyism, and double financial books, even with a prominent nonprofit. Thank goodness one HUD representative saw this pattern in Pontiac and aggressively uncovered a portion of the same corrupt acts in Flint with this nonprofit. Remember they can't do a complete review of all of the housing and only do a sample.
Kurtz before he left office, gave a slew of "lame Duck" resolutions, including giving money to two troubled agencies. Flint West Village was seriously floundering but they were funded because of the relationship to Kettering.
There are threads on both agencies. Both failed, but council took actions to stop further investigations, so the HUD findings continued. |
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Wed Oct 12, 2016 4:47 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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The bottom line is council doesn't always have clean hands and sometimes the really honest ones get villified. Rumors are already swirling of council people accepting improper gifts from Republic. The question is are these baseless allegations or can they be proven? Remember these are very difficult charges to prove and prosecute.
News stories indicate Republic has been charged with bribing city councils in the past. That is why background checks of vendors and their credit histories are so very important and some sources advise communities to do so. And you don't just check the background of the vendor you favor. RTAB threw that argument back into Nelson's face.
The next RTAB meeting will be interesting as the Board is considering not releasing council from their oversight. |
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Wed Oct 12, 2016 4:58 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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quote:
BillPayer schreef:
18-21.9 Emergency Purchases.
Notwithstanding any other provisions of these regulations, the purchasing director may make or authorize others to make emergency purchases of supplies, services, or construction items when there exists a threat to public health that the emergency procurement shall be made with such competition as practicable under the circumstances. The requesting department shall produce a written rationale of the circumstances surrounding the need for an emergency purchase, the cost, and and efforts made to secure competitive prices.
If the authorized purchase is for less than $20,000, the decision of the purchasing director shall be final, and a notation will be made in the electronic record keeping for the purchase request. If time permits, the purchase should follow the requirements for approval thresholds of 18-21.3 competitive sealed bidding section ( and 18-21.4 Competitive sealed proposals Section 9.
18-21.3 ( Approval thresholds. The purchasing director, in consultation with the departmnt head shall jointly recommend the award of a bid under this section. If the bid award is less than $30,000, the decision of the purchasing director shall be final. If the recommended bid award is in excess of $20,000, it shall be approved by the finance director; if in excess of $30,000, it shall also be approved by the city administrator; and if in excess of $50,000, it shall also be approved by the Mayor. Any recommended
bid awards in excess of $75,000 shall also be approved by the city council.
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So the deal here is Weaver is giving the emergency contract to rizzo at over $133k for every two weeks of service. This is without city council approval. She's saying that since the money was already appropriated for "garbage" she doesn't need to ask the city council since they are no appropriating new funds. However, this seems to says that because the purchase is over the $75k threshold the city council must approve it.
Also, since she is in my opinion illegal retaining Rizzo/GFL on an emergency contract every two weeks shouldn't she actually be required to put out a bid request for the next two week segment? Although from what was said, the fund may already be out of money so this is moot.[/b]
Gary Ridley | gridley@mlive.com
1 day ago
I asked the city's interim CFO the same question. This is how he explained it: when council approved the budget for this fiscal year they approved a chunk of money to be spent on garbage service for the whole year. That approval wasn't tied to a specific company. So, after Republic's contract expired, the mayor is still allowed to spend the money on garbage service without additional council approval. Therefore, in theory, she can continue using emergency orders for Rizzo until the garbage fund runs out of money or the fiscal year ends, whichever comes first. |
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Wed Oct 12, 2016 8:05 am |
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BillPayer
F L I N T O I D
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I agree with you that the council may not have clean hands in this. However, it seems to be public knowledge that Stanley is getting between 1 and 1.7 million if rizzo gets the contract. Like the council, I believe this is an inappropriate relationship. Regardless, the Mayor has close connections with this recalled man and that is also inappropriate.
Does that mean Stanley/Weaver are corrupt? Definitely not. Infact is my belief that Weaver does believe she is right in this all. However, it is good direct evidence of motives for wrong doing by a highly influential man that the city removed from office.
In my opinion Weaver is just in the crossfire and because of that she should soften her stance and listen to both sides... Not be one of the sides. Both sides need to look at the actual numbers and determine which is cheaper over the lifetime of the contract. If they can't, maybe they do just need to rebid. |
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Wed Oct 12, 2016 8:07 am |
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BillPayer
F L I N T O I D
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quote:
untanglingwebs schreef:
Gary Ridley | gridley@mlive.com
1 day ago
I asked the city's interim CFO the same question. This is how he explained it: when council approved the budget for this fiscal year they approved a chunk of money to be spent on garbage service for the whole year. That approval wasn't tied to a specific company. So, after Republic's contract expired, the mayor is still allowed to spend the money on garbage service without additional council approval. Therefore, in theory, she can continue using emergency orders for Rizzo until the garbage fund runs out of money or the fiscal year ends, whichever comes first.
It seemed at the council meeting that the council, including Eric Mays, disagrees with the CFOs interpretation. Woodson can be heard disagreeing at the meeting. I also disagree when looking at the ordenence. Originally I was looking at the old version as I didn't know the EM replaced the purchase ordenence. |
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Wed Oct 12, 2016 8:17 am |
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BillPayer
F L I N T O I D
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| My interpretation is that it says the council needs to approved it before the purchase is over $75,000. Just because it's already in the fund doesn't mean she should be able to arbitrarily awards contacts to people over $75,000. The councils approval is required as a check and balance to ensure she doesn't just award a 300,000 contact to a random person to empty her trash once for instance. |
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Wed Oct 12, 2016 8:34 am |
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BillPayer
F L I N T O I D
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NOTICE OF MEETING
CANCELLATION
FLINT RECEIVERSHIP TRANSITION
ADVISORY BOARD
Please take notice that the Flint Receivership Transition
Advisory Board has cancelled the following meeting:
October 12, 2016
2:00 PM
Flint City Hall
Council Chambers – 3rd Floor
1101 S. Saginaw Street
Flint, MI 48502
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RTAB didn't have the trash dispute on the agenda they I noticed, but they did cancel today's meeting. I believe the last meeting they cancelled was a year ago. Is this related to the trash dispute? |
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Wed Oct 12, 2016 9:46 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Probably not. Notice they extended the council control by the state, which was to expire October 7. They may consider putting the City back under an EM to sop the fighting. Council has demonstrated they cannot govern themselves in a civil manner.
Or they may be waiting for the detailed analysis of the water deficit they requested. Can the city continue as a viable entity considering all that is going on. |
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Wed Oct 12, 2016 9:41 pm |
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BillPayer
F L I N T O I D
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How poorly do you think the north end would respond to more state control? Living closer to the water plant on the east side I don't feel like we've had all the water issues the north end has and so we're a little more apathetic towards the state.
My uneducated intuition is the backlash would be to high. Instead, they might try to force us into bankruptcy to take control? Or does that sound too much like a conspiracy? ala taking flint off DTW to force detroit into bankruptcy. |
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Thu Oct 13, 2016 4:16 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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I remember reading an article some time ago where an attorney said no bankruptcy for Flint as we did not have enough assets. ??? With the current water crisis, I don't think the state wants us back under EM control. However they could continue to keep us under the RTAB for a longer period of time. With elections next year, things could get dicey. Or they could place some kind of sanctions in place. We may have to wait and see.
I think CLO Oakes might be correct about the establishment of the budget. Under Williamson, council created a cumbersome line item budget against the advice of their accounting firm. This might work for for Mayor Weaver.
I don't know how the north end will respond. I did notice some est side water pipes being replaced because of high lead readings. Some homes have also had high copper reads.
Terry Bankert was at the recent council meeting and posted a running dialogue of the transactions along with copies of the meeting agenda.
He noted a speaker Walters talked about recalling the Mayor over the garbage contract and water issues. For the life of me, I don't understand the water issue as it happened prior to her administration and the state said no more help if people and companies don't pay their water bill. Also council has held up some of the water fixes to punish Weaver. |
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Thu Oct 13, 2016 9:44 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Commentators on Bankerts site Haroletta Martin and Bobby Johnson joined the dialogue to indicate recall language was being "drafted by a very professional source". Probably going to create a PAC so they can raise and spend more money.
Since recall language was made tougher, they will have to wait until November or later.
Indications are a new lawsuit is pending. Or are they talking about the one filed in January that was reconsidered? |
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Thu Oct 13, 2016 9:49 am |
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BillPayer
F L I N T O I D
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I'm not sure what site you're talking about of Terry's and didn't see it in a quick search. I did see Terry suggestion he supports an ombudsman again, but the EM removed our ability to fund finding in they position I believe.
And yeah there are some lead pipes on the east side, and issues with copper. But we haven't seen any discoloration issues and etc. Also no boil water advisories.
As for the RTAB, in not sure they are powerful enough? I believe they still need city council and the mayor to sign off on things like contacts they award? I can look up what I read again if you think that's wrong.
As for lawsuits, the only thing I know about is res vs Flint today for breach of contract. They are just trying to get the courts opinion. Is this what you may be referring to?
16-107910-CZ met today at 9am. Haven't heard anything on that yet.. |
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Thu Oct 13, 2016 11:44 am |
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