Concerned TaxPayers of Duval County » Political Favortism http://www.jaxtaxpayers.org The leading group in the fight against waste, fraud, corruption, inefficiency, wrongdoing, and tomfoolery at Jacksonville City Hall Fri, 13 Aug 2010 01:49:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc en hourly 1 Sure, I Could Have You Audition For The Part. But I Like Your Face So You’re In The Show! http://www.jaxtaxpayers.org/sure-i-could-have-you-audition-for-the-part-but-i-like-your-face-so-youre-in-the-show/ http://www.jaxtaxpayers.org/sure-i-could-have-you-audition-for-the-part-but-i-like-your-face-so-youre-in-the-show/#comments Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:49:12 +0000 curtis http://www.jaxtaxpayers.org/?p=75 Recently, there has been a lot in the news about competitive bidding for government contracts in Jacksonville. First, the city is considering awarding a landfill operations agreement with Trail Ridge Landfill, a subsidiary of Waste Management of Florida, without competitive bidding. Waste Management of Florida is using the the carrot and stick approach of lowering the base costs of its landfill services along with an intimidating lawsuit threat to force the city to give it a 40 year contract for about three quarters of a billion dollars without looking at other companies.

Second, there are questions of whether city rules and state laws were followed by the property management company Jones Lang LaSalle Americas Inc in the renovation of Jacksonville’s new City Hall annex. There are also possible improprieties when some of the bids for work associated with the renovation went to a company owned by the ex-husband of Jones Lang LaSalle general manager Karla McGraw.  Also, the first phase of the project may not have been advertised as required by law. Finally, bids were accepted from one company at least one month after a deadline it set for another company which is a violation of city competitive bidding rules.

Folks, there is a reason why we should expect competitive bidding for government contracts. Competition is a good thing and in the case of taxpayer money it assures us that we get the best bang for the buck when it comes to government services. We should stand firm against Waste Management of Florida in its attempt to bully the city of Jacksonville into giving it a lucrative contract without competitive bidding and we should expect contract bidding rules and laws to be followed to the letter by all companies receiving taxpayer money. Government officials should never forget that this is our money.

]]> http://www.jaxtaxpayers.org/sure-i-could-have-you-audition-for-the-part-but-i-like-your-face-so-youre-in-the-show/feed/ 1 Hey, Since You Are Coming This Way, Can You Pick Up My Laundry, Too? http://www.jaxtaxpayers.org/special-treatment/ http://www.jaxtaxpayers.org/special-treatment/#comments Sun, 24 Aug 2008 06:19:09 +0000 curtis http://www.jaxtaxpayers.org/?p=48 Accusations of special treatment provided to U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown and City Councilwoman Denise Lee have embarrassed the Peyton administration once again.  According to a recent Florida Times Union article, it only took a phone call from Brown’s area director to start the ball rolling on the delivery of sandbags to Brown’s house to protect it from flooding.  Apparently, this assistance was not provided to anyone else in her neighborhood. Lee did not even have to ask for help when city trucks also showed up to her house with sandbags.  It was not until her neighbors complained that the sandbags were removed from her property.

We have to ask if this is standard operating procedure for all houses threatened by rising water or do you need to hold the purse strings to the federal and city money that finances city operations to get this kind of response from the city?  Mayor Peyton seemed oblivious to the implications of the city Public Works Office’s actions when he said that he was “delighted our public works employees were able to help save these homes”.

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