Watertankgate: No Bids, No Bargain, Nobody's Business

[XLFD]

In the 2013 Budget, the City of Ludington has put aside money to paint the Brye Road Water Tank, pictured below, just beyond Ramada Inn to the east of Ludington on the highway, and in front of Home Depot, and pictured below.

Isn't that a few miles outside the city limits of Ludington?  Yes, but it is used to help maintain water pressure in water sent to Scottville and points in between.  You will note it is not a tower, just a tank and looks to be about 50 feet high

The amount to pay for painting the Brye Road water tower back in 2001 was $47,000 by M.K. Painting (the same company that painted the two water towers in Ludington in 2000 for nearly $1,000,000 less than when it was repainted in 2010/2012) as seen in the Ludington City Council   Feb 12, 2001 minutes.  It was noted in the  April 23, 2001 minutes  that the cost was amended higher, by $3000 extra.  That's $50,000 to paint the Brye Tower back in 2001, and that task was coordinated by previous City manager Jim Miller, who lost his job the next year, to a Village Manager from Almont named John Shay.

In the prelude to the 2013 budget, John Shay states:

And this is also expounded later:

As noted in my speech to the city councilors on 11-26-2012, the rate of inflation between 2-2001 and 11-2012 (about 30%) makes the $50,000 spent then equal $65,000 in today's dollars.  The amount the City Manager envisions spending on this painting is $238,000 over 5 years, or over 366% of what could be expected using the previous figure.  Worse, this painting needs not even be considered until at least 2021, as steel water tanks/towers don't generally need painting for 20-30 years since their previous painting.

As previously noted, the wise folks of Scottville had their water tower painted in 2010:   Ludington Daily News 6-8-2010: "Scottville’s water tower will continue to sport a “Scottville’s World Famous Clown Band” logo when the tower is repainted, even though deciding this now will cost the city an extra $6,800 The city also agreed to hire contractor L.C. United Painting of Sterling Heights to do the work, with a change order to come during the project for $6,800 because of the logo change from what was originally bid out. Williams said the L.C. bid is still significantly lower than what the engineer originally estimated and what the grant is for The bid without the change order is $184,500. It will go up to $191,300. The city pays 25 percent of the cost and the grant pays 75 percent."

That 25% that the Scottvillians paid equals, $47,825, just a couple hundred above the yearly cost to Ludington for the next five years for this water tank, without the neat Scottville Clown Band insignia included.  Sounds like quite a bargain-- for John Shay and his water tank painters.

EPILOGUE:  I sent a FOIA request to inspect the communications between the City and USM, the painters, during the year 2012.  The City Manager (who remains the FOIA Coordinator) has charged me with $151.63 for that information.   Including 2.5 hours of labor for someone who makes $41.65 an hour, and 190 pages of copies that were not asked for and not needed.  They have also claimed two specious exemptions to FOIA that would apparently affect those 190 pages of documents.  

[Willy]

Wow. $238,000 to maintain that water tower is an amazing price and comparing it to Scottville's cost for their tank makes it seem even more absurd.

[XLFD]

Their two deals with Utility Services Maintenance appear very shady, this one is even more so than the first. 

In the first they agree to pay a total of around $1.2 million for painting two water towers well before they need to be painted and over three times what they should be paying when factoring in the previous paint job and inflation.  It's the same this time.

In the first deal they paint the towers just 10 years after their previous painting, this time it's 12 years, when these steel water holders do not need to be painted at least every 20 years.

Shay asks for $57 for 24 non-exempt records in a FOIA regarding this project's contract without ever claiming what the charges are for.  This time he tries to stifle the revelation of these records by asking an ungodly figure for this year's communications with a painting company, and claiming a couple exemptions on privacy and security issues.  As if there's something to hide.

The new wrinkle on this is that there has been a deal already hatched with USM to amend the previous and the City for the expenditure of $238,000 over 5 years, and yet this expenditure was never mulled over in an Open Meeting...  Sound familiar?   The previous deal was at least discussed publicly, and votes were taken by the council. 

[Brian Carlson]

I may move back to Ludington just to paint water towers. Sounds like good money.

[XLFD]

if you seek work like this, you may need to include on your resume that you're acceptable with offering kickbacks.

[Willy]

The Council is to blockheaded to realize that this is the way their actions and secrecy are being interpreted [kickbacks / bribes] or they are aware of that perception and don't care.

[XLFD]

Hubris backed by power can cause perception problems.  From all their public chatterings and E-mails I've seen, I detect that most are shut off from reality. 

I bet most don't believe in Santa Claus, even when he's coming to town on the 15th by train.