In just 19 days, all town property owners will have their chance to go to the polls and vote on Conservative Supervisor Mark Evers plan to bail out the overspent, mismanaged contract awarded to his Conservative Party benefactors in Water District 14.
To review, Casale Excavating managed to get the contract from the prior town board after the first set of bids were thrown out so that Casale could become the low bidder. The first bid had Casale the high bidder so his friends on the board tossed out the bids to give him another bite at the apple. Second time around, Casale lowered his price to from 6.8 to 6.4 million while the other guy had to raise his from 6.1 to 7.1 million. That made the town board GOP majority happy because even though it cost a bundle more that it could have cost had they awarded the contract to the first low bidder, the board wanted Casale for reasons we can only speculate.
Once he got the contract, the company managed to get $730,000 more than his agreed to bid price and all but $13,000 of that was paid without Change Orders, required by law. Supervisor Evers, asleep at the wheel, allowed the payments to continue and then blamed the Comptroller who was following orders. The town still has no professional contract administrator and the payments are authorized by a town employee who is also Conservative Party Committee person loyal to the party Chairman, Michael Casale of Casale Excavating. (No wonder they need all 4 party line to stay in charge!)
After it became clear the contract had been illegally exceeded, the town attorney informed the Board the town no longer had authority to make more payments. Not only had the contract been exceeded but the bond limit had been exceeded meaning there was no more money to pay Casale. The 6.4 million dollar contract had managed to get all of that and all of the remaining bonding authority approved in a narrow margin by voters. But wait, that’s not enough money! Casale wants more money to finish the job and it appears he has done little or no work this year because there is no way to pay him.
Evers to the Rescue! The Conservative Supervisor proposed a resolution that would transfer $830,000 from the overspent WD 14 contract to the town wide water district. Bear in mind that the payments had already been authorized and certified as belonging to WD 14. But by cooking the books, we could reduce on paper the amount of money spent of WD 14 and transfer the overspending to a town wide water district, IF we could make the rest of the town agree to pay for it. So Evers proposed that an $830,000 bond be authorized which would cover the money already illegally spent on WD 14 and what was estimated to be needed to finish it. Evers didn't wait for the bond proposal to help out his political buddies. He ordered a check for $83,000 to be cut for Casale one day after the December Town Board meeting which he personally gave to Casale Excavating. He knew it was illegal to pay it and he had been infomred directly by the town's legal staff, Not to make any further payments. And like a man, he blamed the town employee he ordered to cut the check.
Enter the Voter Outrage! The only flaw in the Evers plan to get Casale more money was the voters and the fact that to get the money borrowed, the measure was subject to Permissive Referendum. That means if voters signed a petition in sufficient numbers, they could object and demand a town wide vote. Robert Price helped organize a petition drive and turned in over 200 signatures, twice what was needed to place it on the ballot. After months of delay, the Town Board finally acted a few months ago to set the date for a vote. That date is Tuesday October 16th and the vote is town wide, not just WD 14 residents.
In effect, Evers is hoping to pay his Conservative political benefactor, Casale Excavating, by having the entire town pay for the over spent WD 14 contract. The Bill in 14 is being transferred to the entire town. That why we URGE voters to VOTE NO to Evers plan and referendum on October 16th. No one should be made to pay for the mismanage overspent contract, not the residents of Water District 14, not the entire town of North Greenbush. Instead, someone, hopefully the State Comptroller’s Audit of the contract, will tell us how to recover the money illegally spent and whether the extra spending was the result of collusion or incompetence on the part of the still unsupervised employees in the Building Department who signed the Applications for Payment.
Late Financial Disclosure
Kyran Devery
Today is Day 76 for the North Greenbush Democratic Committee violation of State Election Law requiring the on line filing of a Financial Disclosure Report due July 15, 2007. Laws apparently don’t apply to the “reformed” democrats under Jeff Spain and his Treasurer, Tax Collector Kyran Devery.
Hint, we're told a lawsuit will be filed very shortly to force the filing of this report. Way to go Kyran!
4 comments:
THE CONTRACTOR HAS NOT FINISHED JOBS FROM OTHER DISTRICTS- THE TAXPAYERS HAVE SEEN NO INSPECTION OR POOR QUALITY INSPECTION (THE TREES IN FRONT ON MY HOME ARE DEAD) ,NO SUPERVISION (CORRUPT BUILDING DEPT.), POOR WRITTEN CONTRACTS AND WE ARE EXPECTED TO PAY THIS GUY MORE MONEY?
You left a few things out. For instance, the excuse used for the overspending was to run larger lines to other towns. We could then sell water to other towns. A get rich quick scam that only the really gullible could believe. Unfortunately, other towns want nothing to do with this boondoggle and are buying water from Brunswick.
Why was a water line run directly through Casale's property giving him at least 3 hydrants on his land?
What about the failed water pressure in Districts 12, 13 and 14? Evers brags in the Advertiser about fixing the problems in Water District 12 but we'll all pay for it on our next water bill. It's call O&M, folks. People who hooked up were forced to disconnect their wells and now don't have the pressure to take a shower. Guess we're all expected to take a bath on this one!
The people in Water District 14 will not have to pay for these overruns nor should the rest of the residents. The ones that allowed this to happen should pay for it!
Someone belongs in jail!
The likes of BONESTEEL who defended the water system as mandated by the state ,when infact-could have been voted down,are now reaping (and raping) the benifits of a cash cow. New equipment,mores employees etc. The promise by the goons then was that we will only pay about $200 per family per year. We were dooped then and will be dooped again if the bailout is voted for.
DON'T WE STILL HAVE A STAFF OF PEOPLE THAT WE ARE PAYING FOR- STILL INSPECTING THE WATER PROJECT?
WHY ARE THEY STILL THERE IF THE PROJECT IF STOPPED? WE SAW A TOWN EMPLOYEE IN A YELLOW SHIRT WITH HIS FEET UP ON THE DASH OF A WHITE TOWN TRUCK IN FRONT OF OUR HOUSE ASLEEP? WHAT'S GOING ON?
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