Did you know that
there was ANOTHER SECRET dredging deal?
Dredging seems to be a good idea. The deeper the
river is behind the dams, the more water we can have available during a
drought. It still takes management and judgment for a dredging project
to be effective and affordable. This was not the case in Llano.
First there was a
secret, illegal meeting where an
ill-advised $50,000 contract was negotiated and agreed to without any
citizen input or knowledge. See article
here.
Then, another
ill-advised $50,000 contract was signed when Brenton Lewis lied to
council saying the price would be better than the previous contract - it
wasn't.
Then, before the start of contract #2, Brenton
Lewis and Mayor Virdell proposed a
$250,000 contract extension with the same contractor and more lies
about reduced price. Good thing citizens stood up to challenge that. See
article here.
Finally, a secret meeting to discuss a contract with
a new contractor who would actually pay us for the dredging.
Ultimately, a contract was secretly approved with
contractor #2. However, citizens couldn't see the contract before it was
signed. The city even violated the Open Records Act to prevent this.
This contract paid the city $.12/ton instead of the city paying
$2.50/ton.
So City Manager Brenton Lewis spent/wasted $100,000
and wanted to spend another $250,000 more when we could have made at
least $7,000 selling the sand - a $307,000 cost to the city because of
Benton Lewis' and Mayor Virdel's lack of management and concern for
taxpayer dollars.
Citizen involvement saved $250,000 on the contract
extension and could have negotiated a better deal on the new contract.
Also, citizens recommended the Army Corps of Engineers Floodway
Improvement Program that would clean up and reshape the river but the
city never investigated it.
This is what LlanoWatch calls waste, bad management, and missed
opportunity.
The lessons to be learned from this one good, but
mismanaged, idea are:
-
Stop the secret meetings and secret contract
negotiations.
-
Have citizen workshops to gather input on
approaches to a project.
-
Allow contracts to be reviewed by citizens BEFORE
they are signed.
-
Get citizen input early and often.
-
Stop City Manager Brenton Lewis' habitual lying
and distortion of facts.
The Llano Citizens' Bill
of Rights addresses all these issues.
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