They really are creative. Someone I know says “Once you have abandoned your principles the rest is easy”.
Remember that in Sneak Attack I wondered what was happening with the $450,000 the contractor quoted to demolish the old offices in the El Paso Times building. City council was going to consider almost $649 thousand to build new offices for the mayor, council and the city attorneys, but was not considering the $450 thousand.
I pointed out that Texas law required council to approve the $649 thousand since it was over the $500 thousand threshold that the legislature set for automatic review with this type of contract.
Well, listening to the council meeting today I heard the question asked and answered.
City staff evidently felt that since the $450 thousand was below the state requirement staff could proceed without council approval.
The reality is that this should have been a single contract. The contractor is going to tear down some old offices and build new ones where the old ones were. It would have added up to $1,099,000 but staff could get this started easier by breaking it into two separate pieces. State law forbids this kind of sequential purchasing under some purchasing methods, but not under the one used here.
In any event rack up another $44 thousand that the Houston based Harris County Department of Education gets since the contractor must pay 4% of it’s booty to them. That is money that could have stayed in El Paso.
O shame, where is thy blush? (Who would have known that Hamlet knew the people at the city?)
We deserve better
elpasospeak 