Those last two posts involve the bickering thats taking place between the other two...heaven forbid they discuss a topic of any merit. So, here goes. By STATUTE, bonds issued by a municipality, fire district, school district, county government, or the State, pay a 10% fee (where I grew up, we call that vig) to a bond attorney. To be allowed to be a bond attorney is a lofty and lucrative privilege, but it comes with responsibility - the responsibility to heavily donate to the government officials who put you there - they have to get their cut, too, after all. EVERY DOLLAR your government spends for everything from toolboxes to toilet paper to gymnasiums is in some way tied to bond issues. EVERY DOLLAR is diluted by the bond attorneys. Solution? Simple, really - a matter of Political Will, rather than Political Wont. This should REALLY piss off the established and entrenched party machines - as I am threatening to take away their ATM. Create a State BOND AUTHORITY, with a staff of five attorneys, one for each region - broken down as follows - CD 1, 2, and 3 = REGION ONE CD 4, 6, = REGION TWO CD 7, 12 = REGION THREE CD 5, 11 = REGION FOUR CD 8, 9, 10 = REGION FIVE The COUNSEL is a State Employee, tied to NO FIRM. They have a five year contract, renewable only once, and reviewed at six month intervals for performance. Each one has ONE CWA worker for each county they serve, and each office has one back-up staffer (floater) and one member of the staff who serves strictly as a compliance officer. The cost of that AUTHORITY for the WHOLE STATE should be no more than 2.0M per year - roughly the overall bond fee on the 19.8M LACEY SOLAR DEBACLE. Bonds of less than $ 50,000.00 dollars are billed at $ 350.00. Thats it. Theyre boilerplate contracts, for Heavens sake - its not like drafting the Constitution. Over $ 50,000.00, the fee goes to $ 500.00 - why? Because an independent audit of the documents will be done on each of those to determine whether they are packed with PORK. Any expenses not directly related to the bond are either removed, or the bond is rejected. That includes any excessive billing by any TWP employees who draft the request, or overpayment for any engineering studies, or other such nonsense used to pad the bills in the past. The Attorneys are contract employees who may not have any other clients during their tenure - they may not even draft a will for their brother-in-law. They are pension eligible, but with NO MATCH AND NO GOVERNMENT PARTICIPATION. Their salary is all they get. They are health care eligible, but must pay whatever the law deems they must - None or minimal participation by the State as an employer. If they have worked for a bond firm in the past, they are specifically excluded from the Bond Authority as it is an established conflict, due to the many cases of malfeasance were already investigating. Dont like it? Open your books and show us youre clean. Otherwise, shut up. The office workers, as CWA members, receive all the rights and privileges of their UNION contracts. Now, I realize that I, personally, am running for FEDERAL OFFICE, and that this is a STATE issue...however, similar changes are needed at the Federal Level. We are putting together, town by town, bond by bond, a list of who got paid what, and who they donate to, now and in the past. Revealing, Im sure. This effort would slash School and Municipal expenditures by AT LEAST 10% immediately - Lord knows how much more you will save when you take the foxes out of the hen house. RFP guidelines need to be re-drafted - the perfect example having to do with a certain disposal contract following a boardwalk fire after Sandy that did NOT go to the lowest bidder - but it seems that it did go to someone who subbed the work out to the lowest bidder. Where did the money REALLY go? Were coming after Patronage Pensions, next. Yup, the machine has ridden on the backs of the taxpayers for too long. Were about to buck them off - with empty saddlebags, to boot.
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 00:11:42 +0000
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