April 25, 2007
RECENT EFFICIENCY STUDY CONFIRMS WE ARE LEAN
The above is the headline of the Mayor’s City Pride bulletin for April 2007. Do you believe it? I would love to see an independent poll of the Memphis taxpayers. I suggest that the review did not look at the following items that come to mind immediately.
• The Linebarger contract for the collection of unpaid property taxes given to a Texas law firm at 20% commission when Bob Patterson was willing to do it for 2%.
• The 283 appointed positions over and above what the City Charter allows costing $16 million dollars a year in 2005 and over $60 million in future pensions due to the stupid January 2001 pension resolutions allowing elected and appointed officials to retire after 12 years of service regardless of age.
• The FedEx arena deal costing the MLGW water division over $60 million dollars through the length of the life of the bonds. Also this deal left the Pyramid and the Coliseum in limbo with no source of income due to the stupid contract with HOOPS giving away the store.
• The Cannon Center, part of the new Convention Center which was supposed to cost $47 million and which ended up costing $106.5 million. $59.5 million down the drain.
• Memphis Area Transportation Authority built the three trolley systems with $10.9 million in City money (plus federal and state money) and loses $3.4 million per year. $3.4 million down the drain.
• Herenton and the City Council are currently building the Beale Street Landing Project which is completely unneeded and unwanted (except by downtown and beale street interests). The City portion of this is $19 million, down the drain.
• The City Council with Herenton’s approval spent $6.5 million on the Whitehaven and Riverside golf courses and club houses (at the insistence of Tajuan Stout Mitchell and Edmund Ford) and now these two courses are closed and not likely to reopen. $6.5 million down the drain.
• And now the real cost of retiree health care is coming home to roost due to the government requiring GASB 43 and GASB 45 to be implemented starting in the new fiscal year on July 1, 2007. This is going to put millions of dollars in unfunded liabilities on our financial statements requiring a tax increase to fund these promised health care benefits for our retirees. Current politicians have ignored this unfunded liability for years.
And of course the report did not mention the ACS contract with the City of Memphis. Watchdog has investigated this contract under which the City of Memphis has been directing no bid contracts to their minority buddies for years. Watchdog noticed an RFP (Request for Proposal) due January 5, 2007 for computer software and hardware. The proposal was to pre qualify bidders for these future contracts. Guess what, only four were approved, all minority firms. They were TEL-XL, PROSYS, INC, MITCHELL TECHNOLOGY GROUP, LLC AND SOS COMPUTERS, LLC. Dell bid but did not qualify but what does Dell care because they will get the business anyway but the taxpayers will be paying a higher price. The original RFP stated that the supplier must be an authorized Dell reseller. In other words the City and the MLGW will not buy from Dell direct which they are able to do from the Tennessee State Dell contract and also from the Western State Contract Alliance. Shelby County, which previously gave the same group of buddies the computer contracts, recently broke with the past and is buying from the Tennessee State Dell Contract saving the taxpayers 30%.
This whole effort to present the City of Memphis government operation as lean and efficient is a farce and is directed to lull the voters in view of the upcoming October elections. Don’t be fooled. Know the facts. See below the information about the RFP and the information about Shelby County’s recent actions to break with the past.
Click here to read the way this RFP was set up to exclude any real competition and to direct the contracts to friends of the Administration (see page 6)
Click here to see how Shelby County is now saving the taxpayer's money by buying computers at the lowest and best price whereas the City and MLGW are not
RECENT EFFICIENCY STUDY CONFIRMS WE ARE LEAN
The above is the headline of the Mayor’s City Pride bulletin for April 2007. Do you believe it? I would love to see an independent poll of the Memphis taxpayers. I suggest that the review did not look at the following items that come to mind immediately.
• The Linebarger contract for the collection of unpaid property taxes given to a Texas law firm at 20% commission when Bob Patterson was willing to do it for 2%.
• The 283 appointed positions over and above what the City Charter allows costing $16 million dollars a year in 2005 and over $60 million in future pensions due to the stupid January 2001 pension resolutions allowing elected and appointed officials to retire after 12 years of service regardless of age.
• The FedEx arena deal costing the MLGW water division over $60 million dollars through the length of the life of the bonds. Also this deal left the Pyramid and the Coliseum in limbo with no source of income due to the stupid contract with HOOPS giving away the store.
• The Cannon Center, part of the new Convention Center which was supposed to cost $47 million and which ended up costing $106.5 million. $59.5 million down the drain.
• Memphis Area Transportation Authority built the three trolley systems with $10.9 million in City money (plus federal and state money) and loses $3.4 million per year. $3.4 million down the drain.
• Herenton and the City Council are currently building the Beale Street Landing Project which is completely unneeded and unwanted (except by downtown and beale street interests). The City portion of this is $19 million, down the drain.
• The City Council with Herenton’s approval spent $6.5 million on the Whitehaven and Riverside golf courses and club houses (at the insistence of Tajuan Stout Mitchell and Edmund Ford) and now these two courses are closed and not likely to reopen. $6.5 million down the drain.
• And now the real cost of retiree health care is coming home to roost due to the government requiring GASB 43 and GASB 45 to be implemented starting in the new fiscal year on July 1, 2007. This is going to put millions of dollars in unfunded liabilities on our financial statements requiring a tax increase to fund these promised health care benefits for our retirees. Current politicians have ignored this unfunded liability for years.
And of course the report did not mention the ACS contract with the City of Memphis. Watchdog has investigated this contract under which the City of Memphis has been directing no bid contracts to their minority buddies for years. Watchdog noticed an RFP (Request for Proposal) due January 5, 2007 for computer software and hardware. The proposal was to pre qualify bidders for these future contracts. Guess what, only four were approved, all minority firms. They were TEL-XL, PROSYS, INC, MITCHELL TECHNOLOGY GROUP, LLC AND SOS COMPUTERS, LLC. Dell bid but did not qualify but what does Dell care because they will get the business anyway but the taxpayers will be paying a higher price. The original RFP stated that the supplier must be an authorized Dell reseller. In other words the City and the MLGW will not buy from Dell direct which they are able to do from the Tennessee State Dell contract and also from the Western State Contract Alliance. Shelby County, which previously gave the same group of buddies the computer contracts, recently broke with the past and is buying from the Tennessee State Dell Contract saving the taxpayers 30%.
This whole effort to present the City of Memphis government operation as lean and efficient is a farce and is directed to lull the voters in view of the upcoming October elections. Don’t be fooled. Know the facts. See below the information about the RFP and the information about Shelby County’s recent actions to break with the past.
Click here to read the way this RFP was set up to exclude any real competition and to direct the contracts to friends of the Administration (see page 6)
Click here to see how Shelby County is now saving the taxpayer's money by buying computers at the lowest and best price whereas the City and MLGW are not
posted by watchdog at
1:13 PM
2 Comments:
Anyone actually SEEN this study? I would love to read it to see just what it is the City is NOT going to do to be more efficient.
By
Anonymous, at 6:13 AM
great work Watchdog!!
Keep it up.
By
Anonymous, at 4:16 PM
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