Is Pulido’s crown on too tight?
Busted! The O.C. Register has revealed that the Santa Ana City Council gave $6 million dollars to Cordoba Corp., to design their new street car to Garden Grove – but they were the lowest ranked firm. Here are a few very telling excerpts from the O.C. Register:
City leaders have put their plans for a downtown streetcar line into the hands of a company that received the lowest ranking from the city’s own evaluation committee.
That company, Cordoba Corporation, will oversee a two-year effort to better plan and prepare for a streetcar line looping between downtown Santa Ana and Garden Grove. The City Council voted this week to negotiate a contract with Cordoba that would be worth as much as $6 million.
But city officials acknowledge that an expert panel ranked Cordoba third out of three companies that presented proposals for the streetcar work earlier this year. The top-rated company, Parsons Brinckerhoff – which outscored Cordoba by more than 20 percentage points – wrote in a letter to the city that the selection “raises serious doubts as to the integrity of the process.”
For those of you who read this blog often, this should come as no surprise. George Pla, the owner of Cordoba, is a major funder of the Santa Ana Business Bank – which features a board that includes a who’s who of Santa Ana’s most questionable characters, including Santa Ana Councilman Carlos Bustamante.
Could it be that the Santa Ana City Council finally blew it? Handcuffs all around!
This IS an outrage. I just called the D.A.’s office (714-834-3600) an asked for an investigation of the mayor and city council for possible political corruption. I suggest all S.A. residents do the same.
This is criminal. Where’s the Grand Jury? Where’s the DA?
So What is, that’s got you so angry?????????
This is the time that all concerned citizens should start showing up at the city council meeting to complain!
Innodate the DA’s office demanding an investigation! Encourage other city residents to start sending emails citing their disapproval.
We can’t just rant and rave on this blog…it’s time to start bitching in public at a city council meeting.
Juice readers, please correct me if I am wrong on the following.
This can only be the result of one of three things;
1. City staff is so incompetent that their “evaluation’s” are worthless.
2. The mayor and city council have NOT communicated to city staff what they value in “evaluations”, thus causing S.A. taxpayers to pay for wasted city employee time.
3. The mayor and city council have an “agenda” separate and above what is best for Santa Ana.
As to the first two possibilities,they would be the result of incompetence, in which case, heads should roll. If it turns out to be #3, an investigation is in order.
I’ll bet this needs to be approved by the OCTA Board — that’s where an informed electorate could make some noise.
Another door to bang on is Janet Nguyen’s — this debacle is entirely in her District.
OCTA and Janet’s Transpo Committee have already been presented different alternatives for this corridor — nobody’s going to like them either — do you want the CenterLine running over your head?
anonster,
The correct answer is #3.
Yes, #3
The whole Council & city manager included have run SA into the ground.
The DA hasn’t stepped in the past and there is no reason to suggest they do so in this case. Business as usual…
DA’s office has unofficial allegiance to the city manager to where he can run the City with impunity.
Sad but true :o(
Maybe watching the recorded meeting for those not there is needed before commenting. I got to the meeting late so I missed the public comment and the discussion on the subject was underway.
They voted to approve negotiations on the contract that would need future approval.
Cook,
They got caught red-handed. Now they must pay.
I was interviewed by the Times today. Here comes the AP wire…
The D.A.’s office got back to me, in order for them to open an investigation it MUST be in writing. So if your interested this is what you need to do:
1. Address your concerns to ;
Tony Rackauckas
401 Civic Center Dr.
Santa Ana, Ca.
92701
2. Give a brief outline of the circumstances, your concerns, ie. possible financial conflicts of interest.
3. Include your contact information, no anonymous letters.
The more of us who request an investigation the HARDER it will be for them to ignore us.
Also,
Just to let the residents of Santa Ana know. Mayor Pulido, City Council, and David Ream will be laying off 36 people on Monday the 4th of May 2009. The city has a budget defecit of about $43 million. David Ream was given a pretty healthy raise last year. Also he has an assitant city manager under him, as well as an assistant TO the assistant city manager. He is never there, my husband has to park like three blocks away from city hall, while Mr. Ream parks on Ross Street “Illegally” everyday, and no police officer will touch his car. Pulido and Ream are two of a kind, back to the layoffs— they will not touch police and fire agencies due to the fact that they cannot make themselves look bad politically. Instead they will let go the smallest problem of the pie at 20%, the other 80% of the budget goes to police and fire. Police alone had set an overtime cost of nearly %20 million a year.
I am a small(compared to others) investor in the bank from out of state. I really feel burned by this whole situation. The official explanation is that SABB didn’t start up with enough capital to “stay relevent in the current banking environment”. That explanation really stings after hearing stories like this and others such as chauffered Escalade for the bank pres. I guess my family and I learned the hard way.