You know I have been following the Department of Public Works for some time since the whole retaliation firing of employee Eric Garrett over his whistle blowing case. Garrett of course got his job back with back pay and to my knowledge still has an ongoing suit against them. We had hoped Greg Fischer would take serious his words of auditing each department and get us some accountability and transparency.
As I first mentioned back in early December Louisville News and Politics: GREG FISCHER: MEET THE NEW BOSS, SAME AS THE OLD BOSS...... I just don't believe that will happen.
Why would I? Ted Pullen who heads the Department of Public Works, and his little Hitleresque sidekick Betty Younis, have proven over and over they cannot do their job and quite frankly should have been removed long ago.
Now thanks to an alert reader we have even more information on Ted Pullen and an immediate conflict with his job at the Department of Public Works. One that once again is at the very least unethical, and in my opinion illegal.
Ted Pullen is a VP with the Corradino Group in Louisville. Corradino of course has received well over $2 million since 2008. Want the proof?
http://www.msdlouky.org/insidemsd/diverse/contractors.html
Supplier Diversity for Prime Contractors
Floyds Fork / North County Watershed Area
The Corradino Group
200 S. Fifth St., Suite 300N
Louisville, KY 40202
voice: 502/587-7221
fax: 502/587-2636
M/WBE Contact: Ted Pullen
email: tpullen@corradino.com
Corradino does public works engineering that includes water and drainage issues. Of course that would also include not only the Department of Public Works but MSD as well. We have written enough about MSD and researched enough to write a book on the problems there.
Corradino received $101,817.96 in 2008 from our taxes. In 2009 they received a mere $64,881.04. Then they finally got what they wanted because that amount went up drastically in 2010 to a whopping $1,639,421.31!
To date in 2011 they have received $603,187.44.
All with the Department of Public Works Director, AND Corradino employee Ted Pullen, ok'ing it.
Fischer of course has started an investigation but how effective can that be? His choice to do the review?
Dave Vogel from the Louisville Water Company. The fox is guarding the hen house folks and if Fischer does not correct these atrocities he is aiding and abetting. Another mayoral appointee. Just one more reason we need outsiders like the feds to come in here.The story now switches to the contractual agreement with Johnson Control. As many know from our previous work, Pullen and Betty Younis pushed for Johnson Control to get a multi-million dollar energy efficiency contract with the City. Eric Garrett tried to expose this as impossible to maintain with the then current staffing levels. This is what ultimately led to the whistle blower charges and the subsequent retaliatory termination of Garrett.
Presumably under this contract Johnson Control apparently does not have to follow Louisville Metro policies and procedure for hiring contractors who will do work for the city. Simply put they can give the work to whoever they want to, or based on recent stories like the current Judy Green one, whoever they are told to give the work to. Yep another way to take it out the front and slide it in the back pocket.
And we the taxpayer pay for it all.
In the meantime stay tuned this story is just getting started............
Dave Vogel works for the Water Company. According to the Water Company's website, Dave Vogel is Vice President, Customer Service & Distribution Operations
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely correct. In my haste to get the story out first, as I usually do, I inadvertently listed MSD instead of LWC. thanks for the correction.
ReplyDeleteWith that said however the message is the same and noting changes.
LWC is also appointed by the Mayor and therefore we have no accountability.
thanks again.
Typical Louisville politics.
ReplyDeleteIf it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, hire an "outside" consultant with taxpayer money, and do a long drawn out "investigation" to determine if there is a way to put a sailor suit on the duck and convince people it is a good intentioned cartoon character who only wanted to make our city a magical wonderland.
Every city employee is required to notify the city about "secondary employment" - and certainly when it would present a time conflict. How does he do both jobs at the same time?
ReplyDelete