But there are a couple of little things in those expenses I wanted to point out as follow ups to some recent discussions here, and to illustrate the Devil May Care approach to spending that this Council has.
First up, there was some question here about whether Dan DiGuilio's road trips to see regional convention centers would cost the City anything. Well, yes, it seems the Mayor does bill the City for those totally unnecessary trips - trips that, so far as I know weren't suggested or authorized by the City Council.
But there on page E-14 of the expenses is this item: Advanced Travel - DiGuilio - Cnvntn Ctr Tour - $114.40. In other words, Dan DiGuilio wanted to take a day trip, and have a meal or two on the road, and you get to pay for it.Ah, but Dan isn't our only mobile Council member. Page E-14 also includes this item: Advanced Travel - Travel Exp/Downie - $118.70. On the same page, there's also this: Port Angeles City Treasurer - Ec Dev Dinner - Downie - $37.50. Yes, that's right. Pat spent nearly forty bucks of your money, on one meal. I guess that's the City Council's idea of "Ec Dev." Thank goodness Pat's a Mormon and doesn't drink, or that total could have been much higher.
I'm told it tastes so much better if you don't have to pay for it yourself.
Meanwhile, as you know, by the end of the month we're supposed to know if the totally fraudulent PA Untied will be absorbing - I mean merging - with the Chamber, the PADA, the PABA, etc. In other words, things are potentially in flux. On the other hand, what is never in flux in Port Angeles is the free flow of tax dollars to useless causes. Thus, on page E-36 of this week's expenses, we find these items: Port Angeles Chamber of Comm - Consulting Services - $27,486.47, as well as Port Angeles Chamber of Comm - Consulting Services - $20,886.72. Yes, nearly $50,000 to the Chamber for "Consulting Services." Given how little they do, they should be labeled "Insulting Services."
But, at any rate, be it big or small, in Port Angeles they waste them all.
Per the previously mentioned city "Ethics Board"...What are the ethics of unilaterally deciding to take an unnecessary trip, billing the city for it, then voting to approve spending funds for it, as Danny Boy doubtlessly will Tuesday night. It'd be nice if this was actually discussed Tuesday, but I doubt it will be. But these little things do tell us more than you might think about how these people view their "public service".
ReplyDeleteEthics is a word, not moral principles. I haven't been to a council meeting in a couple of years. (They make me itch more than rolling in fluffy fiberglass insulation.) So, if I went, how many people would it take to get these things discussed? Enlighten me. I'm willing to make a fuss, but don't know what the procedure is to get it started.
DeleteYou could make a statement during public comment, but no one on the Council will respond. And to get an item pulled from the consent agenda requires Council action - it can't be a request or question from a member of the public.
DeleteI full well realize that the members of the city council don't get paid much, but come on. Have some pride, Mr. Mayor. If you want to go somewhere for a day trip, pay for it yourself. I have a hard time believing that every time they set foot outside of Clallam County it's somehow "council business" that needs to be reimbursed. This is just ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteBut not as ridiculous as the amounts of money that get shoveled into the chambers coffers. To do...what was that again? Provide a big paycheck for Russ...who does what again? What are we getting for all those tens of thousands of dollars spent?
Buy your own damn gas and take a sandwich. You're supposed to be representing the people. Live like they do and pay your own way.
DeleteWe need to get rid of Russ. How? How can we oust this flotsam from our Chamber. We need one that functions. This should be the FIRST item on our agenda. Seriously. Promoting this area isn't as difficult, nor as expensive as the "anointed one" chamber leader cries with his pleadings. He puts the CON in connected.
Delete"Chamber of Con-Artists"
DeleteI don't get paid that much either, but I pay for my own lunches.
DeleteAnonymous 11:55AM - You have it exactly right.
DeleteSo there was a time, when common sense citizens, some more intelligent perhaps than others, but all with common sense and a sense of ethics, competed in actual races to serve on PA City Council.
DeleteSure they all had their agendas, but at least these candidates once elected kept city employees noses to the grindstone. And, openly pushed their varied agendas.
Folks like Joan Sargent, Larry Doyle, Dorothy Duncan, Frank McPhee, Sam Haguewood, Mike Lemon, and John Hordyke to name just a few.
They were independent thinkers that didn't, and in fact sometimes, rarely agreed at all, but at least they made city employees earn their keep and keep it honest.
Now, because of the apathy of a community, the best candidates we can find to run sadly uncontested races are life-long bureaucrats including (1) a retired City of Port Angeles Planning Dept. Director, (2) a retired Federal Transit Agency Executive Director, (3) a still employed Tribal Government Planner, and (4) a one-time supposed motivational speaker.
That's 4 out of 7 council members which is a council majority.
Until PA wakes up, gets feed up enough to muster some common sense candidates from the real world of "hard knocks", then PA gets what it deserves, 1st class-clown government, and run away public funding.
The fact that Cherie Kidd gets away with saying she was EVER a motivational speaker is a minor travesty. One: Cherie is a TERRIBLE speaker. Even with notes she stumbles and fumbles all over the place - and without notes she simply blathers on and on. Two: She has a truly TERRIBLE voice. It's right up there with fingernails on a blackboard.
DeleteThe only motivation that goes on when Cherie speaks is that people are motivated to leave the room. Let's be honest here, Cherie. This job you claim to have had never happened.
Hey, if you're going to pad your resume, it sounds better than lion tamer, or brain surgeon.
DeleteIf any of these foolish groups are foolish enough to fall in under the control of PA Untied, then it'll just be a direct way to funnel money directly to people like Karen Rogers and Jim Haguewood. It used to be that Karen had to be on the City Council to steal from the City; soon she'll be able to do it without having to even go to City Hall.
ReplyDeletePretty sweet racket.
PA UN is a bad idea. Very bad. This is greed, pure and simple. This needs to be stopped.
DeleteHmmm...Looks like some of our Council members have been looking at some of our Port Commissioners as role models...
ReplyDelete"Thus, on page E-36 of this week's expenses, we find these items: Port Angeles Chamber of Comm - Consulting Services - $27,486.47, as well as Port Angeles Chamber of Comm - Consulting Services - $20,886.72. Yes, nearly $50,000 to the Chamber for "Consulting Services.""
ReplyDeleteOver what period of time?
This $50,000 is ON TOP OF the $300,000 or?? the Chamber gets each year from the City? For what, exactly?
Do they submit these kinds of bills frequently? How much has the City paid the Chamber for "consulting services" over the last 12 months? The last 10 years?
Who, actually, gets that $50,000 ? Russ? Or??
So many questions.
More of the same.
why is our city spending $30k on "credit card payment". What? How fiscally responsible is this? What is this unknown "credit card payment"? What interest are we paying? Why does our city have a credit card, anyway?
ReplyDeleteNo wonder the budget is such a mess! First, there are more tools needed such as looking at grouping the expenses by type, and then giving more detail on what it is. Seems that everyone just buys what they want, when they want, and there is little "budgeting" such as done in the private sector. This has a lot of fat, and the big items aren't explained in the least. And why is it that $30.50 seems to be the "standard" meal deduction? Is that the amount that isn't necessary for receipts? Then, why are there "employee awards"? And, I can see that pizza and beer is in there, as well. This is a mess. Not itemizing things like credit card fees and interest paid is insanity. And, unless you look at the data with several other reports --- such as credit card: then lump all the expenses/things purchased over all different departments, there is no way to see if some of that 30k isn't accounted for, and has been used for things not on the budget. Likewise the Centlink/Quest (not quest anymore) is broken down by department, but I'm sure the bills weren't paid that way, they were paid in a lump sum. And 27k for a software package? Really? And, the Dell purchases are all spread out -- any way to get a full number on that? I am appalled. This "budget" smells bad.
ReplyDeleteWe are paying a LOBBYING FIRM? Van Ness Feldman isn't a law firm, it's a lobby firm, the key word is "Policy Firm". Page 40, we have about $7k going to them from solid waste. Really? WHY?
ReplyDeleteHerrera Environmental Consultants $253k? For the landfill bluff? This is what Hererra says: http://www.herrerainc.com/projects/port-angeles-eelgrass-macro-algae-habitat-survey/ to "Herrera is responsible for performing the eelgrass and macroalgae habitat survey" We couldn't hire someone for $80k for the year to do this? It's not rocket science, it's just science. We hired a geologist, why not an eelgrass and microalgae habitat bean counter?
and why is the city paying for flu immunizations when everyone on the payroll HAS health insurance?
ReplyDeletepage 41...why are we paying the Port of Port Angeles "Enviro and Eco" $14.5k, and then we get $4,500 back. $15k to the Cascadia Law Group. (" environmental, land use, and natural resource issues") What was this for, again?
ReplyDelete$45k in rebates. Yeah, we can afford to just spend money like this, right? I don't get it.
What is $190k to Olympic Electric Co, Inc? I didn't know we contracted out those services. http://www.olympicelectric.net/commercial.html
Page 45. Who is Ricky J. Dunn and why did he get $13k?
Technical Systems, Inc is wastewater, software? I can't tell, what was this for, specifically? They get a nice paycheck at $50k. http://www.tsicontrols.com/
Herrera is listed in two places on this budget another $10k is on page 44 then again for $2k. That is tricky budget stuff...how things are hidden. Not good. it's why you do a separate report showing all payments to each vendor.
Page 44, another engineering firm PACE. http://www.paceengrs.com/index.html Solid waste? Is this the pooh tank? Another $28k
Another consultant.page 44..can't figure out what the HELL Brown and Caldwell do http://www.brownandcaldwell.com/services.asp $66k? Stormwater, maybe? From looking at the website they'll even dance for you, if you pay them enough. Again, another Page 44 (must be deep enough in the budget to hide these things) Vanir Construction Management http://www.vanir.com/Home.aspx What was this for?
Ricky J. Dunn is on page 51, again. Another $950.
Whoa...$23k to IBM? For what?
So, where is the INCOME statement to go with this budget, so there can be a full picture of the P&L?
It's super that CK and readers here are digging into the city expenditures. I'm glad that the tools to do so are now more readily available on the internet. Before civic activists and the League of Women Voters started insisting on better transparency and more open government, the city council packets including the "consent calendar" expenditure items weren't readily available to the public at all. Unless you were a friend of a council member or a PDN reporter, or went personally to City Hall to inspect the one council-packet they made available for public inspection, the spending actions of council and staff were almost completely hidden from view.
DeleteTo some of Anon 1:11's questions:
Herrerra is the "consultant" that has probably made million$ by now advising the city on how to fix the landfill and the pesky problem of decades of garbage falling off the bluffs and into the Strait.
PACE engineers often show up on expense reports as earning consulting money from the Public Works Dept. Maybe a google search would offer a clue as to whether they happen to employ former city employees or city officials and/or their families. It wouldn't surprise me if that were the case.
Brown and Caldwell have already made million$ from the city in designing and redesigning and managing and more managing and redesigning of the $50 plus CSO/turd tank project. Over the years there have been been many, many amendments to their original contract, each time increasing the payout to them.
Hiring a favored consultant and then giving them perpetual work via contract amendments is a long-standing tried and true technique employed by the City of Port Angeles. Step one: Get the council to approve a project and a relatively small consulting contract that accompanies the project. As time goes by, start adding change order after change order after amendment after amendment, each one increasing the size of the consultant's pay. Instead of going back for competitive pricing, the holder of the original contract has the exclusive lock on all of the work and the money until the project is finally completed --- usually for WAY over the original estimate and budget. (See also, Herrerra, above; and Exeltech - not mentioned by Anon 1:11, but another great example.)
Cascadia Law Group has been making lots of money from the city for many years. Cascadia Principal members Rod Brown and his former and now-again partner Jay Manning (who was formerly head of Ecology and then Chief of Staff for Governor Gregoire) work mostly as lobbyists and influence peddlers. Yes, they are lawyers and they supposedly come with "environmental credibility" (to people who don't know better), but they sold out any of their environmental-protection scruples long ago. The City and Port used them behind the scenes when they were plotting to create HarborWorks. They are apparently still using them now, probably in an effort to try to get money from the state or leniency from Ecology relating to harbor pollution.
Thank you for your obviously informed and very intelligent addition to the conversation. Would that City Council meetings operated at such a high level.
DeleteWOW Anon 5:49, thank you so much! I had a feeling that this kind of thing was going on from looking at the "budget". And, from seeing consultants in more than one department, and line item (another way to fatten the budget, make it less readable for most people AND hide things...usually people see a name for the second time and think "oh yeah, heard of them" without realizing that it was previously in the same document). Bunch of small fish in a small pond thinking they're something by hiring a lot of expensive consultants, meanwhile, the consultants figuring it's easy money, just shine them on and feed the little egos. Damn.
DeleteSpent years and years reading budgets and auditing, for consulting work. I would ask for all the numbers broken down by vendor, and by department, and by budget projected v.s. actual. (That made them sweat.) And, also wanted income statements so that I could tell if they were on a sinking ship, or just messy with their money. It is very hard to tell from the way the council budget is written if there are any controls at all, or if things are being obscured for a reason. Why put the actual LINE ITEM amounts for Century Link, but not for bigger projects/payouts? Why are some vendors paid in several places? Is everything paid from one big slush fund (General Fund) and if so, why would this be, when at the same time the city is paying for some pretty damn expensive software packages? (General Fund single source payment was common when everything was hand done...not now, not with infinite spreed sheet capabilities.) This is nonsense, and to put the biggest bills far, far in the back tells me it was done to make people's eyes glaze over. Unless you get a THRILL from working with numbers (few people do) this is designed to be deliberately obtuse. Our city council is clearly made up of a group of dunces. Now what? You can lead a whore to water, but you can't make her drink.
ReplyDeleteI think you get to a key point with the phrase "deliberately obtuse." If these obtuse points are ever questioned, an equally obtuse answer will be given by staff, at which point 99% of the time the City Council member who has dared to ask a question will nod sagely as though their question has been answered - even if it, in fact, has not.
DeleteJust a reminder: City Council doesn't make up the budget, or probably even read it to great extent. It is city STAFF that do all this.
ReplyDeleteYes, and the staff is clearly not aware of what they are doing, because they are adding too much information in some places, and not enough in others. Clearly it's "monkey see, monkey do" from past reports. Someone, somewhere initiated this nutty way to do a budget, and honestly, it's rooted in the 1970's. Really caveman number crunching here...have they heard of COMPUTERS?
Deletehmm.. so city staff are the premier culprits? Those individuals handpicked by our elected reps? So: we elect persons to represent us and they handpick other persons to oversee, clean up, clarify, make nice, legitimize their policy decisions. So: we give some people some money to make our town a better place and they appoint other persons that they think can follow through. and theres SO much money flowing, so many zeros after the sums that nobody thinks anything of a 40 dollar steak dinner, or 100 dollar taxi ride or a 1000 dollar plane trip or a 10000 dollar vacation or a 100000 dollar change in the zoning laws.....and so on ad infi-politicum
ReplyDeletebtw anonymus 542 the quote is "horse" not whore...
ReplyDeleteActually, the quote (from Dorothy Parker) goes: "You can lead a whore to culture, but you cannot make her think."
DeleteI know the Parker quote....and, am quite familiar with the “the mistress of the verbal hand grenade”.
DeleteShe was a member of the Algonquin Round Table -- a group of, writers, critics, actors and other characters, a loose group that met regularly for lunch. (Alexander Woollcott was probably my favorite critic in the group.) The Dorothy Parker quote came about in response a word game, and her challenge was to use horticulture in a sentence.
I was actually twisting the two phrases between the original (lead a horse to water.... and lead a whore to culture).
Its sarcasm.
In this instance I'd prefer another Parker famous quote: “Tell him I was too f—ing busy, or vice versa”
I thought it was "horticulture"
DeleteAs a small note of interest...I get all sorts of information from Google about how people search for and find this sight. Checking said information, I just learned that someone got here after searching for "Sue Robards, Port Angeles WA." So hi, Sue! Sorry they spelled your name wrong, but at least they got here. Wonder why they were searching for you?
ReplyDeleteGoodness gracious...who would want to find HER?
DeleteFinders keepers. Now, take her away and don't bring her back.
DeleteWow! Russ and crew can submit $50k in bills in one two week period, on top of the $300k plus they get each year, and it goes right on by with hardly a rise. But $40 for a steak dinner? Outrageous!
ReplyDeleteOkay.
If I'm reading the tone of your post correctly, you seem to think that people aren't upset over the fifty grand going to the chamber, but are upset over Pat Downie's dinner. That seems a wrong reading of the posts here. I think we're all generally angry about BOTH.
DeleteAnd yes, I DO think a $40 dinner is outrageous. If the taxpayers are paying for your meal, then it's your job to get the cheapest thing you can find on the menu. Especially if the city you represent often pleads poverty, as Port Angeles does, and especially if you present yourself as someone who minds the nickels and dimes and is a fiscal conservative, as Downie does.
CK, pardon the out of place comment.
ReplyDeleteSeems PA Untied or United,whatever, made an obvious move today,(the old Tim Smith?), "away from" letting the Chamber and Downtown continue to "spend, spend, spend, waste, waste, waste public tax dollars" today. WOW!? What's the report?
Was anybody there that saw it happen?
Or do we have to wait and see if and what PDN "reports"?
Working on it...
DeleteJust found the port angeles united website. It's not .com,
Deletesee .net and .org
Yes, but there's nothing there. Once it's up and running, it'll be interesting to see how they spin themselves...
DeleteOdd, there actually looked like quite a bit of stuff earlier this morning, but was in a hurry and didn't have time to look at details.
DeleteRight now there's nothing anywhere?