Flint To Rescind Lead Pipe Contract From Lowest Bidder And Award It To Politically-Connected Firm, Delaying Fixes
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
For the second time, the city of Flint, Michigan, is poised to reject the results of its contract bidding process after an experienced local firm provided the lowest offer.
“This is unethical, it is bid rigging, and I certainly won’t be a part of this,” city Councilwoman Eva Worthing said during a Tuesday meeting. “Does council and the city want to deal with a lawsuit over unfair bidding practices by this city? This is favoritism, cronyism … This is basically a sham, it’s unethical, and if council votes [to rescind this contract we signed], we’re in trouble.”
Residents may have to wait six months longer for repairs because WT Stevens — the company owned by the wife of a former NBA player and which Worthing suspects may have a corrupt relationship with Flint politicos — is still months behind schedule on finishing the last water contract the city gave it, the low-bidding company, Goyette Mechanical, said.
“The mayor wants us to take away Goyette’s bid and just give it to WT Stevens,” Worthing said during the meeting.
On Monday, Mayor Karen Weaver’s administration abruptly said it would rescind the $12 million contract from Goyette Mechanical, a local firm with 90 years of experience that specializes specifically in municipal water. On Tuesday, it asked the city council to approve the move, but uproar from multiple factions of the city council led to discussions being tabled until July 8.
The city of less than 100,000 has collected more than $647 million in state and federal aid for what is often described as a public health emergency. But when the money reaches City Hall, officials have repeatedly made decisions that have severely slowed the progress of fixing the water pipes, decisions that have had the side effect of sending more money to WT Stevens’ coffer
Mayor Karen Weaver and city Councilman Eric Mays have bragged that WT Stevens is black-owned, with Mays saying Flint “broke records for giving black folks money.” Goyette is white-owned.
WT Stevens was initially ineligible to do any work for the city’s water lines because it allegedly had no relevant experience, as required under the bid specs. Mays arranged to get around that requirement by attaching a Detroit-based engineer with water-main skills, Ellis Monk, as a subcontractor, Monk told the DCNF. Monk said the workaround did little to actually help Flint residents.
WT Stevens “hired people [with] no experience, some of them seemed like they were fresh out of jail,” he said. “They’re drilling every which way, junk flying everywhere.”
Then, in 2017, phase four of work was bid out, and Goyette was the lowest bidder for all 10 zones. But the city council threw out the winning bid and started over. Councilwoman Kate Fields said the rationale was vague and that “my opinion is that this … has been corrupted once again.”
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More Democrat corruption in flint? Colour me shocked.
Flint will always be the shithole it is. The corruption runs to deep. I wonder who will be the governor the next time the state needs to step in and try to reign in the cities corruption?
Forget the town.
They know they have a Democratic Governor and a Democratic AG. Let the good times roll. No oversight from the state will be forthcoming. Michigan tax payers will get hosed again.