Bad Judgement That Leads To Good Judgement
Mark Twain once wrote “Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.” Mr. Twain sure had some good thoughts”.
“So why now?” I’ve been asked many times. “Isn’t it a little late to be bringing up this conflict of interest issue? Councilmember Schneider has been on the Council since 2004″ They go on. The construction community and other Schneider advocates are spinning my objections as being personally motivated. They say I am attacking him because I am trying to force him off the Council.
A brief history lesson is necessary to address the conspiracy theorists theories. Councilmember Schneider was elected in on May 15, 2004. The first bid he was awarded while on the Council was on June 25th, 2005. The project was the Cottonwood Lane Extension. The amount of the contract was for $424,742. I voted to award him this contract so needless to say I did not have any heartburn at that point. In retrospect I should have been concerned about his active role in Council discussions concerning this project, and other street projects, but I wasn’t. I didn’t follow the bid tabulations very closely i.e. I did not make it a practice to study the list of losing bids. Had I been checking out this list I would have seen that he was bidding on just about every project that was coming down the pipe. We all know what they say about hindsight being 20/20.
The second bid he was awarded was for a significantly greater amount. On October 25th, 2007 he was awarded the bid for Airport Business Park Improvements for $2,221,642. It was this project that I started to have real issues about this conflict of interest stuff. I was concerned about his active involvement prior to bids being solicited as well as his company being awarded the job. In September 2007 I expressed my concerns to both the City Manager and Councilmember Schneider himself. I was told that the Charter allowed this practice and that I should not be concerned. Regretfully, I fell in line and voted to award RT Schneider Construction the contract.
This brings us to the present. Those of you that have been following Council news and/or reading my blog will know that my discomfort with the whole situation has escalated significantly. I have written many posts on this blog about this topic. My first and last entries will give you a good snapshot of what I think about this issue. So where does that leave us? While I may be a day late I don’t think I’m a dollar short. The bad judgment I showed back in October 07 has helped me to understand that I was actually right back then and I am right now. From this point on I won’t be going along to get along.
Tags: City Charter, Construction contracts, Ethics