The Camera Eye doesn't lie

Gordon Russell is on the crime camera story like stink on shit.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-7/1172902991292410.xml&coll=1

Here's some of the more interesting points:

Perrin claims St. Pierre phoned him and threatened to have Southern's work in New Orleans shut down if Perrin persisted in seeking the Baton Rouge job.

Blackmail

Whatever the relative value of the services offered, this much is clear: To award the work to Veracent, the city had to depart from its normal procurement practices.

You don't say?

E-mails show that members of the Nagin administration, particularly Kurt, were concerned about a potential stink over the use of Veracent because of St. Pierre's ownership. But Nagin apparently decided that the positives of using Veracent outweighed the possible negative publicity from awarding new work to another company owned by an insider.

"Mayor has no problem using the state contractor for some of this work because this is a critical safety issue and their price saves the city money (no great concern with your former affiliation because of latter reasons)," she wrote.

This is a really important fact, because it makes it clear that Nagin is fully aware of this shit and is now complicit.

That the Veracent equipment is sold through a state contract should put the lie (to rest) to any suggestion of inside dealing at City Hall, Quiett said. The city is just trying to be frugal, she said.

Beautiful....the city's trying to be frugal? When did Nagin develop that sense of responsibility? Was this after he hired Scott Domke's brother for IT services despite the fact the guy lives in Plano, Texas? Was this after he created an unneccessary 6 figure "Director of Tourism" position which he gave to his buddy Ernest Collins (who has absolutely no experience in tourism promotion) when the city already has two well-funded, board controlled, tourism entities? Was this after the city provided a mysterious 500k cash infusion to the Municipal Yacht Harbor Corp. after Meffert popped up and offered to provide an "agenda" for them? Was this after he spent city funds and had Collins solicit funds from other city entities to take his personal photographer, Bernardo's, photo exhibit to New York....a show featuring pictures solely of Ray Nagin? Should I keep going?

Do they really expect us to beleive this isn't blatant chronyism? C,mon man.

"We're just trying to figure out how to stretch the dollars as best we can," Quiett said. "We would never put up anything that's faulty or cheap knowingly. The bottom line is public safety."

Then why are you buying cheaper cameras which may not withstand our weather conditions?

When Perrin moved toward clinching the deal in Baton Rouge, he claims that St. Pierre told him to butt out -- the implication being that if he didn't yield to NetMethods, Southern's contract with New Orleans would be in jeopardy. Perrin also alleges that officials in Baton Rouge told him they thought they were using the company that did the New Orleans work, leading Perrin to believe that NetMethods misrepresented itself.

Blackmail

On the same day, I received a call from Mark St. Pierre warning me in no uncertain terms not to interfere. The veiled threat was that the N.O. project would be terminated with the city still owing us a great deal of money."

Yeah....I'm familiar with those veiled threats as well.

"I am not very tight with the St. Pierre guys anymore due to dragging them in all this City Hall politics schmutz stuff," he (Meffert) wrote. "That's why Kurt quit, too, even though it's part of the game, I know they feel like they worked too hard to end up being called criminals."

While it's not clear who Meffert believes called the Imagine group "criminals," it's true that the intertwining relationships between city technology executives and the firms they hire has raised eyebrows in the city's technology community

Yeah it is clear....I called them that.

There is also an incredible .pdf of email corresponsdence between Kurt, Nagin, Southern Electronics, Stacy Head's office, and Christopher Horrel, an Irish Channel resident. Of note is this sentence which I noticed;



How the fuck did Netmethods get paid to install those cameras without an RFP? Or were they subcontracted by Active Solutions or Southern Electronics?

A little further down that same email....Perrin makes this statement which I believe answers the question:




"Don't let the Mayor's Office of Technology get paid to do the work we are under contract to do."

BAM motherfuckers! Mayor's office of Technology = Netmethods....They were either 1. Forcing Southern to subcontract Netmethods or 2. Just outright paying themselves to do the work Southern and Active Solutions were originally contracted to do.

It's apparent what was going on here. The Imagine crew wanted this contract....I doubt there was a damn thing Southern or Active Solutions could have done to "fix" the problem as it was in Kurt and his chronies best interest to make them look incompetent, thereby justifying the need to hand out future contracts for the camera system to Netmethods, Veracent, or whatever the fucking current incarnation of Imagine is.

ImagineANON #1....care to respond?