Mmmmm....Peter....did you get the memo about the cover sheet for the TPS report???

And you thought the Camera Bid was a sealed deal and went to the lowest bidder...not so fast. The former bidders just received this notice from Nagin's department of purchasing:

Attn:

Re: Bid Proposal 2231-00211 - WIRELESS SURVEILLANCE CAMERA SYSTEM

Dear

Please be advised that the City of New Orleans withdraws any offer of award of contract and cancels the above captioned bid proposal due to the lack of a responsive bid. Public Bid Law R.S. § 38:2212 states that award be made to the lowest responsible bidder who had bid according to the specifications.

The Wireless Surveillance Camera System bid, section 2. Bid Instructions, G. Required Bid Package Contents (5) requires “The bidder’s (1) written statement and (2) supporting documentation evidencing and confirming the Contractor’s licensing, permits, and authority to render the specified services.” All bids lacked a State of Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal, Code Enforcement, and Building Safety Property Protection license as required by R.S. § 40:1664.4.A.

A new bid may be released for a wireless surveillance camera system in the near future.

Thank you for competing.

Sincerely,

Purchasing Administrator

cc: Reginald Zeno
Fred Wild




So the bid was won by the lowest bidder....but.....he forgot to put a cover sheet on his TPS (totally pointless shit) report. Nice.

The license in question is apparently a minor requirement which could be obtained rather easily. I would love to hear if the bidder was notified that this requirement was missing before the city killed the bid.

Now Nagin can re-bid it and push it back to Netmethods or even worse...issue an emergency procurement and just give the contract to Netmethods.

Oh what twisted webs they weave.

a short hiatus

have to take blogging break for a week or two...gotz to TCB.

Edwards vision for N.O.

I am posting this because so far, Edwards is the only candidate I've seen who has actually spelled out a vision for New Orleans. Here it is:

Building One America Starts in New Orleans

“We are not the country of the Superdome in New Orleans after Katrina. We can prove it by fulfilling our moral responsibility to get New Orleans back on its feet.”
– John Edwards


Twenty-two months after President Bush promised to rebuild New Orleans on national TV from Jackson Square, vast stretches of the city and St. Bernard Parish remain deserted. Based on mail delivery data, the city’s population is barely 60 percent of what it once was and according to the latest data from FEMA, more than 80,000 families from the Gulf are still living in FEMA trailers. [GNOCDC/Brookings, 2007; FEMA, 4/12/07; FEMA, 5/24/07]

The pace of recovery is slow. The displaced African-American population, in particular, has been slow to return. The economy is growing stronger, but the availability of affordable housing and services are significant barriers to residents returning. Employment is down in the sectors where many moderate-income displaced residents worked, like health care and the public sector, including education. Murders have spiked. At the end of this past school year, only 45 percent of New Orleans public schools operating pre-Katrina had re-opened. [GNOCDC/Brookings, 2007]

John Edwards began his Road to One America tour in New Orleans because the challenge of building One America starts right here. Edwards announced a three-part plan for rebuilding the city: (1) rebuilding infrastructure – housing, schools, and hospitals – that is built to last so that people have something to come back to, (2) creating jobs to bring them back , (3) making the city safe from storms – with levees that can withstand another Katrina, and strengthening public safety to keep residents safe from crime.


Rebuild an Infrastructure That Is Built to Last

The rebuilding of infrastructure is stalled. New Orleans needs new hospital and clinics, schools and roads. Some say we can put off rebuilding the infrastructure until people move back. But that is putting the cart before the horse – people aren’t moving back because the infrastructure isn’t there. Today, Edwards proposed plans to:

Build a New Veterans’ Hospital Downtown: The Veterans Administration is trying to decide where to build its new regional medical center. There is no better place for America to fulfill its commitment to those who have sacrificed for our country than in the city of New Orleans. Edwards called on the VA to stop delaying site selection and choose downtown New Orleans, and then fast-track the design process so construction can begin. Constructing the new hospital downtown – to recognized flood-safe specifications – will enhance development of the downtown medical district, create hundreds of construction jobs for local residents and bring back health care workers to the city.

Build a 21st Century Infrastructure: Sadly, New Orleans is still far away from restoring basic infrastructure, much less an infrastructure to compete in the 21st century. Only 17 percent of pre-Katrina buses are operating in the city -- a figure that remains unchanged since March of 2006. Less than 30 percent of pre-Katrina acute care hospital beds are open. There is a particular crisis in mental health. The number of psychiatric care beds has fallen from 450 to 80, and suicides are up 300 percent. [GNOCDC/Brookings, 2007; LA Times, 4/30/07; Citation]

Integrate New Housing: We must end the old racial and economic isolation of pre-Katrina New Orleans. Edwards supports the construction of affordable rental and owner-occupied housing in economically integrated housing. He will increase federal funding for housing vouchers and the HOPE VI neighborhood revitalization program, and he will tie federal housing and transportation funding to state and local efforts to reform zoning and housing laws and promote effective transportation policies. That way, the poor housing that separated hundreds of thousands of city residents from good jobs, good schools and good health care – and new isolation of trailer homes – will be a thing of the past.

Preserve Livable Housing: One of the most urgent problems is the lack of affordable housing, but HUD wants to demolish livable public housing projects. We need more mixed-income housing, but Edwards opposes knocking down livable apartments until replacement units are ready. [AP, 6/7/07]



Create Good Jobs to Bring People Back

Create Good Jobs: Displaced New Orleans residents will not return unless there are good jobs to return to. Edwards will make sure the jobs of rebuilding New Orleans carry good, local prevailing wages. He has proposed hiring 50,000 Gulf Coast residents to fill stepping stone jobs dedicated to rebuilding infrastructure that will help local and returning residents gain skills and experience.

Protect Workers from Contractor Exploitation: The private contractors hired to repair damaged infrastructure have routinely exploited the local workforce. One study found that up to 60 percent of construction workers are being cheated out of wages. Unlike most states, Louisiana does not enforce wage violations because the state does not have its own minimum wage law. And the U.S. Department of Labor only had four bilingual investigators last year. Edwards will revive the Department of Labor, creating a new wage and hour taskforce to target the industries with the worst abuses.


Make the City Safe

It’s unreasonable to expect the people of New Orleans to return to a city that isn’t safe. And we have seen the cost of cutting corners. We can’t help New Orleans recover unless we help make New Orleans safe. Edwards is committed to protecting the city and the region from weather and from crime:

Protect the Gulf from Another Major Storm: The Army Corps has missed its deadlines for planning new levees. Now we are in the middle of the second hurricane season after Katrina and the city is not safe. The current target for the Army Corps of Engineers -- to protect against a 100-year storm – is inadequate. It would not have stopped Katrina, and global warming is raising the risk of future catastrophic storms. As president, Edwards will do whatever is necessary to ensure that Katrina never happens again. That means stronger levees and the restoration of coastal wetlands -- a natural barrier for storm surges that also protect ports, refineries, and other infrastructure. [Engineering News-Record, 11/6/06]

Strengthen Public Safety to End the Epidemic of Crime and Violence: Following Katrina, New Orleans has experienced an epidemic in violence. The homicide rate has shot up over the last year. The homicide rate is 15 times higher than New York City; there were 161 murders reported last year, but only one murder conviction. The police are still working out of trailers and rely on the help of the National Guard to keep the peace. Edwards will make sure the city takes as much responsibility as it can bear, while providing it with the funding it needs to make the streets safe again. [CSLJ, 2007; NOPD, 2007]

Paid for by John Edwards for President.

HEY YOU....HERE...NOW!!!

5:30 A.M. Monday at the Cabildo....yes you, bitch. Get up and go....or stay up with me all night Sunday.

uuhhh

dooby dooby dooooo.....

BAM!!!

I just got this from Midura's office:

July 12, 2007

Eddie Jordan

District Attorney

1340 Poydras Street

Suite 700

New Orleans, LA 70112

Dear Mr. Jordan:

I am writing to you today to respectfully request that you resign from the office of Orleans Parish District Attorney.

I have no doubts about your intentions or your dedication or your character. By all accounts you are a fine man. But the job of District Attorney is an admittedly difficult one with heavy responsibility and requires more than most fine men are capable of. After the events of the last 48 hours, which have eroded the public’s confidence in your ability to carry out the responsibilities of the District Attorney, I am asking that you resign from office. An elected official’s legitimacy and moral authority to govern is derived from the consent of the governed. I no longer believe you have the consent and support from the public required to perform your duties adequately.

I do not know that there is any excuse for dropping charges against a quintuple murderer without a thorough exhaustion of all possibilities to prevent such a thing from happening. Months ago you and Superintendent Riley pledged to the City Council several reforms and improvements in your lines of communication to ensure that lack of coordination between your offices would no longer lead to dropped cases against those who pose serious threats to our public safety. It has become all too clear that you have been unable to hold up your end of this bargain. Mr. Jordan, you must know as well as any of your fellow New Orleanians the great urgency our city feels in combating the violent crime problem. We have lost the room for these kinds of error. I thank you for your service and your efforts as District Attorney, yet I maintain my request on behalf of my constituents that you resign your office as soon as possible.

Sincerely,


Shelley Midura


cc: Mayor C. Ray Nagin

New Orleans City Council

This post has absolutely nothing to do with David Vitter...

Unless you count the title :)

If you wanna stay tuned to that action then get over to Oyster's house....I think he's officially become ground zero for all things Vitty. He's accrued more information in the past few days on Vitty than our DA's office could have garnered in the past 4 years....which brings me to this....

While we were all caught up in Vitty's libido , did you happen to notice this TP story on Nagin lambasting Eddie Jordan?

I love this:

"This pattern from the District Attorney's Office is unacceptable and must improve immediately or I will ask the Attorney General to conduct a full investigation into this office."

Ray, Ray, Ray....do you really want the Attorney General to start conducting investigations? Do you know something about Jordan's office that we don't? Are you foreshadowing Eddie's demise or just throwing random daggers to make yourself feel better about our prolific murder rate?

I have a hunch....I recently found out that Ellenese Brooks Simms not only wore a wire with Mose...but 8 other people...that's right....8. Who are those 8 people? Could Eddie be one of them? Why Jordan you ask?

If he is implicated in the Simm's fallout....the answer may lie with Cynthia Willard Lewis' father, Elliot "Doc" Willard.

Doc was given a "PR" job with Jordan's office shortly after Eddie fired all the honkys on his staff...Doc was also an NOPS board member. Now the real problem with Ellenese is that she has a really big mouth and she liked to brag about how powerful she was....she told more than one person that Jordan had laid the law down with Doc that if he valued his job he "will vote with Ellenese...period....no questions asked." I'm not sure if that is criminal or not....it's certainly unethical...I don't know what the crime would be though....extortion, maybe?

I bring this up because I have a hard time believing Nagin would attack Jordan publicly and call for an "investigation" unless he smelled blood.

So another Zombie prediction.....Jordan is on the Feds radar in the Simms' fallout. That's just a guess....we'll see.

Vitty Cent received a pardon from the Executive Branch

"This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible," Vitter said in the statement. "Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling. Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there -- with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way."

How does he know God pardoned him? Livingston got the political death sentence just for having an affair...how come God is letting Vitty skate on hoin' around? I think we need to impeach God immediately for obstruction of justice.

Vitty Cent just can't stop gettin' his freak on

WASHINGTON (AP) Sen. David Vitter acknowledges his phone number was on the phone records of the escort service run by alleged "D.C. Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey.

Hey, you....pay attention...

my personal favorite blogger notices the Ron Paul phenomenon....please make sure you do to:

"Like it or not, Ron Paul is now a major candidate for the Republican Nomination. I like him. Many don't. A lot of dickhead reporters are trying to pigeonhole him as a "second tier" or "third tier" candidate. This should serve notice that they are dead wrong. Anyone who doesn't understand Ron Paul doesn't understand what conservatives used to stand for. His strain of conservative belief will show up more and more in the Republican Party.....I hope."


I'm not a disciple of Paul's party but please pay attention.....the man speaks truth while so many in the Republican party are cowering in fear.

I'm still waiting for this voice in my own party...

who is it?

What Eshu demands

there's a broken bone under there too....yousa....it still hurts....it hurts so good

What a Pussy

I'm still waiting...here....puss, puss, puss, puss....slither on out from under that rock and do something besides just hissing. How pathetic.

in the meantime, read this:

anonymous said...

Nagin is safe from federal prosecutors because he "wired up" to get dirt on his former Brass Hockey partners, Pimpy Bare and Rodney Roy, who were also contract cronies of Morial. Nagin did an "Ellenese," long before the school board president was disgraced. Your mayor secretly recorded conversations and got a "free pass," from the feds because they wanted dirt on Morial, who was a much more formidable (democrat) politician than Nagin could ever dream to be. Morial pulled Mary Landrieu through the narrowest election victory when Landrieu was first elected to the U.S. Senate in the mid 90s. . . Nagin's endorsement has proved to be the kiss of death for politicians looking to get elected to office.

No wonder people believe Karl Rove's fingerprints are all over the New Orleans "corrpution" investigation. Unfortunatly Rove's fingerprints and giving White House friendly Nagin a pass undermine the whole friggin system of justice and any faith we might want to have in it. We'll know it's fair when one of Nagin's cronies gets nailed (Mef, where are you?) because there are rotten apples in every bunch, and we all know that the holier than thou band of thieves Nagin has surrounded himself with has violated the law to line their own pockets.

and this:

bayoustjohndavid said...

I know that there's plenty of illegal stuff going on, some of the stuff involving professional services contracts that seems to be legal under state law might not be legal under the RICO law or other statutes involving quid pro quos (quids pro quo?), but it takes a long time for the illegal stuff to make it to court. In the meantime, people could do more to point out that blatant cronyism -- I think I'm the only person to point it out in the case of Metro disposal, the landfill deal and the garbage contracts. Public pressure can sometimes speed up the wheels of justice.

Morial was out of office before any of his cronies went to court, and I think Nagin is potentially far worse. Think about it, most liberals believe in some sort of minority preferences in government contracting. Most conservatives believe in privatizing government services when possible. But honest liberals admit to the potential for minority preferences to cover for graft and cronyism and honest conservatives admit the same about privatization. Nagin has been trying to privatize everything in sight and he signed an executive order mandating increased minority participation in government contracts last Summer. Nagin implicitly acknowledged the potential for graft when said, "with transparent spending policies in place..." before signing that order. Of course, his spending policies have been about as transparent as Mississippi River water.