County corruption County corruption ADVERTISING In reference to your front-page article in today’s Tribune Herald (“Pricey county contract raises eyebrows,” June 14), it would appear that the County of Hawaii would have a strong legal case to attach the bond
County corruption
In reference to your front-page article in today’s Tribune Herald (“Pricey county contract raises eyebrows,” June 14), it would appear that the County of Hawaii would have a strong legal case to attach the bond of the consultant, Engineering Projects Inc., for the cost overruns in their estimate of the air-conditioning project that the people of the county are going to have to pay for thanks to the sole-source bid, in addition to the potential expense and payments involved for any civil suits brought against the county for a fraudulent bid advertisement.
The questions that should be asked here are: What were the county’s requirements for the engineering consultant; did the county require the consultant to be bonded or carry malpractice or liability insurance; how much did the county pay Engineering Projects Inc.; is the consultant related by blood or money to any key county officials; and what county official reviewed the bid proposal before it was offered out to bid?
If a civil action is brought against the county for unfair practices or public corruption due to the fact that the consultant’s estimate was 25 percent of the apparent actual cost and county officials knew, or should have known, that awarding such a bid would appear to be a fraudulent action, who is going to pay?
After watching all the United States’ top officials testify before Congress in the past couple of weeks, it appears that our county government is exactly like the federal government — nobody knows nothing, nobody is accountable for anything, and organized public corruption wins again.
But, I guess if the press refuses to report the truth, and the county government and county police department can deprive the people of Hawaii of their constitutional rights and freedoms to petition the government in redress of grievance …. against (county officials) for theft of public funds, then the “old boy network” — or the “unmentionables,” as identified by criminal defense attorney Gerard Lee Loy in a Oct. 20, 2012, letter to the editor article titled, “Walk the talk” — wins again, and the people are left to pay the price.
Dan Cole
Hilo
Fees too high
The vehicle registration fee was raised 100 percent!
We need our vehicles to go to work, pick up our children, etc., so you have more funds for highway repairs and maintenance. The County of Hawaii paves side roads that do not have heavy traffic, but has two machines that can’t pave some of the more important roads.
The fuel tax is supposed to be allocated for highways. We do not have the pocketbook for any more fees!
B. Chong
Hilo
