By James Jensen
The scam that was (and is) the massive infrastructure project is already cracked, leaking, and spilling out over the taxpayers in Seal Beach.
The “paid expert” hired by Public Works to sell the council and residents on this massive steal defiantly told the council and complaining citizens that the money from 2020 was not wasted, but that it has brought us a group of “shovel-ready” jobs.
THAT is all we have to show for that money. How is that working?
The first of these “shovel-ready” jobs exceeded its budget by over 2 million dollars before the whole plan was even voted on. This would have been disqualifying of both that “paid expert” and the head of our Public Works, as well as the rest of their projected budgets … if it hadn’t been kept a secret from the council and residents before the vote.
Manager of Public Works Lee, City Manager Gallegos, along with our city Attorney Ghirelli, (who by the way, needs to be reminded what Legal Responsibility is and whom he works for), kept that major error in a budgeted project in the bill a secret.
This is a legal failure on their part as part of Prop 218 and likely the Brown Act.
As we proceed this gets even messier.
Only a few weeks later, they asked for 7.3 million dollars to green light that project instead of the 4.45 million as the voted for plan called for.
So now the pipe has burst and the sewage has begun to spill over tax payers as Public Works admitted to the incompetence they continually display by getting the council to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to outsource the bid process from square one on this first “shovel-ready” job.
YEP, we will get our next rate “adjustment” (see HUGE INCREASE), before the first “shovel-ready” job even goes to bid!
Let that soak into the rags and towels you are wiping this mess up with. This job will most likely end up in the range of 9 million dollars when, and if, finished.
So, there you have the absolute disaster that is the very first of the “shovel-ready” projects. This massive infrastructure scam has already devolved into chaos in a matter of a few weeks. What does this bode for the rest of the “shovel-ready” projects and all the others with only the best guess by our expert in Public Works and the company she paid a huge amount of our tax dollars to jam this through council?
Councilman Steele called those of us who paid attention and begged the council to be conservative “angry voters”, and spent time promoting both Public Works Director Lee and her paid henchman as true experts.
This Mr. Steele hasn’t “aged well” as the kids say … or maybe they would call it an “Epic Fail”.
