Noblesse oblige ?? Noblesse o'bilgewater !!

Hey Folks -

Here's how it works!!

The local Titans are playing with the people again (building a new baseball field), developing the "big picture," acting out their patriarchal benevolence fantasies ("corporate donations" - "doing what's best" for the underlings by doing what's best for themselves).

In the process, the Franklin County Commissioners have been attacked for choosing a union contactor to perform a miniscule part of the construction.

Below is first: my letter to the editor; followed by the first, earlier article reporting the matter; followed by the latest editorial (which came after a suit to block the commissioners' decision had been thrown out of court, and which elicited my letter).

- Uke Man


To the Editor,

Over the years whenever a tax on business is proposed the Dispatch has editorialized that “businesses don’t pay taxes; consumers do.”

Well, if that’s true, then businesses don’t make donations either; consumers do. If businesses shouldn’t be taxed because the cost is “passed on to the consumer” by higher prices; then businesses have no business making “donations” which could have been used to help the consumer by lowering prices.

So, why then, in the continuing hubbub over building the new baseball field, have we not seen an editorial denouncing the $48 million of “corporate donations” reported Jan.5 by Barbara Carmen?

Why is it that the charge of “wasting” $215,000 of taxpayers’ money on union workers is newsworthy, but the charge of "wasting" $48,000,000 of consumers’ money is never even mentioned?

And, with Columbus facing a tight fiscal future, maybe it’s time to look at how much of the money corporations have in hand to “donate” has been generated by shifting corporate tax responsibility to the citizens – as, for example, with the hockey rink. (Uke-note: the newspaper is a 10% owner of the rink)

Tom Harker



BALLPARK BIDDING CHALLENGED AGAIN
Low bidder upset that commissioners plan to hire union contractor; lawsuit possible

Saturday, January 5, 2008
By Barbara Carmen
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Franklin County commissioners, accused two months ago of trying to steer a construction contract on their new ballpark to a union company, are being challenged by another low bidder crying foul for the same reason.

"If they award this contract to someone else, the taxpayers of Franklin County will pay no less than $215,000 more for these contracts," said Ed O'Brien, Columbus regional manager for TP Mechanical Contractors Inc.

"I'm not pleased with paying taxes to start with. To see them wasting it just upsets me."
Commissioners expect to hire W.G. Tomko on Tuesday, opening the county to a possible lawsuit that could delay construction of Huntington Park.

The $55 million stadium, being built with corporate donations and about $7 million from Ohio taxpayers, is set to open in the Arena District for the 2009 baseball season.

TP, a nonunion, Ohio-based company, bid $4,349,874 for the plumbing job and a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning package. It was the lowest combined bid.

But commissioners now say they want to separate the jobs, which they are allowed to do, and pay at least $4,564,666 to the new individual low bidders.

Commissioners insist they based their decision on policy, not politics. They say TP repeatedly violated state prevailing-wage laws, had worrisome worker-safety violations and has a reputation for bidding low and returning with price increases.

A Dispatch search of public records found that TP Mechanical had four prevailing-wage violations in 2005.

A county policy set in 2002 -- when two Republicans sat on the now-all-Democratic board -- said contractors can't have more than three prevailing-wage violations in two years.

But O'Brien said prevailing-wage violations are common because nonunion shops are audited on almost every job, and the rules and paperwork are complex. He said TP has two full-time employees doing nothing but compliance.

He said change orders that increased the price of jobs came from clients or architects, not his company.

The four wage violations in question required TP to pay $4,000 in wages to employees, or 0.08 percent of the total labor costs of $5.3 million.

TP's errors are minor compared with the potential contract savings, said Brian J. Ellis, president and chief operating officer of Nationwide Realty Investors, the county's representative to ensure construction is completed properly and within budget.

Elllis said he's concerned about any delay in approving contracts. "We don't have a lot of margin for error here," Ellis said. "We're out of time."

Commissioners' safety concerns also aren't justified, TP's O'Brien said. TP has paid one fine, of $650, since it broke off from its bankrupt parent company in 2003. It had failed to cover a trench in a floor, which was fenced off. No one was injured.

Tomko, because it has been in business for 55 years, has many more violations cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. In 2006, a Pennsylvania worker was crushed to death by a track-hoe bucket. OSHA fined Tomko more than $23,000 for four serious violations in that accident.

A spokeswoman for Bill Tomko III said the company immediately revamped its training and procedures to comply with OSHA regulations.

Mary Tebeau, president of Associated Builders and Contractors, which represents 125 union and nonunion companies in central Ohio, said she's convinced that commissioners are again favoring organized labor.

In November, commissioners quickly caved in after being sued by Lithko Contracting Inc., a nonunion shop. Lithko's $5.9 million low-bid contract to pour concrete for Huntington Park was $17,500 lower than Baker Construction, a union shop.

"It seems like they're trying to do the same thing," Tebeau said.

TP is talking with its lawyers.

Don L. Brown, Franklin County administrator, defended going with Tomko.
"This is not about union vs. a merit or nonunion shop. It's about following the county's quality-contracting standards that have been in place since 2002," he said.

He said several nonunion companies have won bids on the ballpark.

bcarmen@dispatch.com


Legal, but not wise
County commissioners stick ballpark investors with an expensive decision
Friday, January 18, 2008

A judge ruled Monday that the Franklin County commissioners' decision to ignore a lower bid and award a plumbing contract for the new Downtown ballpark to union contractor W.G. Tomko is legal. But the judge was not asked to rule on whether that contract is in the best interests of the taxpayers and private-sector investors in the ballpark, who will pay an extra $215,000 for the commissioners' decision.

Two of the three commissioners reasoned that the lowest bidder, nonunion shop TP Mechanical Contractors, was disqualified by a county policy prohibiting contract awards to any company that has violated the prevailing-wage law more than three times in the past two years. TP Mechanical had four violations in 2005, in which it failed to pay about $4,000 of a total project payroll of $5.3 million.

Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Richard A. Frye wrote, "There is no clear and convincing evidence that Franklin County used any unannounced bid criteria."

To her credit, Commissioner Paula Brooks questioned whether the county's 5-year-old policy should be set in stone or should be viewed more as a guideline.

Indeed. Any policy that forces private and public investors to pay an extra $215,000 to punish a low bidder for a $4,000 clerical error is a policy that deserves reconsideration.

One might wonder if this is the commissioners' way of setting a de facto union-shop-only policy for county construction projects. This decision could discourage nonunion contractors from bidding on future county projects, such as the new courthouse. That might be just fine with labor-friendly Democratic commissioners, but it will be no boon to the county's taxpayers, who will pay more for those projects.

Contracting policies are important for communicating the level of quality the county is seeking, but they shouldn't be slavishly followed. A policy of doing what's best for taxpayers trumps most others.