HOUSNITCH
BOY OH BOY DID WE GET A LETTER!!!!
Subj: all engines full steam ahead
Date: 9/9/99 11:30:40 PM Central Daylight Time
From:
To: housnitch@aol.com
Having tolerated a complete lack of "sensitivity" and at best mediocrity from our
"leadership" and their lack of accountability and stewardship to the proper execution of their duties, I feel I must step
up to the rail and shout into the wind only to feel the spray of futility and uncommon apathy pelt my face. It is time to secure all
stations and prepare for the coming storm. Hey be SURE & IGNORE THE PEOPLE WITH EXPERIENCE AND DEGREES......PLEASE BE SURE AND IGNORE ALL
OF THEM, High School degrees are so hard to obtain.
How much longer must the Contractors, Consultants, Citizens, and Tax Payers tolerate the
CONFLICT OF INTERESTS, the contemptuous attitudes, the privileged attitudes, the gross abuse of position and
GROSS
INCOMPETENCE of the following City of Houston Employees.
Hilda Garza Scott:
Have we forgotten the "conflict of interest" already? The fact that she has routed millions of dollars of City business to her Husband
Richard Scott through City contracts. If not criminal, then a clear violation of her Code of Ethics of her Engineers License. The
embarrassment of having someone so unqualified in such a high profile position in the 3rd largest City in the United States is unbearable.
Is it only because she is an Hispanic female? Aren't there other Hispanic female Engineers in this City that would not pass millions of
dollars in work to their Husbands who own stock in the Company in question.
Is there a reason she has been attempting to undermine and sabotage the authority and decision making process of Jerry King for over a year?
Hilda Garza Scott's Staff
Doug Bernard - Gross incompetence
Ruth Gonzales - Incompetent, Rude, Arrogant
Polly Rocha - Incompetent, Rude, Arrogant
Has anyone checked to see if these people baby sit for Hilda Scott or if they have a personal FINANCIAL involvement with Hilda Scott.
Michelle Easley Delk:
Does a friendship with Al Haines really qualify this individual. A degree in Building Technology and extremely limited experience does not qualify a
person to be on the level of a Deputy Director. Is this more of the Schindewolf era? Are there others within the City system that have
experience levels and knowledge that eclipse the limited and extremely
meager talents of this person. Does blond and perky qualify her for ANYTHING ?
Rhonda Mittelsteadt:
Is this another Jerry Dinkins. Does she have a GED or has she really achieved and actually obtained a high school degree. How many degreed
people are there that are so much more qualified and will never make
over $ 50,000 per year.
Herb Fain
It would appear that a total lack of ethics and an ability to betray and abuse all City Employees , whites, especially blacks, and
Hispanic's is the requirement for survival for this individual. An individual who is not trusted and viewed
contemptuously by all who have had personal experiences with Herb Fain.
Mayor Brown, you can do better than this. Herb Fain is despised by his fellow blacks. There's a message there. Mayor Brown, there are
hundreds of ETHICAL black Human Resources Professionals in Houston.
This fellow is a rotten apple, he's spoiling the barrel. You wonder why morale is at a all time low.
Human Resources
Don't you wish Mayor Brown could walk into the Human Resources Department in the basement of 611 Walker without being recognized, so
that he could experience the utter contempt and disregard that is heaped upon regular City employees and City of Houston taxpayers that
make the mistake of thinking they will be treated politely and with respect when they enter the Personnel Zone. This is a ship that needs
to be scuttled and start over from the bottom up.
Karen LeBack
One only has to experience this creature once to understand what Mommy Dearest was all about.
Tom Rolen
One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest. Inability to make decisions and incompetence rule...... Definitely Deputy Director
material.
Nelson Marsh
Tom Rolen's sidekick. On the level of Herb Fain. completely UNETHICAL and
CONTEMPTUOUS
Lonnie Vera
I guess its true what Lonnie says, " He doesn't answer to the Mayor, he answers to the City Charter." Is it his job to be in an adversarial
position with the entire 20,000 plus employees of the City of Houston?
Is it his job to slip issues by City Council, under the table, or whatever you want to call his long running contempt for our governing
body, the City Council Members that were elected by the TAXPAYERS that
pay his salary. Why hasn't someone put this man that puts his pants on, one leg at a time, in his place ? That place should be out on the
street.
Showri Nandagiri
What does this individual do besides delay everything? If there was ever a study in inability to get anything done, an
INCOMPETENCE BLIP the size of the Battleship of Texas on the radar screen is an
understatement. Total understanding of nothing, doer of nothing, achiever of nothing, the biggest bigot in the City system. Look at
the makeup of the racial percentile in his group. Are there any people on his Staff that aren't from the Middle East?
Dan Jones & Janet King
Are they still drawing a salary? Gee, do you really think Janet King was promoted because of her incredible business
judgment. Dan Jones, now there's a real winner, lower 10% of his High School Graduating class. Oh, but that's right, Jimmy
Schindewolf seemed to really like to promote High School graduates like Jerry
Dinkins, Rhonda Mittelsteadt and Dan Jones !!!
Lets ignore all the people that had the strength and the courage and the intelligence to go on to obtain their Bachelors, their Masters and
in some cases their Doctorates. Lets ignore these high achievers and
give the money and the power to the limited uneducated losers that operate on emotion and ignorance and their own egos.
Subj: Re: all engines full steam ahead
Date: 9/10/99 7:05:07 AM Central Daylight Time
From: HOUSNITCH
To:
My, my, my.... WE could not have said those things.....Thank you for your commentary....(with your knowledge of the inner workings of P W & E...would you care to join our team?)
Housnitch
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WE HAVE MOVEMENT READERS!!! (BUT, AS ALBERT EINSTEIN ONCE SAID...NEVER ACCEPT MOVEMENT FOR PROGRESS...AND WE DON'T) WE UNDERSTAND THAT THE MAYOR'S CITIZENS ASSISTANCE IS RECEIVING LOTS OF CALLS PERTAINING TO OUR SITE & THE WRONGS WE INFORM YOU ABOUT....CITIZENS ASSISTANCE MUST NOW KEEP A LOG OF THESE CALLS-----LET'S GIVE THEM AN EAR FULL!!!!! 713-247-1888-MR. JESSEE CANTU OR DONNA PARR--- WE WILL BE INCLUDING COUNCIL MEMBERS PHONE NUMBERS IN OUR NEXT ISSUE.
MOVING ON UP IN PUBLIC WORKS & ENGINEERING
( or...it's not WHAT you know....but WHO you know that counts!)
We hope everyone had a nice Labor day holiday. Time to get back to work. To help you along on this first day back after a long rest...we're going to look at some very interesting documents today. And we want you to help us ask the important questions when we've finished...deal? Here goes dear readers....
Let's take a look at Deputy Director Gary Oradat. Mr. Oradat comes to us from Waste Water where he was an asst. manager under Mr. Vishwa Bahl. Mr Vishwa Bahl left Waste Water after attaining the title of manager and went into the private sector. Mr Vishwa Bahl became a partner with Ratnala design consultants. Now, upon leaving Waste Water, Mr. Bahl named Gary Oradat manager to replace him. When Mayor Lee Brown came into power and reorganized Public Works & Engineering, bringing all department heads under one roof, Mr. Oradat very quickly became a Senior Asst. Director. As Senior Asst. Director he was able to properly repay his friend, Mr. Vishwa Bahl by giving his company...Ratnala & Bahl a rather large contract...(this company until Mr. Bahl joined it had never done more that $100,000 in business with the city)...
Those of us who really know...take exception to 2 statements in this request to negotiate letter....#1---is in the Selection process.. numbered #7 in the document...."Review of those firms in our PWE-100 files with structural engineering experience revealed this firm has the qualifications for this project"....WHAT??? We here in P W & E know that Ratnala & Bahl didn't even have an architect until AFTER they received this contract (when they promptly went out & hired one) If you will read a little further on you will see that we had not awarded any other contracts to this firm during the fiscal year...and yet Old friend Gary Oradat goes on to say #2 in our objections Ratnal & Bahl are "the best qualified firm for this project". Our question is HOW CAN YOU BE BEST QUALIFIED IF YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE AN ARCHITECT FOR A DESIGN PROJECT?????!!!!!!! ( Of course it doesn't hurt to have a highly placed Mayoral aide pushing for you either!!! Namaste Ya'll!!!) Mr. Gary Oradat was recently made Deputy Director Oradat by Mayor Lee Brown. (on advice of his aide no doubt)
Let's look at another of our 3 STOOGES....Mr. Showri Nandagiri, Senior Asst. Director of Capital Projects Division, Southside Infrastructure...before becoming an Senior Asst. Director Mr. Nandagiri, was at Water... Not to be left out....Mr. Showri Nandagiri sought help from one of the current administration's very good friend to help him with his advancement....we have Mr. Showri Nandagiri thank you letter here to show you....
The only reason we did not include the name of this "friend" is because we have something much bigger in store for another issue concerning this "friend" (but he is a BIG supporter of the Brown Administration!!!)...also we did trim the top & bottom of this document...as well as the following one because It had Mr. Nandagiri's home address & home phone number on it...even STOOGES shouldn't be harassed at home by the general public....
Can you say GIFT...boys & girls? Didn't some P W & E employees get into trouble under the last administration for accepting gifts?...We have been told that this Mayor "waives" the POLICY on GIFTS...so forgive us if he waived this one....still, don't we have STATE laws concerning the receipt of gifts?
Does the Mayor have the power to "waive" STATE law?
Seems
like some of us could have saved a lot of money on furthering our education if
we had only met the right people!
Now dear readers back to shelved projects...
For those readers who do not know----this is an RCA----Request for Council Action. This is how it comes to your council member.
RCA's are packaged by the Consultant. So of course they present it in the best light. NO WHERE in this RCA do you see that this Request for almost $1,000,000 is for a "shelved" project. A project that was 100% completed and placed on the shelf because funds for construction are not available---YES dear readers/ voters this design has already been done !
The original project was done for less that $450,000 . 100% completed in 1992...now granted there may have been some changes to the area in the intervening years---but this project calls for an "UPDATE"...not a complete new design. City's own engineers could have done this for a LOT less than $1,000,000. And hey....that's what we're here for!!!! Put us to work!
We do not want you to get upset with the council members. THEY are given a "pig in a poke" from the Management Consultants. WE do not need Consultants managing Consultants. It only benefits the consultants!!! Not the taxpayers or the city as a whole.
We cannot go across the street and approach a council member when we KNOW a job is wrong. We lose our job. We are told to be quiet, sign off on a project and go on to another project. BUT.....any council member can walk across the street into 611 Walker and approach a city of Houston engineer...and ask us our opinion about a project....Please council members...if you truly care about this city & it's people....make the trek. DO NOT depend on the Consultants or P W & E Directors to "do their jobs...we are proving to you right here that they AREN'T!!! The chain of command is convoluted here, the "animals are running the zoo" , the "inmates have taken over the asylum" . And the Zoo keeper/ Head Doctor has bailed out! (council members...we're also voters & taxpayers!)
We are not just critics....we as a group here at P W & E support Council Member Annise Parker's proposed amendment to the charter to give oversight & audit revue to the City Controller. (of course the Mayor is fighting this...even says there will not be room on the ballot this election for it) Come on Mayor...the ballot can be as long as YOU want it to be....QUIT allowing your employees to GIVE AWAY THE STORE!!!!!! We have some suggestions of our own for saving the city money & making sure the taxpayers receive the best quality services around---in fact we submitted them to the current director very soon after he took office...(but to no avail!) Here they are...
Help us ask the questions readers/voters...and please---keep up your comments to us we really appreciate the support we've been receiving from you all...now let's get that refrigerator cleaned out over there in P W&E...we are trying to set a standard of "clean" government...(some of those leftovers could be used to cultivate penicillin!)
http://www.ci.houston.tx.us/citygovt/council
(just in case we do have grounds for a complaint under the Hobbs Act)
mailto:john.cornyn@oag.state.tx.us