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Show Tere a i se for News Ss Source PAGE 23 oT et Courier Editorial _ |_ Sins of Commission and Omission Purchasing Policy irregularities ~ OPINION EDITOR HEBER - ‘Just last week The Courier learned that the Utah State Legislative Auditor has begun looking into the special service districts in Wasatch County. To give our readers a bet-— ter understanding of what irregularities may be found, we have compared the purchasing pol- ah ae | ae | ar: not eyen have a purchasing — refute bids of any type. ! , ee ee costing more than $10,000.00 but less than © -$50,000.00 in total shall require two telephone bids. Any procurement in excess of $25,000 shall require a Any procurement in excess of $100,000 shall require a legal notice in a local newspaper of general circulation. legal notice in.a local newspaper of general circulation. RICK ABBRUZZESE “T think we need less closed meetings around here.” | GORDON PURCELL “Cant change it. The Good Ol’ Boy network is still too strong. The planning around here sucks! Both Heber and the County decide who is going to live here based on how they define low income housing.” eS aT Foes mr ei i JOHN WISNER. “Around here? Start at the top, and get rid of ilicuiecst 3 = for special service districts i pees ges held cos Monday at 2:00 p.m. in the = = si = County the county. = ae te Ks eeactan — pee = Sera nr david MAISEYee to all of them. There is no machines, not ballots consistency, and no for voting. There is too planning. ” much singular power here. A lot of this stuff should be put to a vote. The common man has little or no voice right 7 noi eee SDPO SI OS Their Administration LAVENTURE TONERET SRTORS. = has oversight responsibilities ROLAND “FRENCHIE” “We need to go = _ The County Commission within Purchases costing more than $500 but less than $5,000 in total, shall require 2 to 3 telephone bids. | Section B3 = policy until 1998. Pirchases costing less than $10,000.00 in total, shall not require bids of any type. Section A2 : Twin Creeks SSD Purchases costing less than $500 in total, det not | Other than the higher dollar amount, the Twin Creeks ‘purchasing policy is.a word for word clone of the county’s purchasing policy. These high limits of the Twin Creeks SSD’s purchasing policy haye created the potential for serious abuse. We suspect that the citizens living within the Twin Creeks SSD boundaries may be paying more for services than citizens in other districts with more competitive purchasing policies. It is also possible some contractors and vendors have taken advantage of this extremely loose purchasing policy to line their own pockets. Dan Matthews was the attorney for Twin Creeks SSD when this purchase cole was drafted. Twin Creeks SSD did z ‘Article3---_ | Wasatch County Section Al — employment. icy of Wasatch County with that of the Twin Creeks Special Service District (SSD). By SAM ALLEN aa 1 Thyere its power to intimidate those within it to enforce a code of silence. ries ih network is a _ Some of the old boys will give you some ‘inated into what is going on. They know it is wrong but feel powerless to do anything about it. And how can you blame them? In their jobs they have to work with other good old boys on a day to se basis. Like they say in China, the nail that sticks up gets hammered down. 7 We think the county commissioners are, at heart, a good group of men who wouldn’t intentionally harm the county. However they seem more than willing to overlook the abuses of some of their good old boy friends. It is time they took a more active role in identifying abuses and cleaning up the system. Just looking the other way won’t cut it any more. There are reporters from Salt Lake news agencies crawling around the valley. The Legislative Auditor has started an investigation into _ Wasatch County special service districts. We hear that other state agencies are looking at Wasatch County. Issues may be uncovered which could ruin the county’s bond rating. Legal judgements by parties with claims against the county could force it into bankruptcy. The people who may have caused this problem still work for the county or its political subdivisions. The county should seriously reconsider their continued ; while ago we received a book compiled by some local activists containing county and special service district documents generally unavailable to the public and press. While reviewing it we have started calling it the “Book of Sins.” We used the term sins instead of crimes because in these days of OJ and Clinton you can be as guilty as sin but apparently not guilty of a crime. These acts may not be “crimes” but are at the least unethical. The book contains some wonderfully insightful documents which answer many questions and raise many more. As with most sins there are sins of commission, sins in which you are an active participant, for example theft and conflict of interest. Then there are sins of omission, sins you know are being committed and do nothing to stop or set right. In this county we | have both. As much as we dislike the term, there is a “good old boys” network aes That is the way a lot of things get done in the county. In the past it may have even been a good thing. Things got accomplished which other wise probably wouldn’t have. But now the good old boys network is being used to enrich a select few. In addition the } County’ ’ Cane AuGusT 3, 1999 rear )PINI ON : ee Sole eine MRL Veer | 3 654-4009 midway 783-CARE kamas ~ = = |