More state Ethics Board trouble

[sybylla]

http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2005/02/03/opinion/iq_3357289.txt
Another toothless gumming from the state Ethics Board

Those who contend the state Ethics Board doesn't have the teeth to get its job done got another view of gumming in action this past week. The Ethics Board reviewed allegations of a possible conflict of interest involving Acting Transportation Secretary Tom Carlsen's 2002 approval of a $600,000 no-bid contract to build a Web site on the Marquette Interchange rebuilding.

That came after it was revealed that Carlsen had more than $20,000 in stock in HNTB Corp. - the firm that got $545,000 worth of work through the no-bid contract. Carlsen collected his stockholdings in the contracting firm through its employee stock ownership plan while he was employed by HNTB as head of their Wisconsin operations for a short time, according to news reports.

He then went back to the Department of Transportation - where he had previously worked for most of his career - in the brief administration of then Gov. Scott McCallum.

The thing about this contract - as we have complained before - was that it was not given over to the bidding process as it could have been. Instead the Web site deal was cut by amending the contract for design work on the interchange work itself. Worse, state employees said they could do the work and create the Web site for less than the HNTB contract - about 25 percent less.

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What do we have to do to keep corporate fingers out of the people's till in this state?

[ewagner]

1. Thanks

I didn't know about this..........

Maybe our legilattors have to actually pass legislation that would SPECIFICALLY outlaw these kinds of contracts....