Why are Oklahoma's roads so crappy?

[Shadowrider]

Fallout or CYA? Didn't other officials sue to stop allegations brought forth in the Grand Jury? Who stopped the GJ from getting the OSBI info?

Rogers County clerk sues The Daily Progress

Claremore Daily Progress Rogers County Clerk Robin Anderson has filed a lawsuit against The Daily Progress and the newspaper’s government reporter Salesha Wilken. Anderson claims the paper painted her in a false light and invaded her privacy through the publication of three news articles between July 2012 and August 2013.
She believes the newspaper published misleading facts about the execution of her duties and in some instances wrongly implicated her in criminal wrongdoing.

The suit was filed Thursday in the Rogers County District Court by attorney Gary Richardson of Tulsa. The defendants have not been officially served notice of the litigation. Anderson claims two articles published in 2012 misrepresent the facts about her involvement in the administration of $13 million in federal funds received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA.

The Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector issued multiple reports detailing noncompliance during the administration of the grant funding. The issues included falsifying invoices and back dating documentation. Anderson also asserts Wilken falsely alleged public records were withheld from the reporter in August 2013.
Subsequently Anderson filed a harassment complaint against Wilken.

Wilken sought access to the minutes of two meetings. Anderson denied the request, claiming the records were available on her computer, but refused to print them. Anderson asked the court for both exemplary and punitive damages in excess of $75,000 plus attorney fees.

http://examiner-enterprise.com/news/state/rogers-county-clerk-sues-daily-progress

What in the sam hell is the County Clerk doing managing FEMA funds? Isn't that the County Treasurer's turf? I know they are in on Commissioners meetings and such but I've never heard of the Clerk acting in this capacity. Deeds and other records...that's what they do.

 

[Billybob]

What in the sam hell is the County Clerk doing managing FEMA funds? Isn't that the County Treasurer's turf? I know they are in on Commissioners meetings and such but I've never heard of the Clerk acting in this capacity. Deeds and other records...that's what they do.

This article names Robin Anderson as "Fema coordinator". Guess there's a lot of situations where we don't know how it works and what happens unless we're at the meetings or invited to the parties.

http://www.owassoprogress.com/local...-and-Venues-County-got-more-than-gifts?zc_p=0

 

[Billybob]

Some stuff from the audit, note the "Chiplock" mentioned in the prior article about the road issues. Another interesting question is how do you rack up almost $500 worth of data charges in less than 3hrs?
And don't things like "fictitious invoice", "Back-Dated Documents", "invoices submitted twice for reimbursement", and "incorrect charges for equipment use and labor" amount to fraud?
Of course the biggest question is will anyone be held accountable and will any of these taxpayer funds be recovered?

Finding 2012-16 – Overcharges and Fictitious Invoice Submitted for Federal Reimbursement: An apparent fictitious invoice of $36,476.78 was used to claim FEMA expenditures on several projects. FEMA expenditures were over-charged through double invoicing in the amount of $258,018.09 and through claimed estimates in excess of the actual invoices of $25,853.08. (Pg. 39)

Finding 2012-17 – Questioned Costs Related to Federal FEMA Funds: A total of $5,524,224.85 of questioned costs were noted throughout the entirety of the FEMA project. This consisted of expenditures claimed without sufficient documentation, invoices submitted twice for reimbursement, and incorrect charges for equipment use and labor. (Pg. 41)
Finding 2012-18 – Advance of FEMA Funds for Equipment Lease-Purchased: The County financed $666,343.04 of equipment purchases made while claiming the full purchase price as expenditures incurred to FEMA. One piece of equipment was financed for 13 months after reimbursement was made. (Pg. 43)

Finding 2012-19 – Apparent Waste of Federal Funds – Lowest Price Not Sought in Purchase of Drill Rig: The County failed to bid in a way to ensure the County received the lowest and best price available. In this instance, the County expended $73,910 more on a drill rig than was necessary. (Pg. 45)

Finding 2012-21 – Bid-Restricting – Preference Shown to Vendor: The County solicited bids for a trade name product of “ChipLock,” thus restricting bids to one vendor. This same vendor was once granted sole-source status, and the County has expended $8,085,611.56 with this vendor since July 1, 2010. (Pg. 34, 46)

Finding 2012-22 – No Verification of Road Construction/Materials Documented: The District 2 Commissioner approved road projects with a vendor in amounts ranging from $6,000 to $2.5 million without ensuring funds were available. Further, these expenditures did not have proper supporting documentation. (Pg. 35, 49)

Finding 2012-23 – Back-Dated Documents Submitted for FEMA Project – Engineering Services Not Competitively Considered: Documentation was back-dated between the County and an engineering firm to create the appearance of competitively considering engineering services in accordance with FEMA requirements. (Pg. 51)

Finding 2012-24 – County Property Used for Personal Use: The County Treasurer’s cell phone has $40 internet and $20 texting packages, and it is not used exclusively for work-related matters. The internet card assigned to the Treasurer incurred data charges of $481.13 between 10:48 P.M. on a Sunday night to 1:24 A.M. on the following Monday morning. (Pg. 29)

Finding 2012-25 – Board Approval Not Obtained for Work on Private Property: The District 3 Commissioner used County-owned equipment to perform work on land leased by the Commissioner, and work was performed after midnight on 7/1/2011. The work was not approved by the BOCC, nor was a written agreement obtained from the landowner to perform this work. (Pg. 30)

Finding 2012-26 – Public Information Officer Paid from Restricted Highway Funds: The County paid a public information officer $12,000 out of the T-Highway Fund, and none of the work performed was work on county roads. All monies expended out of the T-Highway Fund are to be for county roads. (Pg. 31)

Finding 2012-27 – Purchases “Split” to Avoid Competitive Bidding: Two instances were noted where District 2 split purchases, and District Attorneys have opined that these instances were improper. One instance was $56,200 of equipment split between six purchase orders between March 29, 2012 and August 13, 2012. (Pg. 32)

Finding 2012-28 – Vendor-paid Events – Contributions Solicited from Vendors: On several occasions the District 2 Secretary (currently Rogers County Clerk) solicited donations/contributions from vendors for parties and events. (Pg. 34)

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...apnR_2RhVfQJJJAt2mKnwwA&bvm=bv.72197243,d.b2U

 

[Billybob]

Back to roads...

Thacker, Helm approve county employee raises

The pay increases were supported, despite approximately $1 million in cuts to One-Cent and T-Highway accounts.

The cuts to road and bridge maintenance were a result of an effort to balance the general fund budget...

Rogers County voters supported the One-Cent Sales Tax renewal in August allocating 1/8 of a cent from the sales tax to the pay down the $32.5 million debt resulting from the Material Services lawsuit. Overall impact is the county balanced the $20 million budget by cutting road funding and using excess sales tax allocated to pay the courthouse bond debt to increase employee pay...

http://insurancenewsnet.com/oarticl...ily-progress-okla]-a-406116.html#.U-CJRyAo7IU

So the Gov. gets in trouble(lawsuit), goes in debt, gets the voters to renew a sales tax, then cuts road and bridge fund, and gives employees and elected officials raises.

 

[farmerbyron]

You seem rather combative. I don't understand if your blaming me for the improvements that were much needed.
You already said you weren't an engineer. That's obvious. I wouldn't tell you how to grow wheat.

Don't take it too hard Clay. I'm not trying to be combative. I just drive on that road all day, every day. And while improved in many ways, there are still several things that could have been made more user friendly.

Especially when navigating the zig zag side roads then waiting on traffic up hill with a loaded semi.

I may be a bit jaded though with engineers. The guys at the farm office that lay out terraces want you to build a mountain where normal terrace would be fine and will follow every change in elevation to the letter. Which results in a huge terrace that kinks and winds like a snake. All at much more expense than necessary plus we have to work around those mountains instead of over them costing more time/fuel/chemical/seed.

 

[Okie4570]

In all my travels over the years, once you get away from OK and southern KS, there are no terraces on farmed hillsides! This is for another thread probably lol.

 

[CHenry]

Don't take it too hard Clay. I'm not trying to be combative. I just drive on that road all day, every day. And while improved in many ways, there are still several things that could have been made more user friendly.

Especially when navigating the zig zag side roads then waiting on traffic up hill with a loaded semi.

I may be a bit jaded though with engineers. The guys at the farm office that lay out terraces want you to build a mountain where normal terrace would be fine and will follow every change in elevation to the letter. Which results in a huge terrace that kinks and winds like a snake. All at much more expense than necessary plus we have to work around those mountains instead of over them costing more time/fuel/chemical/seed.

I agree it's not a perfect alignment. Its what we had to deal with. I looked at 4 alternates and in terms of cost, functionality, safety and impact to land owners (this was a biggy) we chose so simply improve the 2 curves within the existing tangent sections. We didn't want to cut more directly from town northwesterly across that wheat field and impact that farmers land more. We are not in the business of buying land if we can afford it. This alignment cost less, was perfectly functional and meets 70 mph design speed in terms of safety. The heavy presence of Braums trucks was also a factor to consider. The SL connections I agree are a cluster but I wasn't involved at that stage of design. Maybe I could have come up with something better, maybe not. I do the initial scoping/alignment selection with comparative estimates and then a panel of division heads decide on the final outcome. Sometimes a public meeting takes place to get landowner input but I'm not abreast of that process. The fill on that section was all for drainage purposes as well as high water history. In order to not have water standing in the ditch all the time, a minimum grade has to be laid. .003 is the least amount of grade we can use to drain a ditch. This means there has to be elevation change between point A and B. In this case a grade raise was all we could do and keep the finish grade above high water points.
I dont get involved with pavement design so I cant speak on asphalt quality or other factors in the surface. It should be noted that several of our finished roads have won nationally in terms of finished product. They judge based on several items. Some roads the contractor screws up and theres not much we can do without bankrupting someone to tear it out and fix it, so it stays. The turnpike north of Yukon has 2 bridges that come to mind. That was a consultant engineers fault, they designed the pre-stressed beams with too much camber for the dead load. Its like a roller coaster and a huge embarrassment.

 

[farmerbyron]

The turnpike north of Yukon has 2 bridges that come to mind. That was a consultant engineers fault, they designed the pre-stressed beams with too much camber for the dead load. Its like a roller coaster and a huge embarrassment.

I know exactly which bridge you are talking about. That engineer should find a different line of work. What blows my mind about it is that no one else caught the F up before they laid the whole thing out.

 

[CHenry]

I know exactly which bridge you are talking about. That engineer should find a different line of work. What blows my mind about it is that no one else caught the F up before they laid the whole thing out.

He is human, he made a mistake. I Dont know who it was but simple calculation mistakes happen. Better cross checking is key but not everything gets caught. The beams were bought and paid for long before they were installed. And you wouldn't know the mistake until the weight of the deck was applied. I check plans all the time and agree some engineer just shouldn't be doing this but others just make human mistakes. And I'm not even an engineer. I'm a grunt tech.

 

[Glocktogo]

We could go round and round for eternity over who's fault it is. What isn't in dispute is that the current system is an abject failure. We have roads that are a national embarassment. While our challenges may be unique in some ways, in others they aren't. Nothing has ever been implemented to overcome those challenges.

Until the deficiency is corrected, allocating blame is irrelevant. All parties involved share the blame equally. If you aren't part of the problem, you haven't been part of the solution either. "TIO", isn't acceptable.

Fix the problem or continue to be a 2nd rate state. Education and infrastructure are the pillars of a successful community. We're failing.