Lexington Herald Leader: Kentucky's Bid Rigging Affair Is "Too Close For Taxpayer Comfort". I AGREE!
Too close for taxpayer comfort
Kentucky taxpayers can't take much solace from the acquittals of road builder Leonard Lawson and former state Transportation Secretary Bill Nighbert.
Especially when their defense was that they sometimes talked to each other by phone several times a day because they had become such close personal friends.
Taxpayers obviously would be better off with an arm's-length-relationship between someone who profits from state road-building contracts and the head of the agency that awards the contracts.
Instead, according to testimony by Lawson's wife, Bonnie, a friendship blossomed between the Lawson and Nighbert families during transportation conferences in the Cayman Islands and Mexico and pool parties at the Lawsons' home in Lexington.
And that was the defense!
Federal prosecutors were unable to prove charges of bribery to the satisfaction of U.S. District Judge Karl Forrester, and the jury returned not guilty verdicts on the remaining charges of conspiracy, theft and obstruction of justice.
Though prosecutors struck out, they did succeed in peeling back the lid on a cozy state contracting culture that has been unnecessarily costly to taxpayers for years. That kind of airing benefits the public.
The investigation also will have a deterrent effect as contractors and state officials take care to avoid appearances that might get their phone or bank records subpoenaed.
Even before this investigation broke, the Beshear administration had moved to curb questionable practices.
Kentucky has long awarded more single-bid road contracts, in number and cost, than neighboring states and has been profligate in granting expensive change orders, often over the objections of district engineers.
As a result, Kentuckians pay more for their roads than taxpayers in other states.
Federal prosecutors were more successful in 1983, when one of Lawson's companies pleaded guilty to conspiring with other road builders to allocate state contracts among themselves rather than compete and paid a $150,000 fine.
To increase competition, the Beshear administration has ordered highway projects bid for either concrete or asphalt when feasible.
It also did away with the 7 percent rule, a factor in the trial. The origins of this practice are murky, but it allowed the awarding of bids as long as they were no more than 7 percent higher than what engineers had calculated they should be.
To stretch road-building dollars, the cabinet is now right-sizing projects rather than building them on the grandiose scale of the past.
And, unlike Nighbert, who served in the Fletcher administration, Beshear's first Transportation Secretary, Joe Prather, and his successor, acting Secretary Mike Hancock, have made it a practice to never meet alone with road contractors.
Despite the historic problems, there are a lot of honest, competent people working in the Transportation Cabinet. If this prosecution makes it easier for them to do their jobs free of inappropriate interference, it was worth it
Kentucky taxpayers can't take much solace from the acquittals of road builder Leonard Lawson and former state Transportation Secretary Bill Nighbert.
Especially when their defense was that they sometimes talked to each other by phone several times a day because they had become such close personal friends.
Taxpayers obviously would be better off with an arm's-length-relationship between someone who profits from state road-building contracts and the head of the agency that awards the contracts.
Instead, according to testimony by Lawson's wife, Bonnie, a friendship blossomed between the Lawson and Nighbert families during transportation conferences in the Cayman Islands and Mexico and pool parties at the Lawsons' home in Lexington.
And that was the defense!
Federal prosecutors were unable to prove charges of bribery to the satisfaction of U.S. District Judge Karl Forrester, and the jury returned not guilty verdicts on the remaining charges of conspiracy, theft and obstruction of justice.
Though prosecutors struck out, they did succeed in peeling back the lid on a cozy state contracting culture that has been unnecessarily costly to taxpayers for years. That kind of airing benefits the public.
The investigation also will have a deterrent effect as contractors and state officials take care to avoid appearances that might get their phone or bank records subpoenaed.
Even before this investigation broke, the Beshear administration had moved to curb questionable practices.
Kentucky has long awarded more single-bid road contracts, in number and cost, than neighboring states and has been profligate in granting expensive change orders, often over the objections of district engineers.
As a result, Kentuckians pay more for their roads than taxpayers in other states.
Federal prosecutors were more successful in 1983, when one of Lawson's companies pleaded guilty to conspiring with other road builders to allocate state contracts among themselves rather than compete and paid a $150,000 fine.
To increase competition, the Beshear administration has ordered highway projects bid for either concrete or asphalt when feasible.
It also did away with the 7 percent rule, a factor in the trial. The origins of this practice are murky, but it allowed the awarding of bids as long as they were no more than 7 percent higher than what engineers had calculated they should be.
To stretch road-building dollars, the cabinet is now right-sizing projects rather than building them on the grandiose scale of the past.
And, unlike Nighbert, who served in the Fletcher administration, Beshear's first Transportation Secretary, Joe Prather, and his successor, acting Secretary Mike Hancock, have made it a practice to never meet alone with road contractors.
Despite the historic problems, there are a lot of honest, competent people working in the Transportation Cabinet. If this prosecution makes it easier for them to do their jobs free of inappropriate interference, it was worth it
Labels: News reporting
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 1:04 PM
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