“There is no honor among Thieves”, nor apparently among politicians when ‘free’ money is involved.
The City of Little Rock, claiming desperation to find money, has raided the FEMA funds. OK Shirley, to be more accurate, they are using disaster funds awarded to Pulaski County to help pay for new sidewalks, curbs, and landscaping around the site of a new police station on 12th street, that at the moment they can’t afford to build.
Did you get that? Both points?
Let’s go more slowly. Pulaski County was declared a disaster area in 2008. Not all of it was a disaster, just a small portion was hit by tornados and floods. Apparently the County was awarded $70 million. The City of Little Rock was not damaged. The area around the new police station not yet built was not damaged, but nevertheless the City has requested $278,000.00 to perform this work. How can you use disaster relief funds to build a sidewalk and bike path in a location that wasn’t damaged, you ask?
Well, it seems that some enterprising State employee in 2009 asked the Feds to modify how the disaster funds could be spent. (Remember that there is no greater sin in government than returning money doled out to you for some purpose.) The state received permission to divide the funding into specific categories:
1. $10 million for affordable rental housing, what ever that is, a “double wide”?
2. $10 million for drainage and flood control. Now this sort of fits the original intent, well not really unless the flood control stuff was damaged.
3. $10 million on economic development. Think of “boon dogles” and meeting expenses.
4. $5 million on downtown revitalization.
5. $5 million on neighborhood revitalization, and it is under this area that we have seen our best and brightest minds work to spend the above mentioned funds for a new sidewalk (1 bloc), bike path, and curb for a police station not yet built.
6. etc.
It seems that the State Development Finance Authority which apparently oversees these funds can’t even report how much of the $33.6 million dispersed so far for 81 projects actually went to repair storm damage. Remember, if the money gets returned to the Feds, and the Feds have to ‘fess up' that they didn’t spend it all, then their next year’s budget just might get reduced. A bureaucrat's nightmare!
But back to the police station’s curbs, sidewalk, and landscaping for $278,000.00; seems that the bids to actually build the building came in at $3 million, twice the City’s $1.5 million estimate. This is the second building in two weeks that has come in $3 million. Seems that the City is hung up on that for a small building’s cost. The building was hoped to house the Detective Division as well as a Patrol Unit. The city is now asking the local citizenry to up their sales tax to help pay for this station, plus 167 pages of other ‘Stuff’ not yet revealed to the populace.
Meanwhile the local “Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight”, having found a soft target in the Fed’s funds states “the city is looking at all grant opportunities,” said City Director Ken Richardson. “it’s an allowable use, he said of the disaster funds that will take away from the city’s obligation of the entire project's price tag.” (Just so that you understand; the city is seeking more disaster relief funds to build projects that were not damaged in the disaster so that they can tell you how frugal they are for using Fed funds for disaster relief to build a curb, sidewalk, and landscape.) A fantastic use of disaster relief funds as the project is described: “plans call for a 5 foot wide sidewalk, decorative street lamps, and new curbs and gutters for the block! $ 278,000.00 for one city long block for a five-foot wide side walk, decorative street lamps, and curb and gutters! Bet if you or I wanted to do this for our own house, it would probably be less than $50,000.00, but heck I’m just an old ‘skin flint’!
“When the other City Directors heard about the grant application earlier this week, they hoped Little Rock would apply for more funding for street improvements and enhancements for major roads in their wards.” (None of which were damaged in any disaster.)
One fool of a City Director said ”She thought the city could have put the money toward actual disasters in the city.” (With that kind of attitude, she won’t last long. The very idea of using disaster relief funds for rebuilding disasters.)
But once again the LR Gang has been out done and out smarted by the NLR leaders. NLR was told in February that it would receive $ 1 million for drainage, street, and sewer improvements; plus a sidewalk and a bike path.
Seems that one can’t fix streets without putting in sidewalks and bike paths, and spending a ton of cash doing so.
Lets hope that the LR’s “Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight” has found an easy mark at the Federal level and may just skip the whole sales tax increase idea.
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