[CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS: Camp Bonneville (WA) contract - editorial

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Not With Our Money
Sloppy contract on Camp Bonneville cleanup has led to extravagant use of 
tax dollars

Editorial
The Columbian (WA)
February 13, 2009

As long as a private contractor fulfills all requirements of a public 
(taxpayer funded) contract, should the public tell the contractor how to 
spend that money?

It's a complex question created by what is known as a "fixed-price 
contract." Simplified, it works like this: Mary pays Bob $20 to mow her 
yard. Bob mows the yard, then spends $15 of the money (that used to be 
Mary's) on booze. Mary feels ripped off. She should. Still, her yard got 
mowed. Mary thinks she should have negotiated a better contract. She's 
right.

On a much larger scale, Mary's yard is Camp Bonneville, a 3,840-acre 
former artillery range in east Clark County. The U.S. Army awarded Clark 
County $26.8 million to remove old artillery shells so the site can be 
turned into a park. The state Department of Ecology also is involved in 
the project. But contractor Mike Gage has been spending some of the 
money extravagantly. As Michael Andersen reported in Wednesday's 
Columbian, Gage spent at least $7,422 on 38 meals between May 2006 and 
September 2008. He's also charging an hourly rate of $125 for himself, 
plus $42 an hour for his administrative assistant, his wife.


...

For the entire editorial, see
http://www.columbian.com/article/20090213/OPINION02/702139968/-1/OPINION

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



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