Monday, March 15, 2010

Lawmakers spend $1,000 per month on taxpayer-funded cars - TwinCities.com

Lawmakers are permitted to spend money from their office expense account — known as a member's representational allowance — on a vehicle. They can use the car for personal use as long as that use is minimal and in the course of the lawmaker's official duties.

At least 10 House members are spending more than $1,000 a month in taxpayer money to lease cars.

Some lawmakers spend far less on leases. Indiana Rep. Joe Donnelly, a Democrat, spends $450 each month. And Rep. David Drier (R-Calif.) spends $366 a month.

Click on the following for more details:  Lawmakers spend $1,000 per month on taxpayer-funded cars - TwinCities.com

LeRoy City Council challenged over properly posted meetings

Le Roy is a city in McLean County (Bloomington) , Illinois, United States. The population was 3,332 at the 2000 census.

LEROY - Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office will be asked for an opinion in a dispute over whether the LeRoy City Council violated the Open Meetings Act by failing to properly post an agenda for its Feb. 15 meeting.

In an opinion that differed from Eisner's, the city's lawyer, Bruce Beal, said this week he does not believe the city violated the law because, even though the agenda was not posted for 48 hours, it was available inside the public building.

If requested, the attorney general's office could provide guidance to the city and local residents on the issue

LeRoy City Council challenged over properly posted meetings

More Documents regarding the question: Should County Board Member, Karl Johnson, sell pipe to one of the CDAP grant contractors employed by the county?

Document 1:  Regards the opening of bids on October 13, 2009.  Karl Johnson is the only board member present.  The lowest bid was from Total Plumbing and Heating, Machesney Park, IL  $785,634.57, second lowest $848,883.00 Go-Excavating, Decatur, Il.  It will later be decided that Go-Excavating would receive the contract because Total Plumbing did not attend a pre-bid meeting.

Document 2, 3, 4 & 5:  Bid of Total Plumbing and Heating.  Document 3&4 have their price for pipe.

Document 6, 7, 8 & 9:  Bid of Go-Excavating.  Please note the pipe prices on Document 7&8.  The prices are appreciably higher than Total Plumbing’s material costs.   However the pipe currently being submitted for payment is  appreciably less (See Document 10 A, 10B and 10C)than which Go-Excavating bid.   Barring unforeseen overruns that savings should go to the project .

Document 11  Memo regarding which bid should be accepted—the lowest who did not attend the required pre-bid meeting  or 2nd lowest bid who along with other 6 bidders attended the meeting.

 

 

Click on the Photocopy to enlarge:

Document # 1

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Document 2

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Document 3

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Document 4

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Document 5

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Document 6

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Document 7

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Document 8

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Document 9

image Document 10 A, B & C

Karl 1 Karl 2 Karl 3

Document 11

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Social Security to start cashing Uncle Sam's IOUs - Yahoo! News

The retirement nest egg of an entire generation is stashed away in this small town along the Ohio River: $2.5 trillion in IOUs from the federal government, payable to the Social Security Administration.

Social Security will also collect about $120 billion in interest on the trust funds, according to the CBO projections, meaning its overall balance sheet will continue to grow.

Social Security to start cashing Uncle Sam's IOUs - Yahoo! News