"Taxpayers paying for materials they are not getting..." 'Glenn Mickens' (Kaua'i County Watchdog)

Glenn Mickens has lived on Kauai  with his wife Ruth for the last 26 years. Born July 26, 1930 in Wilmar, California, USA) was a pitcher in Major League Baseball. He pitched in four games (two of which were starts) for the 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers. He also played for five years in Japan, from 1959 until 1963 for the Kintetsu Buffaloes. There, he compiled a record of 45–53 with a 2.54 ERA.  Glenn also  served in the Army for 2 years and coached baseball at UCLA for 25 years. 
Last but not least Glenn would really like to see Kaua'i give the county manager style of Government a chance.

Mr. Mickens is locally known
as one of Kauai county's
political watchdogs
and Nitpickers...
Mahalos Glenn!

Taxpayers paying for materials they are not getting

While our Administration and Council ponder over how they will ever find the $100 million it will take to fix our horrible roads, some of the worst in the nation, they ignore the facts that have been told and shown to them for 20 years or more. The answer IS NOT MORE TAXES!

Our bid contracts for repaving our county roads, 300 miles of them, have repeatedly shown that the final lift, the finishing overlay, will be 1 1/2" thick--2" of Asphaltic (sic) Concrete (AC) when compacted will give 1 1/2".

For 2 decades various Council member, Mayors, department heads. engineers and deputy county engineers have been shown roads at different locations where the final lift (cracking and coming off) was 1/2" to 3/4" thick. These less than bid pieces of AC were presented for inspection at many council meetings and what action or investigation was taken--none, absolutely none!

Understand that we, the tax payers had been paying for materials that we were not getting (under Larry Dill the policy was finally corrected) and over many years this fraudulent act was costing us hundreds of millions of dollars.

I have no idea who is responsible for this wrongful action to have happened but those on the council or in the Administration who have known about this activity over the years are as culpable for not investigating as the one or ones committing the crime.

 The Charter provides in Section 3.17 for the Council to have the power to investigate situations such as this, but it never has and it seems unwilling even now. The Council should be asked why it is so reluctant to look into how and why the County is being ripped off. Its failure to use its investigative power to look at the continuing situations  which remain targets for additional fines and illegal activities at the County’s four transfer stations is also mysterious.

Our former Auditor and my good friend, Ernie Pasion did 8 great audits and found out many corrections that needed to be done in our county operations.
But these problems and corrections he recommended were never pursued so this pattern of not ever finding out and placing blame continues.

At the coming meetings where the candidates will tell us why they want to represent us on the council it will be prudent to ask the hard questions--who will have the fortitude to really go after those who are knowingly doing wrong.

Editor's note, Dakinetalk guest bloggers do not necessarily represent the opinions of dakinetalk. Guest bloggers are given space to express their beliefs and or opinions. We feel there are many roads and like to give people space to express their thoughts,after-all that's what dakine is...

Aloha, James "Kimo" Rosen---Blogger-n-chief, dakinetalk blog---

Take time to stop and smell the roses and watch
a beautiful Sunrise or Sunset wherever you may live.
Above photo, James "Kimo" Rosen

P.S.S.
Check out Glenn's Wikipedia page;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Mickens

Hana Hou, (Encore)