Where’s the Justice?

As a longtime resident of this county and taxpayer, I was surprised to read about the overbilling to Medicare from our S.B. County mental health department.

The surprising part is not reading who got fired!

In the real world where most of us work, this would not happen, and when it does people are either prosecuted or fired or both. So where is the justice here for the taxpayer when we do not see people removed for mismanagement?

And it is not just this department.

Look at the Super 8 Motel in Goleta under the control of the S.B. County Housing Authority. This project, worth in excess of $5 million, was awarded to Vortex Construction, a Bakersfield contractor, and the project did not go out to public bid.

This is against the rules for fairness in bidding practices.

Something is usually Rotten in Denmark when a contractor is awarded this size of project without having to go thru the public bid process.

Whoever was behind the awarding of this project needs to be investigated. After all, this all comes down to the taxpayers’ funds paying for these mistakes and practices.

Editor’s Note: We asked the county Housing Authority about the lack of a bidding process. John Havlicek, director of Housing Development, replied: The Homekey Goleta project (formerly Super 8) is paying state prevailing wages. Due to the time constraints of the Homekey 2.0 grant, we selected Vortex as the general contractor without a formal bid process. We’ve successfully worked with Vortex on several affordable housing projects, and the company understands the requirements of such projects and has a demonstrated track record of meeting deadlines to avoid the risk of jeopardizing the funding.