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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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When the department of Energy sent their July 19,2011 letter suspending the grant, it was copied to Tracy Atkinson, Development and Grants Manager. Since Atlinson was responsible for mmonitoring this grant, which was removed from experienced monitors after walling and eason took over, why is she still there. It would appear that she at the very least should have been aware of the problems. In my opinion, it ismMore likely she and Eason orchestrated the scenario of corrupt decisions as eason was micro managing the department. And don't forget Eason was originally to be in Kate's administration of Advanced Solutions,
The three employees terminated from DCED are:
Karen Morris
Glenda Dunlap
Suzanne Wilcox
Treasurer Doug Bingaman has resigned and City Assessor Bill Fowler resigned weeks ago.
Nov. 14, 2011
(Flint) More departures from Flint City Hall.
The Shafran News Bureau has learned that a 3rd employee from the Department of Community and Economic Development has received a layoff notice effective the end of the day today, Monday, Nov. 14.
We have also been told the city's treasurer tendered his resignation.
Mayor Walling tells us he does not have immediate plans to fill the vacancy left by the firing, last week, of Michael Townsend, who served as the city's Finance and Budget director.
Walling says he suspects an Emergency Financial Manager would likely take over such duties in the weeks ahead.
There was much more mayor Walling said after his swearing in ceremony in city council chambers.
Below is some of the information he shared with the Shafran News Bureau:
Nov 14, 2011
(FLINT) DOE SAYS IT WILL WITHDRAW OVER A MILLION DOLLARS FROM FLINT AFTER ENERGY GRANT INVESTIGATION
The Shafran News Bureau has learned that the federal Department of Energy concluded its investigation of Flint's $1.4 million dollar energy grant the end of October - days before the election.
It is our understanding that the DOE letter sent to the mayor's office last week says the federal government plans to rescind what remains of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant because of serious mismanagement in procurement, procedures and using unallowable costs.
Walling today told the News Bureau he'll appeal the decision. He also acknowleges the findings were turned over to the city days before the election - but they were not released publicly because the matter is being treated as a pending litigation.
Mon Nov 14, 2011 7:56 pm
Last edited by untanglingwebs on Wed Nov 16, 2011 9:51 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Wed Nov 16, 2011 8:58 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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The Department of Energy awarded the $1,147,900 (DOE) grant, a 3 year block grant to the City of Flint on August 10,2009 (days after Walling was elected) as part of the American Recovery and reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).
On July 19,2011, the DOE sent a letter of suspension of the grant in response to allegations of serious mismanagement or misuse of the funding.
The Doe conducted a 90 day review regarding concerns about the incurrence of unallowable costs, the use of imporoper procurement practices, the pursuing of activities beyond the approved scope of work, and other indicators of serious mismanagement.
Note, Webs did an indepth review of the improper procurement months ago.
Here are the DOE identified instances or areas of mismanagement or misuse of funds:
(1) Of the $327,617.71 spent to date, costs of $214,991 were questioned or unsupported in accordance with Office of Management and Budget Circular A-87 cost principles. These funds must be refunded to the Government within 30 days of the date of this letter.
Questioned costs include:
$34, 510.00 in City of Flint wages
$15,975.46 in other City of Flint costs
$ 527.48 in materials/supplies for the City of Flint
Total of $51,012,94 in Questioned City of Flint expenses.
Advanced Solutions Group Questioned costs:
$71,772.33 in wages
$ 4,272.91 in office supplies
$24,385.00 in professional services
$30,940.53 in administrative costs
$32,607.00 in profits
Of the $214, 991.25 in total questionable costs, $62,336.61 are unallowable costs. There may be some room for negotiation with the $33,371.77 in Unsupported costs and the $119,282.87 in unresolved costs.
(2) DOE has procurement standards under 10CFR600.236. These and the City of flint Procurement rules were violated:
multiple conflicts of interest
lack of justification for contractor selection when the contractor selected was not the lowest bidder
lack of required flow down to contractors of mandatory ARRA terms and conditions
Exceeding the strategy threshold amount of $250,000 defined in the grant terms and conditions
serious lack of attention to grant requirements and subcontractor management
(3) Knowingly submitted inaccurate and/or delinquent financial/performance reports, including a failure to submit the financial report and the performance report for the second quarter of both 2010 and 2011.
(4) audit reports for 2009 and 2010 noted several significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the City of Flint's ability to manage Federal grants (note-I never saw any media reports on this nor do I remember council discussing this item)
(5) The Doe approved activities for the City of ZFlint identified in the grant over time shifted into activities which would not be approved and for which no prior approval was sought, such as the Swedish Biogas project for which the request for proposals included more recycling services than approved.
(6) The city continues to propose activities that are administrative in nature, which significantly exceed the grant's threshold of the greter than 10 percent or $75,000 administrative cost limit.
(7)To date, the City of Flint has reported neither energy savings nor physical activity to support energy efficiency in the City of Flint, nor reported the creation or retention of any meaningful numbers of jobs.
The City of Flint shall incue no new obligations and shall cancel as many outstanding obligations as possible.
The City can appeal this determination.
""Willful failure to participate with the DOE on termination of this black grant may necessitate referral of the City of Flint to the DOE debarment and suspension offical for possible exclusion from all federal transactions."
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Wed Nov 16, 2011 9:49 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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From my post on May 25,2011 entitled City of Flint Grapevine-FBI in DCED and notes form M-live in November of 2009
untanglingwebs November 26, 2009 at 7:25PM
Follow
Kate Fields lives with her mother (Humphey) on Maryland. She married Sprague before she went to California and obviously married Fields there. Oddly enough her URESA child support case is missing from the Genesee County Clerks office.
While the land bank evicts others for nonpayment of their land contracts, Kate and GECA got a pass at least twice. Kildee always made arrangements. She once wanted to work it off at an exorbitant amount of money doing counseling for people in danger of losing their properties.
She did not take the low bidder on her two houses on Delaware. There was to be five. MHSDA alleged Kate gave Agree construction an unfair advantage in the bid process. They relented because Arrow had a conflict of interest (Electrical Inspector Jesse Buchanan was their electrical contractor) and MAR withdrew.
[b]She added so many extras that the houses had about a 50% subsidy rate. MSHDA declined to finance any more houses and refinanced the 2 houses so Kate did not have a problem with HUD monies. There was an issue with the sale of the houses. One woman did not show her exhusband residing with her and the other owner was a GM executive retiree. Gamblin was furious (former HUD chief)because the home were intended for moderate income families. MHSDA said she overbuilt for the area. DUH!
The lawsuit referenced against GECA was the BIngo supply company attempting to get payment for about $39K in Bingo supplies given to the company. GECA 990's revealed losses from the fundraising activities. (guidestar.com) A settlement was reached but GECA quit paying so the settlement was recently thrown out.
GECA refused to work with the Land Bank and had troubles paying their taxes. Despite over $3,000 in taxes owing MHSDA gave GECA money to renovate 3 houses, 2 on Delaware and 1 on Burns. After over a year on the market, Shelter of Flint bought the houses.
Ananich signed as GECA President for a $100k loan on the bank building on Franklin across from St Vincent De Paul. It was later refinanced and was recently signed over to the lender.
GECA has not filed a 990 since their 2005, and that was over a year late. They received a fine.
GECA was sued by Flint over three properties. HUD says construction on HOME properties must be started within one year orthe grant must be amended. Kate had spent nearly all of her administrative money and had not started construction. Two of the homes on Maryland were open and vacant. GECA did not secure them and they were condemned after they were heavily vandalized.
GECA did not reveal the third house had been sold on a land contract and GECA was buying it back from the land contract purchaser. No money had been spent on the house, so the money had to be returned to the City of Flint.
Also GECA's contract had a clause requiring them to disclose any tax or other liabilities to the city. They did not and DCED did not check.
GECA had rummage sales to try to save the organization. As previously noted they are late filing this years MIchigan nonprofit report.
Kate campaigned heavily for Walling and even did a TV 17 show for his campaign.
oldflintguy November 26, 2009 at 11:19PM
Webs - very impressive, indeed. May I assume that you are not opposed to my taking the above information to the U.S. Attorney along wiht the items I found previously? You are either an excellent researcher, a quasi-insider, or a mixture of both. In either event, thanks for caring enough about our once fair city to assist in cleaning up this mess.
oldflintguy November 26, 2009 at 11:52PM
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By the way, Webs, I did find the 1979 URESA Support case in a search of the Circuit Court records yesterday evening. I am not sure why it was dismissed in 1983, and there is little in the way of information to be gathered from the online summary - http://www.co.genesee.mi.us/cgi-bin/gweb.exe
Soon to be six two November 27, 2009 at 9:45AM
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Untangling -- wow!!!! Now THAT was a post!!!! OFG -- sure hope you can figure out a way to report back to us in the event the FJ does their usual, i.e., no follow-up.
oldflintguy November 27, 2009 at 9:55AM
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Not to worry, Soon to be, I will make sure to get info out on the meeting with the U.S. Attorney and on the Inspector General's investigation. I am amazed at the audacity of the Walling team paying off a political debt to anyone with such recent difficulties in her dealings with other federal agencies. [b]We have an office in the DC area and I will be sure to have someone making the rounds with this issue.
untanglingwebs November 29, 2009 at 3:39PM
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oldflintguy- I too will file complaints with the OIG but not with US attorney. I will file with the FBI. Did you notice her partners are not shown in the Limited Liability Corporation documents. Ananich did the same thing with his campaign strategy group. Usually these documents are longer. Could Freeman be her partner?
Did you notice in the Register of Deeds how the GECA 501(c)3 was used as a pass through of property to Ben Agree?
Oh and thanks for the link on the recovery funds.
oldflintguy December 01, 2009 at 9:44AM
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webs - yes, that fact caught my eye as well. There is more than just a few missed commas and dotted i's in the way in which this lady has transacted her "business" for what appears to be a long time. I am of the opinion that she was deluded into thinking that local collusion would dispel any threats of federal investigation. I fully intend to bring all these issues to the attention of the proper authorities and press for a full investigation of GECA, Advanced Solutions, the Walling administration and the many individuals who seem to have been involved in transactions that just do not seem to pass the initial "snoff test". Between all of us, perhaps we can start to both make a difference and put on notice those that seek to abuse public funds for private gain.
Thu May 26, 2011 10:03 am
Dave Starr
F L I N T O I D
Walling showed up 15 minutes late for hbis press conference. Read a statement saying the Feds took a large amount of paperwork & data from the energy office. Stated he is not a target of THIS investigation, then left immediately.
Very productive, huh? |
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Wed Nov 16, 2011 10:13 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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ConcernedCitizen
F L I N T O I D
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
untanglingwebs schreef:
Flint Mayor Dayne Walling on Wednesday confirmed that "federal entities" were at City Hall, but declined to identify what agencies.
He said his administration is "fully cooperating with a number of ongoing federal investigations," and he is not a subject of the investigation.
"I am committed to rooting out waste and fraud in Flint," he said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dayne,
1) If you were fully "committed to rooting out waste and fraud in Flint", then you would have fulfilled you campaign promises to interview people for positions, getting the most qualified people without "baggage and questionable pasts". Instead you appointed people from Flint with some of the most questionable ethics and "baggage".
2) You hired people that were in violation of the Flint City Charter and did not have their pay approved as required by the Charter, yet you say that you are committed to rooting out waste! Better start in your own office!
3) When Wendy Johnson was hired, I posted about her lack of accountability in the Metawananee Hills Block Club and that Keep Genesee County Beautiful would not give them any more grants because the money was not accounted for and had disappeared. Wendy even had the nerve to try and blame members who had no access to Block Club records, let alone access to any moneys the Block Club received. Now Wendy Johnson is a major subject in this investigation and you have the nerve to say that you are "committed" to "rooting" out fraud in Flint. You brought it into your own house with open arms. Hell, you invited her in and paid her on top of it.
4) If you were not part of the investigation, then why were your computers seized? Why were you and Greg Eason kept separate from each other so you could not collaborate on a story to cover up? Mr. Walling, do you think we are all so naive?
5) In your press conference, you said that this was just to go over the accounts. Sorry, but accountant come in to go over the accounts. FBI shows up when the account are questionable. This is past just going over the accounts.
Hey Dayne, how do you look in orange?
_________________
"When people fear their government, there is TYRANNY.
When the government fears the people, there is Liberty"
Thu May 26, 2011 6:10 pm |
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Wed Nov 16, 2011 10:18 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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pat- Go to the City of Flint website and then city counccil and then agendas. They have removed the council meetings (of course how better to hide stuff when they have add on resolutions).
Pull up the minutes for the July 13 and July 22, 2009 finance Committee meetings.
July 13- Page 3- resolution # 090709
A one year contract for Clean Energy Coalition (CEC) and Resource Recycling Systems (RRS) for the Dept of Energy Grant not to exceed $227,229.00 that was given through the ARRA.
Just states discussed and then indicates entire council wants both bidders including Advanced Solutions to make presentations on July 22, 2009 under a special order.
Motion made by Ananich and seconded by Gonzales. Absent were Sims and Hill.
Ananich absent on the day presentations made. Sims makes motion to postpone, seconded by Poplar.
Note: Both Sims and Poplar had made references to helping kate with federal money. Nancy Jurkiewicz and others were blown away (shades of Granholm) when Sims demanded that the DCED find money for poor kate fields. This was following a land bank meeting where Kate pled her case for leniency on her seriously delinquent land contract with the Land Bank.. I have a recording of the meeting and kate was given a revised contract. She blamed the city for not giving her any more federal money although she had ceased requesting money and had not filed her IRS 990 as required .
On August 19th the resolution for Clean Energy was dropped. Motion made by Gonzales, seconded by Loyd with Nelson and Hill absent. Walling was mayor then and both he and Eason were shown as present.
The Federal Government strives to prevent collusion, contract rigging, croneyism and other forms of contract fraud requires grant recipients to have a written procurement procedure. The initial resolution was after that process had occurred and Fields did not win the grant. When she initially applied Greg Eason' s resume was in the packet as her future CEO. Obviously he could not be after he became City Administrator.
Ananich has a long history with kate. His father, former Ombudsman Jim Ananich and now deceased, was involved with kate in a number of social concerns after Ananich mother died. Both Councilman Ananich and the woman he has referred to as his mother served lengthy terms on the GECA board. When James Campbell died jim Ananich took over as President of the Board. This was a position he held until he was elected 7th ward president, when Josh freeman took over.
During his tenure as President of GECA, Ananich signed a $100,000 loan (Register of deeds) for the former bank property on Franklin near Davison Road. He also signed the papers to geant a tax waiver on this property stating it was used for storage. GECA could not continue paying the taxes and had over $3,000 in tax arrearages.
Without the minutes of council meetings you will have a hard time following the trail. I have them and will go to my files for the dates.
Sat May 28, 2011 7:49 am
Nick Singelis
F L I N T O I D
PAT CLARK, be careful, you might show up in Flint and get shot at and robbed like the folks from New York. |
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Wed Nov 16, 2011 10:21 am |
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