Comments on: Lucrative stimulus contract for green jobs in New Orleans goes to group with least to offer

By: Robert Macklenn

Robert Macklenn — Tue, 11 May 2010 23:19:51 +0000

Weatherization is absolutely not rocket science folks; 4 to 5 days of basic training and a ton of cheap manual labor that these Community Action Agencies are very good at acquiring is all that is needed; then they pocket the rest as pure profit to stuff their coffers, with no meaningful job creation,or jobs saved as they are apt to claim for political grandstanding. You will not find a single job advertised, no recruitment effort to the public at large,just friends looking out for their cronies; not even the State Departments of Labor invited to participate, instead locked out of the process entirely,yet we talk about this being a “shovel ready”job creation project; and not only in Louisiana but in every state throughout the entire continental USA. Is this a political payoff or a mass hyjacking of this program by the politically connected ? What happened to public bidding to qualified builders,contractors,home inspectors etc with years of training, background and experience,/ just not welcome to participate in this program.This has become just another entitlement porkbarrel for a bunch of greedy punks pretending to be acting for the public good.This program in its present form should be scrapped. I hope the Federal government comes to its senses and never put another dime in this crap,not in the way it is administered.The other frightful element to this mess is, we are now in high gear in the numbers-mode; numbers of homes to be completed within a limited time frame,this means rush jobs and lord knows where the quality work will end-up,probably in the toilet.No more of this junk;not on the taxpayers dime.
This is a non-political observation focused on the principles and practicalities of weatherization, basic economics and common sense, lets leave the nut-wing politics out of this discussion…thanks.

By: Paul Ikemire

Paul Ikemire — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 16:17:09 +0000

Just look at the board members. State reps and city council plenty to lobby DOE and circumvent post-katrina competence by other organizations in order to retain money for whatever relationships they seem to cherish over actual results/outcomes.

Board of Directors, March 2010

•Honorable James Singleton, Chairman, Representative of Public Sector
•Mr. Victor Gordon, Vice Chairman, Co-Chair Program Committee, Representative of Private Sector
•Rev. Charles Southall III, Secretary, Representative of Private Sector
•Honorable Cynthia Hedge-Morrell, Councilmember, District D, Representative of Public Sector
•Honorable Arthur Morrell, Clerk, Criminal Court, Representative of Public Sector
•Honorable Edwin R. Murray, State Senator, Representative of Public Sector
•Honorable Ann Duplessis, State Senator, Representative of Public Sector
•Mr. Johnny Jackson, Jr., Program Committee Chairperson, Representative of Private Sector
•Ms. Constance Andry, Representative of Private Sector
•Mr. Henry I. Irvin, Representative of Low Income Sector
•Mr. Charles Rice, Sr, Representative of Low Income Sector
•Mr. Anthony W. Richard, Representative of Low Income Sector
•Ms. Coral W. Robinson, Representative of Private Sector
•Rev. James Russ, Representative of Low Income Sector
•Mrs. Cathy Washington, Representative of Private Sector
•Ms. Mary White-Johnson, Head Start Policy Council
•Mr. Gerald V. Williams, Representative of Low Income Sector

By: Kurt

Kurt — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 04:11:53 +0000

Bottomline…this guy Wallace is a complete jerk & is probably pocketing this money. I called him once to offer my company to insulate homes after the stimulus funds announcement. I couldn’t imagine a bigger jerk to talk to. He is all about keeping everything under his control & getting nothing accomplished. My company insulates 10 homes per week. This guy with his big grants & crews were doing 1 per week. That is pathetic & the amount of our tax dollars he is wasting is off the charts. I hope the feds take a good look at this guy & TCA. Good work LENS!

By: Pam

Pam — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:35:52 +0000

I agree with MaaddMaaxx…….If one contractor is included all should have been included. It sounds like the fix was in……as a former administrator in the construction business I agree….not much skill involved. Isn’t there an open meeting law that was broken in all of this? I did some temp work for the PRC in 2007 and can tell you they are great dedicated people and the staff is already in place. This money going to them would have been put to use weatherizing homes rather than setting up offices and buying vehicles. Too bad the same ole same ole happened here. It will be interesting to see where this all goes 18 months from now. I will look for it.

By: MaaddMaaxx

MaaddMaaxx — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:24:26 +0000

Meg you obviously didn’t read the article. That or you work for TCA. I’m betting on option B.
There is nothing complicated, requiring special tools or special skills involved in blowing insulation into an attic or caulking windows.
In the construction industry this is grunt work assigned to apprentices.
TCA was not equipped to handle this expansion and had to hire administrative help, not tradesman.
The fact that they were ” included in a meeting with state and Energy Department officials where the new plan was crafted.” reeks of the same back room bribery and politics that have infected Washington for decades.
More Wasted Tax Dollars.

By: Meg Power

Meg Power — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 22:53:32 +0000

Readers should wonder what the competitors who did not win control of these energy funds are REALLY complaining about in this story. Weatherization work is specialized, skilled and requires tools most builders lack. Federal law and policy requires that the delivery organizations be experienced and undergo continual supervision and inspection. (don’t believe there’s anything that sensible in federal rules? see 10 C.F.R.440.) Federal funds support the specialized training that is so well delivered by the featured LACAP training center.
When the Recovery Act passed, many well-intentioned community groups believed they should share in distributing the riches intended for construction trades and ultimately to improve homes in low-income areas. The fact is, the same number of homes will be served and the same number of people will be hired in New Orleans whether there are multiple new agencies in the same neighborhoods or one central experienced agency with a record of ‘superior’ performance citywide. Would many organizations who will have to learn the complex rules of the program and establish new federal cost allocation accounting, new reports for DOE and new administrative funds for their operations be better? Is it a good thing that the contenders did not want to use local subcontractors?

Louisiana, which before the past few years had a dismal record of getting federal funds to local Community Action agencies and of failing to account for them, turned around its federal low-income energy programs when it turned over day-to-day management to the LA CAA Association. The state’s citizens can count on the experienced Weatherization network to build the partnerships needed to get the job done while offering hundreds of building trades workers not only good jobs but the skills of the future.
Let’s hope no competitive politics hold them up any further…

By: Frank Rabalais

Frank Rabalais — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:56:23 +0000

No Joe, it’s not “Government. LOL” – it’s locals not paying attention, once again. Here’s where the Lens is priceless, and where its existence might actually make a difference, going forward. I want to see what happens after 18 mos, when TCA will be audited. Will the PRC’s Rebuilding Together press the issue then? Probably not. Will other concerned activists & citizens? Probably not. And where was the requisite input/pressure of concerned individuals when the LHFA needed to be instructed to reply to the DOE’s question? (Input/pressure typically being required to force state governmental bodies to do ANYTHING involving extra effort or an additional step – and obviously no justifcation from the LHFA was forthcoming, so TCA won) So it’s OUR fault, I’d say.

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 13:30:34 +0000

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By: Joe Laura

Joe Laura — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 05:18:17 +0000

Government. LOL