Delaware County Common Construction Wage Hearings

Governor Mitch Daniels and Commissioner Lori Torres,

 

I only hope I can effectively express my disgust regarding the Common Construction Wage hearings that I attended here in Delaware County today (Thursday, February 28, 2008).

 

What I witnessed and participated in was nothing short of an abomination and an enormous injustice to the citizens of this county by the very government delegated with the responsibility to uphold the law and enforce the righteous will of the people.

 

In 2 of the hearings (of the 4 being heard), the CCW Hearing for the Muncie Redevelopment Commission demolition of a building and the Delaware Community School mechanical and electrical HVAC project, the composition of the appointments were not even legal. At neither of the 2 hearings was there a legal taxpayer appointment by the County Legislative Body and the issue was taken up, objected to and made a matter of the hearing record in both instances at the very beginning of both hearings. Inspite of those objections and the confessed illegality of the representations, the State of Indiana, by and through, its hearing officer, Kenneth Boucher, cast the tie-breaking and deciding vote in favor of Collective Bargaining Labor and against the wishes and votes of the project ownership thereby awarding the highest and most expensive of three wage submissions. Of the three votes cast in favor of, including the Governor's Representative, the Labor Representative and the illegal County Taxpayer Representative, not a single one of them pays a red cent to the cost of the project. Now, the question begs, where in the heck does an awarding agency, let alone the taxpaying citizens of the project, have a say in there very own community and its public building expenditures?

 

Let the facts reflect that the illegal County appointments, in both instances, were Collective Bargaining Labor "plants", designed to accomplish one thing and one thing alone. As if the fact that one of our very own governing bodies would try and sabotage our efforts of being fiscally responsible and exercising our rights to democratically make decisions that would have an impact upon our immediate economic futures is one thing. To have a Governor's Representative condone and endorse that behavior is a whole different animal. It is totally unacceptable. This, my elected, appointed and irresponsible representatives, is nothing short of a travesty and will be an issue that will be trumpeted far and wide. The disease of special interest corruption has obviously infected not only the local governing bodies of Delaware County, but the very core of our state government and its administrative offices.

 

Disgustingly,