It was a sad day on Thursday for Kenner residents as the
Kenner City Council sat idly by while Mayor Mike Yenni doled out over $600,000
in non-emergency, no-bid professional services contracts to his campaign contributors.
What made matters worse was not the bogus rationalizations
of Yenni’s hand-picked #2 man, Jose Gonzalez, but the fact that, not only did
the Council do nothing to stop this shameful practice, they were complicit in
the process.
Last year, the City Council unanimously approved placing two
changes to the Kenner City Charter on the ballot. One proposal dealt with
subjecting no-bid contracts valued over $100,000 to have public comment and
the approval of the Council.
The charter change was approved by a 70-30% margin.
The intent of this charter change was to eliminate all
non-emergency no-bid contracts and add a layer of openness and transparency
that did not exist in Kenner City Government.
Previously the Mayor had the power to distribute no-bid
professional services contracts to whomever he wished without public comment or
council approval. This power to dole out contracts gave the Mayor a powerful
tool to leverage city contractors for campaign contributions.
And leverage campaign contributors is a lesson that Mike
Yenni has learned well.
If you’re a business man, Mike Yenni is a great investment.
A few thousand dollars as a campaign contribution can, and does, lead to
hundreds of thousands in work for your company.
Yenni has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign
contributions from companies that are seeking contracts with the City and that
figure will only increase exponentially now that Yenni has almost $30 Million in
new bond debt available to pass out like Halloween candy to his campaign
contributors.
At Thursday’s council meeting, Mayor Yenni offered up two
more non-emergency, no-bid professional services contracts to benefit his
campaign contributors.
The contracts, approved unanimously by the Council and
without public comment, went to Digital Engineering & Imaging ($385,000)
and Hartman Engineering ($218,345). Ironically, both contracts are for sewer
force mains at the same sewerage transfer station.
Let’s hope the companies don’t bump into each other.
While Fox 8’s Lee Zurik and Manuel Torres from Nola.com are
doing some great work exposing campaign contributions on the state level in
their “Louisiana Purchased” series, Adriane Quinlan of Nola.com lifted the veil on campaign contributions purchasing influence in Kenner and implicated Yenni and the Council.
Digital's job is valued at $385,000 Since 2009, according to affidavits
that it submitted, the firm has contributed $13,450 to Kenner incumbents:
$5,000 to Mayor Mike Yenni, $2,750 to Councilwoman Maria DeFrancesch, $1,250
each to council members Michele Branigan and Jeannie Black, $1,000 each to
council members Joe Stagni and Kent Denapolis, $700 to Councilman Keith Reynaud
and $500 to Councilman Gregory Carroll.
Hartman's job is valued at $218,345 Since 2006, according to the years
of contributions that the firm included in its affidavits, the firm and its
owner, B.K. Sneed, have contributed $16,000 to Kenner incumbents: $7,500 to
Yenni, $2,500 to Branigan, $2,000 to DeFrancesch, $1,500 to Carroll, $750 each
to Black, Denapolis, and Stagni and $250 to Reynaud. In the 1990s, Sneed was
public works director under Jefferson Parish President Michael J. Yenni, uncle
of the Kenner mayor.
It is no surprise that Yenni had his greedy hands out and got
paid by Digital and Hartman but it was not disclosed by the Council that each
of them had their palms greased too.
Shouldn’t the Council, which, allegedly, are the “Stewards”
of our tax dollars either raised an objection, publicly disclosed the
contributions that they received and acknowledged their relationships with
these vendors and then abstained from voting? Wouldn’t that have been in the
best interest of the people of Kenner that they were elected to represent?
Instead, following Mayor Yenni’s “Leadership by Example”,
the Council was in on this tax payer fleecing too.
When District 2 Councilman Stagni raised a question about the
process, Gonzalez did his best to fumble out a response.
Public Works Director Jose Gonzalez said the firms were selected through Kenner's typical procedure for professional services contracts. Interested firms submit statements of qualifications, and a committee grades the submissions "Based on the committee and the grading, all the consultants are selected," Gonzalez said.
He said price was not a consideration in the selection, and he would not know what the firm price until the contracts are negotiated.
What???
$600,000 in Kenner tax dollars and “price was not a
consideration”?
If the price of a non-emergency, no-bid contract is not a
consideration, don’t you think it should be?
If these contracts were put through a competitive bid
process, is it not reasonable to assume that the people of Kenner could have
saved tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, in tax dollars?
And, is it also not safe to assume that, if the contracts
were combined and given to one contractor, that the total amount would have
been lower and the people of Kenner also saved money?
Sadly, neither occurred.
Now, “technically”, the council can hide behind their
charade and say that they fulfilled the charter change’s directive and they
reviewed the contracts as they were charged.
But, there was no public comment. Aside from Councilman
Stagni’s question, there were no other comments from any council member and no
disclosure that they too, like Yenni, had their hands in cookie jar.
In essence, Mayor Yenni and the entire Kenner City Council
thumbed their noses at the 70% of Kenner voters that approved the charter
change with the intention of ending nonsense like this.
And, while certainly not the first time that Yenni has done
a favor for his contributors or thumbed his nose at the people of Kenner, the
arrogance of Mayor Yenni and the collusion of the Council is disappointing
nonetheless.
Despite an overwhelming approval of a charter change and a
unanimous vote by the council, Mayor Yenni does whatever he desires with tax
dollars and is not held accountable by the council.
And that’s why, unless you are one of Mayor Yenni’s many
campaign contributors, Thursday was a sad day in Kenner.
How many more sad days and how much more financial pilfering
at the hands of Mike Yenni, and with the acceptance of the city council, can Kenner
endure?
