The Journal this morning, link, reported the back story about how APS Supt Winston Brooks came to get a brand new $28K hybrid SUV to tool around in, while at the same time we're trying to figure out how to make scarce dollars stretch as far as possible.
It turns out that the vehicle was bought for a maintenance worker who might need to drive up to Sandia Peak in inclement whether. Unfortunately, when the vehicle arrived, it was discovered that his ladder wouldn't fit into his new ride.
The solution; swap vehicles with the Supt who was already driving an SUV large enough to carry a ladder.
It all makes sense up until you wonder how it came to be that the District bought an expensive rolling tool box which was too small to hold all the tools. By any objective standard, the purchase was a $28K screw up.
The Journal's coverage, of course, stopped short of identifying the senior administrator(s) and purchasing guidelines responsible for buying an SUV for a purpose it did not fit.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Brooks' new ride
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4 comments:
I have never been known for a high IQ - most people I know refer to me as "that idiot." However I own an SUV and guess what! It comes with a roof rack. I routinely carry 24' ladders on the top. Sometime I carry six or eight ladders on the top at the same time. "Can't fit in the SUV?" - please - which one of us is the idiot - the "cant fit guy" or me.
On the Koat website, it reports there are at least 19 APS take-home cars, with yearly maintenance costs at about $48,000. Brooks says the cars will stay, and they are merited and just a "drop in the bucket" towards fixing the budget crisis, if eliminated.
In a later report, the board says that cutting these vehicles is a consideration.
If you compare the 2 reports, you catch Brooks in a lie about the per diem milage being more expensive than the costs of the cars. In the 1st interview he states as a fact the per diem is more expensive than the cars being bought and maintained by APS. In the 2nd interview, he admits to not having done the calculations.
In 1 interview, it is implied that one of the associate supes still lives in Santa Fe, and therefore has a car, and would get SF-ABQ per diem everyday. How is that legitimate? Nobody I ever have known gets per diem daily from home to work!
I wish KOAT would have asked how do low-paid teachers and therapists get their per diem cut while rich supes keep theirs? Is that Brooks idea of "a drop in the bucket" that he so frequently espouses?
What a jerk, and what a unprofessional tyrant!
And Hitler always got the 1st Mercedes off the assembly line, and you can guarantee it was the one HE wanted.
Say what you want about Hitler & Winston Brooks... but they both kept the trains running.
However, in Brook's case, it's the money train that keeps running!
Brooks stated in tV newscasts that the per diem was more costly than the maintenance and purchase f the vehicles. I think he stated the per diem as $.51 per mile, which I think is about double the standard in American companies.
19 cars @ at least $23K each + maintanace on all @ $48,000= a crapload of per diem!
I hope Brooks wasn't a math teacher!
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