...and if any of his structures crumb and kill anyone, add mulitple counts of murder!
This reminds me of a situation we had in San Diego before minority set-asides in city work were abolished. One company was a Black-owned concrete supplier. When delivering for a non set-aside job, the guy charged a regular price, but when it was "Black concrete", the price went way up because he was the only game in town. Idiocy like that is illustrative of why those programs are usually a bad thing for taxpayers.
Programs which by their very nature are unethical, immoral and discriminatory.
"He was not a malicious guy. He didn't go into this business thinking he was going to rip people off,'' said San Francisco Supervisor Fiona Ma, who gave back $5,500 that Ramirez contributed in 2004 to her state Assembly bid after the news broke of the fraud allegations in May.
"He's a hard-working guy, just trying to survive,'' Ma said. "He takes care of his grandkids. He doesn't have an easy life."
And there you have it -- a local politician on record explaining away the fraudulent activity of a supporter. San Francisco politicians are priceless.
This form of affirmative action racism is an affront to every hard working American.
Yeah, but at least a minority got the contract!
We actually have a situation where the engineers say "recycling" is bad? What do the enviros have to say about this? They should have the final say on whether recycled concrete aggregate can be used or not.
I work at a medium size airport in the mid west and seen many construction projects on the runways and taxiways. In each contract, when the work was finished but before it was accepted, a separate sub contractor would come out and drill core samples of the pavement put down to make sure it met specs.
Somebody check and see if he did any subcontract work for the Big Dig in Boston.
"....that included earthquake retrofit work on the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge. By 2003, his Pacific Cement venture was supplying a third of the concrete used in San Francisco's public works projects."
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Where are the core sample test results? This stuff should have been tested at each pour. The licensed Professional Engineers in charge of each of these projects should have their license revoked, then fine the hell out of them. They each defrauded the taxpayers as much as the concrete supplier did.
I always feel a little uncomfortable driving over a bridge ---- built by the lowest bidder.
Back in a former life, I did materials testing for road construction. This should have been an issue THEN, WHEN THE TEST CYLINDERS FAILED.
Who was the guy in the DOT that looked the other way? He's just as guilty.
How’d this miserable little bastard manage to qualify for the minority programs? His business should have never gotten off the ground!
These set-aside programs often permit a minority bidder to win with a slightly higher price. This theoretically would allow the government to command equal or higher quality from the “disadvantaged” firm. You can command all you want but if you don’t have the mechanisms to ensure quality (good past performance record or some kind of good QA/QC procedures or measures on the materials and workmanship), this is what you will eventually get.
This dillrod could have had it all....too bad he blew it.