The N&R's Margaret Banks.

The Walt Jones letter got attention from the Rhino and from the blogs. It got so much attention that the N&R's Margaret Banks claimed she was going to look into it.

Margaret Banks did not go very far with her story about the infamous Walt Jones Letter. That certainly was not a surprise to me. This is not the only story the N&R has failed to report on.

I talked with Banks for a few seconds recently and asked her how come she and the N&R did not report on the Walt Jones letter. She repeated basically what she wrote on her blog. I then asked her why the N&R never gave Willow Oaks much thought either. She replied that there just was nothing to report about regarding the Willow Oaks case. I then just said thanks and hung up.

The Willow Oaks story is full of news. A contractor was paid an additional $34,000 a year after the job was done. He was paid not because of documentation or legal obligations. He was paid in the spirit of keeping a good working relationship with the local contracting community. He turned in forged documents to the city that totaled over $7,000.

The Rhino wrote about it and forced an investigation. That investigation resulted in the contractor not being allowed to bid on jobs for the city anymore. That is not news? Certainly we would not see a headline that said something like "Forged documents get local contractor banned" because nobody would see that as news.

However, the action in Willow Oaks is not as news worthy as the lack of action. During his many explanations for the additional payment to the contractor, Mitch Johnson gave some very misleading statements. He also paid the contractor when he did not have the authority to do so. Willow Oaks has many stories.

Here is a summary:Contractor is awarded a job. Purchase Order #10821 is created for $30,959. A payment for additional work documented as Change Order #1 for $16,875 was made. This payment was documented as bordering on generous. Another payment was made a year later for $35,006. The total payments for a job bid at $30,959 came to $82,840.

The city manager can only approve change orders less than $20,000. Anything over that amount has to come before council. The first additional payment was under $20,000. The second payment one year later was for over $20,000. The second payment should have been brought before council. However, it was not. Mitch was asked about this and claimed that the second payment was a settlement of an agreement and the manager could settle for up to $100,000 without council's approval. However, that was a crock.




Mitch realized his first answer was stupid and denied saying it. Banks was there on both occasions and did not seem to care. Mitch can do whatever he wants even if he does not have the authority to do it.

The bottom line is the second payment should have gone before council and it did not. Banks missed that part. Mitch was asked why it did not and he was very misleading when he answered a very direct question. There are a lot of stories in Willow Oaks, unless you are Margaret Banks.

Banks also refused to report on the Linda Miles lie. Not one word came from the N&R when the city attorney blatantly lied to council. Nobody wants to talk about that at the N&R. Have you ever read the Miles and Carr's apology and explanation? Maybe Sandy could post it? Maybe the N&R could request it? Don't keep your fingers crossed because the response makes things look even worse. There is nothing wrong with the city attorney misleading the city council?

The one thing Banks did go after hard was pretty insignificant. Banks wrote more than one time about Bellamy-Small's controversial speeding ticket. She got the information from my blog and ran with it. We have not seen such tenacity since. Banks went after office space and a speeding ticket while ignoring forgery, contractors being banned, the city manager settling imaginary agreements to avoid following contract laws and the city attorney's pretend conversations with the folks at the institute of government.

Her ability to report news is shaky at best. I have pointed this out before and felt the need to do it again.