Checks and Balances Project Calls on NYC Oversight Officials to Probe Stonewalling by Mayor’s Office, City Agencies on Public Records of $47M Boondoggle

Posted by & filed under E-Procurement, Posts.

Corey Johnson The Mayor’s Office of Contract Services has spent eight months evading requests for emails from former Chief Procurement Officer Michael Owh concerning the origins of a multi-million-dollar contract with an inexperienced French technology company. Four years after the City awarded Ivalua a lucrative contract for eProcurement software, the system still doesn’t work as promised.

On 10th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina Former New Orleans Resident Questions African-American Leaders Siding With Climate Deniers

Posted by & filed under TOP STORIES, Posts.

New Orleans has many nicknames: The Crescent City, The Birthplace of Jazz, and The Big Easy. It’s also my hometown but Hurricane Katrina cast me out. In 2005, I was an investigator for the New Orleans district attorney’s office who was invested in making a great city even better. Along with hundreds of thousands of others,… Read more »

Checks and Balances Project Launches Investigation of Nevada PUC Commissioner David Noble

Posted by & filed under Posts, Captured Regulators, Nevada.

My colleague Evlondo Cooper and I just returned from a six-day fact-finding visit to Nevada, where we met with reporters and editors, civic leaders, and others. Our trip to Carson City, Reno, and Las Vegas was designed to give us a better understanding of the dynamic between the Nevada Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and the… Read more »

Top Headline, August 24

Posted by & filed under News.

Excerpt from KJZZ (8/24/15): “Utility Regulator’s Business Ties Called Into Question” : Bitter Smith, a Republican, is a registered lobbyist for Cox Communications, a status she’s held long before her 2012 election to the commission. Cox is regulated for cable by the Federal Communications Commission and local municipalities. But because it also offers telephone services, Cox… Read more »

Top Headline, August 18th, 2015

Posted by & filed under News.

Excerpt from The Arizona Republic (8/17/15): “Our View: Can commissioners be bought? Here’s a test”  The moment of truth — consideration of a fee increase for rooftop-solar customers of Arizona Public Service — is upon Arizona’s all-Republican Corporation Commission. The moment is an uncomfortable one. Two of the sitting commissioners are widely believed to have… Read more »

Top Headlines, August 17, 2015

Posted by & filed under News.

Excerpt from The Sierra Vista Herald (8/13/15): “Utility regulator wants change in public records law” State utility regulator Bob Burns wants lawmakers to tighten up the state’s Public Records Law, possibly setting up a “gatekeeper” who would have to approve — and could deny — requests. Burns, a former state Senate president, said his concerns… Read more »

Top Headline, August 14th, 2015

Posted by & filed under News.

Excerpt from The Arizona Republic (8/13/15): “How utterly fitting. Corporation Commissioner wants to limit public’s access to public’s business” For months, the Checks and Balances Project has been trying to get a look at Commissioner Bob Stump’s text messages sent on his commission-supplied phone during the 2014 campaign season. Specifically, it’s interested in what Stump was… Read more »