The Mayor of West Lake Hills has signed a letter from the Texas Board of Professional Engineers indicating his agreement to the Board�s demand that WLH follow State Law requiring the engineering of City public works projects.
The State Engineering Board found that the City had not been in compliance with State Law and required the City to provide after the fact engineering on multiple public works projects including the City Administration Building and the City Police Department Building.
The basis for this action is the Texas Engineering Practice Act, Section 19. Public Work. It states that "It is unlawful for this state or for any of its political subdivisions, including any county, city, or town, to engage in the construction of any public work involving professional engineering, where public health, public welfare or public safety is involved, unless the engineering plans and specifications and estimates have been prepared by, and the engineering construction is to be executed under the direct supervision of a registered professional engineer."
The Mayor is very quick to comment that the illegal activity was not during his time in office. Open records indicate a substantial amount of the noncompliance was in fact during his time in office. All of the public works projects without engineering in violation of the State Engineering Act contracted by Architect Mr. Allan Nutt was done under the personal administration of City Attorney, Mr. Jim Koehn. It should not be unreasonable to expect a City Attorney with minimal experience to know and comply with State Law requiring the engineering of municipal buildings.
The city had contracted with Mr. Nutt for and paid Mr. Nutt for engineering services. The brief cover letter attached to Mr. Nutt�s contract for architectural services reiterates what his standard AIA contract states as to his inclusion of engineering services. No engineering services were provided per the contract and per State law.
The taxpayers of West Lake Hills have already paid for engineering services per the original contract with Mr. Nutt, already paid for after the fact engineering, and may now be subject to paying the costs involved in a substantial structural repair on the City Hall. This repair to the structural floor framing may be required to bring the City Hall into compliance with the Building Code and to maintain a legal certificate to occupy.
The West Lake Hills Patriot
Patriot Interview
featuring Mr. Lester Germanio
Patriot: Well, Mr. Germanio, I understand you turned a bunch of the WLH City bureaucrats into the FBI. What, are you nuts?Mr. Germanio: First of all, you can call me Lester. I did turn �em in, but I don�t believe much will be done about it. It seems we have come to accept corruption in local government as standard operating procedure. I am going to defer the question of my sanity to the readers.
Patriot: So, what is this all about? Tell me what went on during the construction of this sandwich shop that could have been so bad? Do I understand correctly that this case is still being looked at by the FBI and the Travis County District Attorney White Collar Crime Unit?
Lester: I have to go with a �No Comment� on what the White Collar Crime investigator with the Travis County DA and the Squad 24 guy with the FBI are doing. What I can tell you is what I understand and can piece together about this whole mess from information that was obtained from open records. Basically, it appears that we have an Assistant City Attorney profiting tens of thousands of dollars by the City�s decision to not require enforcement of a federally mandated State Law being applied to her West Lake Hills commercial construction project.
Patriot: Sounds serious. What law are we talking about and what does it have to do with?
Lester: It has to do with the health, safety, and welfare of the public in general. And specifically with the potential environmental contamination from the unlicensed removal of asbestos from a construction site.
Patriot: Can you be more specific.
Lester: The Texas Health Department by a mandate from the Environmental Protection Agency has a rule that basically says that prior to any commercial renovation or demolition, there has to be an asbestos survey done. If asbestos is found, the survey has to be filed with the State Health Department and the asbestos has to be abated and the project cleared prior to the renovation or demolition proceeding. There can be prison time and up to $25,000. criminal penalty.
Patriot: It sounds like the government guys take this law pretty seriously. How are the WLH City officials involved in any criminal activity that would cause you to bother the FBI?
Lester: The State law, which basically says that a municipality that normally requires a permit for such work as a commercial renovation or demolition, may not issue the permit for such a project until proof is given that the survey was done.
Patriot: What proof do they require?
Lester: The City of West Lake Hills required a commercial building application be signed by the applicant swearing to the fact that the asbestos survey was done.
Patriot: Was the application signed by the applicants swearing the survey was done per the State Health Department law?
Lester: Yep.
Patriot: Was a survey done?
Lester: Not to the best of my knowledge.
Patriot: What makes you think there was any possibility of asbestos present in the building in the first place? Isn�t that really the important question?
Lester: Yes, that would be the important question. The anchor store and a number of other adjacent buildings in this old strip center have had asbestos containing materials identified and abated. I would wager that what the inspectors had suspected were ACM�s being removed by non licensed workers were in fact, exactly that.
Patriot: Can you attempt to explain what the heck is going on here? I am not following your desire to extend this trail of red tape. Is there something wrong with a little arbitrary enforcement of the law and the throwing around of a few political favors?
Lester: I dunno. It just didn�t seem right. Anyway, here is an e-mail I sent to Councilman Webster where I attempt to explain the problem to him. He apparently has not been able to understand it either. It�s kinda funny how someone�s ability to see right from wrong becomes impaired once they get in a position to administer it. I guess when you are looking in a mirror, telling right from wrong could get a little confusing.
�I am at a loss why so many can't see the problem with Jim Stearman and RJ's.The Federally mandated State law says it is unlawful to do renovation or demolition prior to getting an asbestos survey.It also says a jurisdiction may not issue a permit without proof of an asbestos survey.The civil penalty for violation is up to $10,000. a day and the criminal penalty is up to $25,000. and two years.The City Officials knew the law and had it addressed on their commercial building application.Their proof required by the law was the sworn statement by the applicant.When Jim knew there wasn't a survey, he knew that there was a false statement on the application and he should have stopped the project until a survey was preformed and the asbestos, if any, was abated.My assumption is that Jim knew there wasn't a survey when he was directed to tell McComis (who twice asked to see the survey) that the City was not going to require one.If the City (Jim and who directed him) wasn't going to require what is mandated by the EPA and is State law, there is a problem.When a group of people in official capacity whose primary function is the health, safety, and welfare of the public and the enforcement of laws dealing with such, knowingly conspire to not enforce a law dealing with the health, safety, and welfare of the public and as a consequence, one of the group profits; there is an even bigger problem.It is even worse when some are officers of the court.If there is doubt what the law says, I can send you a copy of it.If there is doubt about the severity of the penalties, I can send you a copy of those .If there is doubt that Rob Lane signed that he solemnly swore that the survey was done, I can send you a copy of the application.If you doubt that McComis twice asked for a copy of the survey, I can send you copies of the inspections.If you doubt what Jim told the inspectors, you can ask Mike Young. If you doubt that Jim was doing his job and following directions, you can ask Jim.I don't see many interpretations, conspiring and profiting from these unlawful actions amount to felony level crimes.�
Patriot: Who directed Mr. Stearman? And who is this officer of the court you mention? Profit? How could any body profit by not following the law? How much do you speculate that they profited?
Lester: Mr. Stearman has mentioned to a few different people that he was doing his job and that he was following directions. My guess is that it was Mayor Thompson or City Attorney Jim Koehn who told Mr. Stearman the City was not going to require an asbestos survey and the subsequent asbestos abatement on RJ�s Caf�. The officer of the Court would be the owner, Julie Koehn Lane who is the WLH Assistant City Attorney and WLH City Attorney Jim Koehn�s daughter. By profit, I am estimating a savings in construction costs of about $20,000. to $30,000. or so for not needing to do the survey, not needing to properly abate the asbestos, and not having the down time in the construction process for the survey and asbestos abatement as required by federally mandated state law.
No comments:
Post a Comment