Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Let's Clean Up the Capitol!

When Scott Walker "dropped the bomb" of ending collective bargaining rights as we know them, it sparked massive protests.  Thousands of Wisconsinites, occupied the Capitol for days on end trying to stop one of the worst bills in our lifetimes(ACT 10) from becoming law.   In the end it did, and the protestors headed back to their daily lives and jobs throughout WI. 

Enter Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch.  Huebsch estimated the "damage" done by the protestors to be approximately $7 Million dollars!  The right wing blogosphere and hate radio went into a frenzy.....some of the less reputable ones even added costs to that figure!

The problem of course was that they were lying(again).   The actual "damage" was considerably less with a still high estimate of $200,000 (of which most of that was clean up and general fixes that would have to be done anyway). 

Once the protestors left the Capitol back in the Walker administrations hands, and they were free to treat it the way they do everything they get control of - poorly.   

It turns out that instead of using Wisconsin State workers to clean the State Capitol, Walker decided to privatize.   Then after more information come out, we find that he did not even outsource to a Wisconsin company.   As Walker is also want to do, he picked the least qualified company possible, which will end up costing the taxpayers even more money in the end.    

Wisconsin state officials said Monday they may consider legal action against a cleaning company blamed for damaging marble floors in the Capitol last year.

Workers for Peterson Cleaning Inc. of Rockford, Ill., stained about 100 marble stones in August before the work was halted, said Paula Veltum, an official in the Department of Administration's facilities management division.





State workers began polishing the stained marble, most of it on the ground floor near the Rotunda, last week. It's expected to take up to two months to restore, at an estimated cost of more than $16,000.


The state canceled Peterson's contract in December, citing poor quality and lack of proper training for staff. Department spokeswoman Stephanie Marquis said in an email the state is reviewing the contract to dispute outstanding invoices and may consider legal action for damages. 
 So instead of using  state workers to do the job they are trained to do and have done, Walker hires and out of state private company.

Amateur Hour at the Capitol!!

Who would ever think its ok to hire an out of state firm to perform any services within the State Capitol?  What company would stain 100 marble stones before they realized it was not working? I guess the "higher taxes" in Illinois is not causing the businesses there to miss out on any contracts when going up against WI companies.  100 definite stains on marble that will take two full months to restore  only costs $16,000 to fix yet painters tape and landscaping costs somewhere between $200,000 and $7 Million? Nothing political there?

 Did Peterson cleaning write a loyalty check to Robin Vos?


When will the people of WI wise up and realize that the "fiscal conservatives" in Madison are breaking us???

 

14 comments:

  1. Wow - that's unbelievable! Imagine how much money we could have saved if we didn't have to clean it in the first place? Or if we billed the ones who caused the damage...

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    1. Please point me to the house that never needs cleaning. I would be very interested in seeing it!

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    2. Yeah - there's a perfect analogy. A house. Would probably be even better analogy if you said "Please point me to the house that never needs cleaning after the parents leave for the weekend and the teenagers have a house party." Just glad we all get to foot the bill.

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    3. Actually its the people's house, but as long as slime like Scott jensen have urn of the place it needs a deep cleaning.

      We all get to "foot the bill "often....like every time the repubs pass stupid unconstitutional laws that spend years in court....

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    4. Hundreds of thousands of people visit the capitol every year. Please point to another group of people that caused this level of damage.

      There are over 5.7M residents in Wisconsin that get to pay for the damage of a few thousand. But yes, let's blame Walker for that too. That's the adult thing to do. It's the fringe nutjobs on both sides that are destroying this country.

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    5. "Just glad we all get to foot the bill."

      Yeah, damn that whole democratic process and those constitutional rights! I wonder if you feel the same way about the financial costs of all of the constitutional rights that we enjoy?

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    6. Ha - which part of the constitution guarantees the right to property damage without recourse again?

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    7. I believe that would be the part that Joel Kleefisch used so that Herr Environmental could dump thousands of gallons of human shit down people's water wells.

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    8. "Ha - which part of the constitution guarantees the right to property damage without recourse again? "

      That would be this part, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

      You know, that whole right to peaceably assemble, and petition the Government for a redress of grievances part? It doesn't have a qualifier with it that states, "Unless some anonymous know-nothing objects to the cost of aforementioned rights". When 100,000 people get together to exercise a constitutionally protected right, grass can get trampled.

      So, again, do you feel the same way about the financial costs of all of the constitutional rights that we enjoy, or just the ones that you don't personally agree with?

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  2. Anonymous of 11:13am is missing the point. The "assessment" was anything but an assessment. It was a highly padded ripoff designed to embarrass some and be a "payoff" to others. There was no where near that kind of damage or cleaning needed. All smoke and mirrors by "Scooter" and the "Gang".

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  3. It was also the case that a masons' union within AFSCME offered to do the work for free. The Walker Admin (to the best of my knowledge) never responded to their offer.

    So Walker could have "billed" - in a manner of speaking - the ones who "caused" the "damage". He chose not to.

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  4. Here's an idea.

    The million plus of us who voted for Wisconsin will chip in and pay for the cost of that clean up.

    In return, those that stand with Walker can pay for the legal fees defending all of their illegal bills; pay for the cost of cleaning up the environment from all the fracking, the iron mine (if it ever happens) and all the other pollutants; the legal costs - including the incarcerations and extended supervision - for all of the Walkergate defendants, including Walker himself.

    How's that?

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    Replies
    1. If we want to charge the person who made the mess, then we should look at the person that dropped the "baaawmm"

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  5. I spent a night at the capitol and at about 3am a group of loud republican staffers walked through the capitol yelling and slamming doors to wake people and then one of them poured a can of soda on the floor next to my head...

    as anyone who was there knows, the people who occupied the capitol did a great deal to clean up after themselves and actually coordinated with the cleaning staff. the stories of people urinating or defecating in
    the capitol are completely unfounded. the claims of damage caused by the painter's tape was essentially without merit. on the night the repubs voted on act 10 and the capitol was reoccupied ( for the most part occurring after the police re opened the doors and abandoned their posts) a door was kicked in. the interesting thing about the kicked in door was-it was already open for hours before being damaged.

    Not to hard to figure these things out if you have a mind to. The walker folks and their minions would do anything to discredit the very people they were sworn to represent-the citizens of Wisconsin.

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