re: Residents Blast Mitch Landrieu today in special meeting

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Having memorials to traitors in the streets is fricking disgraceful

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May 09, 2008

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The New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board is poised to buy 20 sewer pumps for twice the amount FEMA estimated they should cost because the board's request for bids called for a specific brand and model of pump that only one local vendor can sell in Louisiana. That vendor, the politically active Harahan firm Parson & Sanderson, has told contractors bidding to install the pumps that 20 of the model required by the city will cost almost $900,000. Another vendor agrees with FEMA's estimated price, about $450,000 for the 20 pumps, and says he can provide another brand of pumps of the same quality for roughly that amount. That supplier, Tony Stackpole of Allan J. Harris Co., wrote a letter to the S&WB in which he says that Parson & Sanderson is using its position as the exclusive Louisiana seller of Fairbanks Morse pumps to inflate its prices.

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Cheaper in Texas

In Louisiana, the Fairbanks Morse brand pumps can be purchased only through Parson & Sanderson, a longtime player on the local political scene. The firm's principals are major donors to many political campaigns in Jefferson Parish, although the company is active across the region, particularly in the suburbs.

With no other supplier able to meet the requirements for the Sewerage & Water Board job, Parson & Sanderson faced no competition in setting its price. The company quoted a price of $896,850 to contractors seeking the job from the water board, contractors confirmed.

Stackpole thinks that's too high, and as evidence, he provided a quote for a Fairbanks Morse pump -- the same model number desired by the water board -- that was drafted by a company that holds the rights to sell the brand in Texas. The price given by the Texas vendor, who cannot sell them in Louisiana, was about 75 percent lower than the price Parson & Sanderson quoted local contractors.

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It wasn't crime, economy, education, or no jobs etc - it was the monuments that caused our best and brightest, our people to move from New Orleans- it was the monuments"

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This mother f***** spent the last eight months focusing on Statue removal instead of having the city's pump system ready for hurricane season. I don't know what to tell you New Orleans but y'all got f*****

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