I have, to a degree, been following the scandal associated with the Procurement policies of the Sarasota Country Government…
The scandal seems to have broken out with the arrest of a county employee, by the name of Rodney Jones, for taking kickbacks from the Chaz Equipment Co. It seems that Mr. Jones used a process called Piggybacking so that the Chaz Equipment Co., who had a contract with Del Ray Beach, would not have to go through a bid process and thus they save a good chunk of money.
It soon came out that there were a number of times when employees used the County Credit cards so that the bid process could be avoided.
Contractors, who lost out in the bidding process, complained to the Country commissioners, who pass the complaints to Jim Ley, the country administrator, who started a policy of charging $2,000 for the Contractors to file complaints. Then the complains were not investigated.
When Karen Rushing, as Clerk of Court, sent the commission the results of audit, or suggestions on how to fix problems, they were shuffled off to Jim Ley, who would blow them off.
We have a new County administrator now but, the question I ask is this: What do they do?
That Joe Guy 