Ward 3 in Rapid City, currently has one candidate for city council, Jerry Wright. Jerry is a nice guy. But it was under his watch that all the nonsense at the landfill took place, and had been taking place for many years...enough that the statute of limitations is the only thing preventing prosecutors from filing more charges. Criminal acts were taking place under his nose and he did not report them to law enforcement. Rather, he sent a memo asking the perps to kindly stop.
E-mail evidence, which became public during the Kooiker Censure demonstrate that when it was brought to Wright's attention more forcefully, he interviewed one of the accused and asked him if he was on the take. The defendant replied that he wasn't. Thus, Jerry's ass was apparently covered.
We need more competence in Ward 3. Time prevents me from running, or I would. Please volunteer. I'll help anyone running against Jerry Wright.
8 comments:
If you only read 1 of my posts, please let it be this one.
I don't think Wright would be very tough to beat - he's well liked from what I hear and pretty smart, but what happened at the landfill is very serious and this story is only starting to heat up. Consider this, between Jan. 1, 2006, and Feb. 7, 2006, 266 loads, or 1,418 tons, were declared, at the landfill, as alternative cover, when in reality, most were likely construction debris, according to a memo Wright wrote February 7, 2006 - a memo that that the people of Rapid City never heard about until February of 2009. Sam was never told about the 2006 memo in 2009 when he asked about alleged fraud at the landfill.
Anyway, each of those 1,400 tons goes for about 50 dollars a ton, according to the Journal. If you do the math, the taxpayers of Rapid City lost 70,000.00 when Wright wrote that memo (the fraud, of course, continued - I think I heard that the state alleges that the taxpayers may have lost over a million dollars).
In response to allegations that the taxpayers had been cheated out of 70,000.00 dollars, Wright wrote, "This process has resulted in a significant loss of income to the landfill and is henceforth stopped." I want to know why he failed to report what is clearly a crime against the taxpayers of Rapid City to the appropriate authorities? That is unconscionable in itself. It is also unconscionable that Hanks failed to hold Wright accountable when he learned of Wight's failure to report to the authorities the 70,000.00 the RC taxpayers were cheated out of. I wouldn't be too sure that the prosecutors don't want to know the answer to those questions as well.
Also, as mentioned, Wright wrote this memo in 2006. In 2009, Sam Kooiker, emailed the city, including Wright, and said he thought there was fraud at the landfill. Sam was told that everything is fine. Hanks, Ellis nor Wright never told Sam about the 70,000 fraud that occurred in 2006.
The trials are going to be very interesting - who knows who will start talking?
My facts come from this Journal article (which the Journal decided to print right after the censure hearing, for a reason - Sam was attacked because he blew the whistle on the landfill:
http://m.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_1a42c40c-54c0-11df-bf7e-001cc4c002e0.html
Ward 3 is famous for uncontested races. I like Jerry, but I dont want him on the council. SOMEBODY PLEASE STEP UP !!
A tad more persrective;
The numbers, as revealed by Taco; Mean that there was an illegal dump made about once an hour 8 hrs a day, 6 days a week at over 250 dollars a load. 250 bucks per hour for years and years and years and the respose was - " this... is henceforth stopped"
Thats a mega-lame response given the severity of the "theft"
Jerry is a nice enough guy - but definitely not City Council material. I shudder to think about what his real motives are in running. I think he is trying to rehabilitate his image after the landfill scandal. Folks, the City Council is not the place to rehabilitate your image.
I don't think Jerry realizes that during the course of the election he is going to be grilled about this issue. If the situation with Sam was so "stressful" that it made him retire early, I'm sure he is not prepared for the rigors of a debate or public questioning. I wonder what goes through his mind that he somehow feels he is not responsible for any of this. I think Jerry is a heck of a nice guy, but we want someone on the council that has some backbone.
I don't like the idea of former employees becoming members of their former employer's "citizen legislatures." I don't like retired Sheriffs or Deputies becoming County Commissioners and I don't like former department heads becoming City Council Members. I can't really articulate my antipathy about this, but it makes me uncomfortable. Consultants or advisers on an ad hoc basis maybe, but not the actual decision makers.
Someone has suggested I have inside information. Not so. The statute of limitations remark was based on information given to me by City Attorney Jason Green at the press conference he called to show off the new cameras at the scale. All the rest is in the public record as a result of the bogus "1000" e-mails placed in evidence by the city in supposed support of the Kooiker censure.
Except for Sanborn's statute of limitations remark, everything he said about the landfill and much more can be found in the documents linked to @ Sam's website:
http://www.standwithsam.com/alan-hanks-misconduct/landfill-fraud/
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