FINALLY CAUGHT - 22 YEARS after the fact:

A coworker who had repeatedly inspected the illegally sole-sourced roofs at UCSF was finally - 22 years later - caught doing the same as in the Roofing Scam - Illegally sole-sourcing millions of dollars in contracts to one company

Update, April 28, 2019

Several months ago I received a message from someone I had not heard from since 1997, when the whole uncovering of this massive international scam had begun with the report of  one roofing manufacturer’s illegally sole-sourced specifications that were handed over to the FBI.  

The FBI had "Strongly Recommended Prosecutions" of my bosses in my case. 

The former colleague told me that finally, 22 years after my first report to the FBI, one of our coworkers had been caught.  The head of Inspections for all the Hospitals and structures for the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

UCSF had at that time over 112 buildings and were involved in or owned 5-6 hospitals in the city.  They have many more structures now, particularly at Mission Bay, built on fill from the Bay, and some cracking now. 

And yes, these same roofs that I reported illegally sole-sourced went down on some or many of the new structures, according to sources.

The consultant coworker that contacted me was clean, an OSHPD Inspector (hospitals) that did it right.  God only knows how much in bad construction has been approved under my dirty coworker in hospitals in San Francisco, since that report I made 22 years ago.  

The University of California, by shutting down investigations and prosecutions in my case  through Robert Mueller, the US Attorney General at the time, has very likely endangered many lives as a result.

We knew at that time that a large area in concrete slab over the Emergency Room at San Francisco General Hospital was like sand, you could try to drill through it and it would come out as sand, pouring out....how much more passed inspections in the past 22 years that should not have?

This head of Inspections in our unit was caught out in a lawsuit for apparently taking Kickbacks for illegally sole-sourcing contracts.  The very thing I had reported to the FBI 22 years ago.

And YES – this same man signed off on the “inspections” of the very same roofing materials whose many years' repeated, illegally sole-sourced specifications I had seen were “let” for “bidding” at the University of California, San Francisco.

His whole family has been caught for taking massive kickbacks, in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, for contracts worth millions to one company.

But not by the FBI, and not by the DOJ  (the DOJ does not appear to be backing up the FBI in San Francisco, unfortunately.)

Caught instead by a private consulting company apparently investigating for their own suit over getting locked out of contracts.

The California State Attorney General's Offices did not catch it, nor did the San Francisco Attorney’s Offices, apparently involved here now and known for doing the wrong thing repeatedly (as in lllegal immigrants, etc.) and also not doing the right thing in the Construction and Design world.  They are known as an arm of the Willie Brown machine,  San Francisco has some massive cleaning up to do, and I absolutely want no part of them or their troubles.  They are not to be trusted under any circumstances.

Has any of this been reported to the Department of Justice?

Has any of this been reported to the California State Auditor's Offices?

Has any of this been reported to the Inspector Generals' Offices (Federal) who distributes federal research dollars?

They need outside help from Washington DC to come in and clean up this City and State.

Worse, as seen by the Dayton Daily News' 17-months' long NY Times Newswire front page Sunday paper national link of the roofing scam to my case and that of New Jersey's report, that Willie Brown machine shuts down news reports, owning the editorial rooms of the “news” papers and television stations in San Francisco.  I never saw opinions expressed as “news” until I moved to San Francisco….in Atlanta you would have been fired for it.

So what did it take?

My former coworker was not exposed by the FBI, the DOJ, a State Attorney General or any Inspector General's Offices, he was caught and exposed  by a private company in litigation over being shut out in "bidding" that was pre-ordained as to the outcome.

And they had to file it outside San Francisco. 

That should tell you everything.

And it was NOT REPORTED in San Francisco – as usual – except in an obscure article in a Business Magazine. 

Story Located here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2018/08/10/ucsf-lawsuit-isi-inspections-mission-bay-parnassus.html

Update March 2018 to Your Vote in This Presidential Election Makes All the Difference

I have edited this post as of March 6, 2018, as more posts are now to come.  

Another update below as of September 15, 2018 so noted below.

Too many people are still being affected by the scam continuing, and I keep getting requests to post more of what they see.  

For those who have read this blog before, you might want to read the end of Point 2.

This is the first time I have posted some of what has happened through the years that is behind the scams, why they exist - beyond simple greed.

It might help you fight it.

The scammers need to be made aware of what they have done that they may not know they have, using illegal specifications and certain business practices.   And how much they have hurt their families, their communities, all of us.

It has to be exposed.  

The one thing politicians in San Francisco were so afraid would be done.
______________________________________

Point One - For those that are reading about the scam for the first time:

Here's the first TV report of the scam, it explains it and yes I helped them . The Tremco in-House Documents I gave them, from the author of the first trade magazine report on what they were doing, which came out the year I went to the FBI, in 1997. And yes, I am on the NBC Dateline Hidden camera flown out to me from New York, on this report on WLWT in Cincinnati, I shot it - of the third company involved, Hickman, started by the Marketing executive from Tremco.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGPNJxK1ZRQ

The first Legislature to hold a hearing was California, when I called one of the Committees. Many jumped in and helped.  This was the first time three of the four major roofing manufacturers came forward to talk about it - ever. The fourth, Johns Manville, owned by Warren Buffet, openly private labels product for Tremco. You will see Don Lambrecht,  talking, as well as the best boutique roofing manufacturer on on the West Coast, Malarkey Roofing. Jim Miner, who had owned Hester Roofing in Sacramento, figured out how to get them all to come forward: Don't mention the names of the perpetrators....  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SPGTLMKT60

 The first story ever linking the scam nationally was on the front page, Sunday paper, Dayton Daily News, Oct. 22, 2000 - a Cincinnati, Ohio area major daily (Cox Newspapers, who also own the Atlanta Journal and Constitution) and was on the New York Times Newswire for 17 months. My case was linked with the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation under Chris Christie looking into the scam, and their report printed in Sept. 2000.  It is not available online anymore - at the very end of this post.

----------------------------------------
 The link to the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation Report:  
http://www.state.nj.us/sci/pdf/Roofing_Report.pdf

 The link to the California Bureau of State Audits Report in my case - it is Chapter 5, starting on page 31 of the report and page 36 of the actual .pdf and is only four short pages. They got to the point - damning of UCSF and the specs from Tremco I handed them, the same ones I gave the FBI - who "Strongly Recommended Prosecutions" of my bosses at UCSF over the illegally sole-sourced specs : https://www.auditor.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/I2003-2.pdf

The link to the SF Weekly front page cover story "The Fix Is In" I and another person were in, backing up each other's story and going to the same FBI Agents, February 26, 2003, of the 600,000 person distribution newspaper, and yes, it's not just roofing, another big area is another hidden maintenance item - mechanical costs:    http://www.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/the-fix-is-in/Content?oid=2147025

And here's a Facilities Manager who can no longer get a job thanks to his School Board firing him for going to the FBI regarding the sole-sourcing of Garland Roofing products (an offshoot of Tremco) - which the State Legislative Committee person told his School District personnel about...to get him fired....but the now infuriated School Board President (Ken Mettler, former President of the California Republican Assembly) and members were duped by an involved School Superintendent that it was something else, completely untrue. Anyone got a job for John????  
http://www.bakersfield.com/news/2014/01/07/district-paid-900-000-to-settle-whistleblower-lawsuits.html

The GSA successfully sued Tremco. The GSA called me over the weekend before they went into Tremco's offices, from Cleveland, Ohio, and then flew out here to talk to me in the Federal Building in San Francisco. I sent them many documents roofers from all over sent me. Here's a report on that suit that the GSA won:  https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/rpm-international-inc-and-tremco-inc-pay-nearly-61-million-failing-provide-government
_____________________________________

Point Two - The Roofing Scam and How the a Political Party Used It To Control Votes:  New Jersey to California

Caution for those who think I believe the scam is a "leftist plot".  No, you have assumed incorrectly.

It's not a leftist plot, it's being used by those who find it convenient, to control others for money and power.

And it has appeared to have happened primarily with one party, remarkably, from New Jersey to California.  Just reporting what has been seen, in over 2 decades. Can't help that.

I hope you heard what I just said.  What I have written below is a quick encapsulation of what we have seen in just one state, and what has transpired in my case alone over the past 21+ years

It's what we ran into, over and over again when trying to get something done in the scam.  Others are known to have had very similar experiences.

We didn't cause who was involved to be who they were.  They just are.  So - don't read into this that I think it's a leftist plot.

It is, however, a scam being used by those who find it available and convenient to control others for money and power. 

Which gets back to what else?  Greed.

I am not responsible for who chose to do it.  Reporting the facts as to who did it is simply that - facts.  It's false to assume otherwise.

For those who don't believe the scam has somehow been used in political hoo-doo: Just read what happened in New Jersey Sept. 6, 2007, after just one School Board member was targeted in the Roofing Scam Sting paired with Insurance Fraud....he pointed to someone across the state who controlled another board, who pointed them to another and so on - the FBI arrested 11 Democrats, including 2 Mayors, 5 City Council Members and 4 School Board Members. CNN reported on it here: http://www.cnn.com/.../POLI.../09/06/nj.arrets/index.html...

One of those arrested in that sting? On Hillary Clinton's panel of Mayors supporting her in her first Presidential bid. He describes how it was done....and what they controlled: 
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/clinton-supporter-arrested-in-nj-corruption-sting/?_r=1 

The backstory I have never posted with everything that happened - so you can fight the scam effectively where you are:

It was three Democrats in San Francisco who threatened me over continuing my whistleblowing case.  

Those are facts.  No Republican did, after I left the Dems and went to the Republicans.  Only one Republican tried to stop others from listening once - but he was directly involved with one of the three Dems who threatened me.

The first was the then Mayor/former 20-year State Assembly Leader, still controlling Mayors in San Francisco, then two San Francisco School Board Presidents - who were also on the Democrat Central Committee in San Francisco.  One told me that she had been called before a Grand Jury regarding   her Facilities Director being caught stealing millions from the San Francisco School District.  She said that when she was "asked about kickbacks" she told them that "Everybody was doing it!" - laughing as she told me.  Then she threatened my life, twice in the next two minutes. 

Yes, they all really happened.

The third, another San Francisco School Board President?  Kept tabs on this blogger for about 10 years with a brother-in-law, unknown to myself their relationship, doing a design for a "cabin in the woods" just south of San Francisco.  About 18 months before he was picked up with 27 others by the FBI for bribery and corruption, with yet another San Francisco School Board President for the same, I discovered the relationship. 

 At that point, they approached me to have me do work on one of their houses, but through a daughter....and then he wanted to meet.  He spoke sweetly but if looks could kill! while his daughter left me in that Gallery Room alone with him - and he did it again, outside.  That was Sept. 2013.  Then in early 2014, the FBI picked him up, and he was convicted.  He's still in Federal Prison as of this writing, I believe in Fort Worth, Texas.

Do you think they stopped at that point with the contacts?   No.   As of Thanksgiving week 2017, I got a call from the brother-in-law, subtle threats and if I left and went home they had friends there too.  Letting me know.  How utterly evil.

Yes, it's real. 

The present "favored" Democrat for Governor in California?  A fourth who exposed himself as being involved?

He saw me at a luncheon, both of us late, the only two in that whole lobby area of the old Cathedral Hotel on Van Ness in  San Francisco, about 8-10 years ago, can't remember the date at present.

He saw me crossing at the top of the stairs, as he came up them (he was Mayor of SF at the time, and not the other Mayor above)...he got a snide smile on his face looking directly at me, no one else around, and with his hand by his side, waved bye-bye very deliberately at me.  

This is the kind of massive corruption San Francisco and California is involved in - and obviously, they were all involved in and or covering up the wholesale kickbacks to control votes scheme their party is using....to put in any agenda that enriches (apparently) their buddies.  
Has anyone lifted a finger to help stop it - have they?

Then why is anyone complaining about the destruction of this country, if they are not willing to help stop it?

The threats exposed to investigators and myself how the Dems were using the illegally, sole-sourced specs in roofing (amongst others) paired apparently with kickbacks to own and control votes on the lowest boards and councils.  If "everybody" was taking kickbacks, other than greed, who profited?

So at least here and it appears in New Jersey, these practices fostered an easy atmosphere of corruption to attain power and money....and putting forward an agenda that didn't work as we saw under Obama/Dems - owning, it appears, whole boards and council's votes to get that agenda in.

It' s not a supposition.  It's what happened.  You can't test test test and not see it..  

That might - think about it -  explain the Dems' ability to own votes without any discussion and good working out of issues, that we see in so many bodies.  And why the Republicans appear to be free to fight it out, and come up with solutions that seem to be working better, at least nowadays.

Just an observation.  One not just made by myself. 

And if that 1941 report from a psychologist was correct, the scam has been going on since the 1930's. Makes you wonder when the politicians grabbed it for a way to get more money and power for themselves.  Ingenious, if you think about it.

After trying to report the problem in Dem-controlled San Francisco, I went to the Republicans.

It was interesting in that the Republicans in San Francisco appeared to have a wide diversity of thought and discussion, albeit being crippled.  Crippled by Dem-friendlies inside, a couple of "moderates" in that were involved in trade groups, involved in similar activities in other construction products.  Who got in and controlled what they could.  It became very clear when watching and hearing exactly what they said and did.  Blatant, in fact.

But it turned out the Republicans acted differently.  If they were on the take, it would be done singularly and spectacularly.  

Like what happened in California, with US House of Representatives Duke Cunningham (R), caught doing so singularly and spectacularly.

Politicians in the two parties seem to act differently, it appears, when it comes to illegal contracts and kickbacks.  At least in California and New Jersey.

The wing of the Republican party members most interested in stopping the scam?  

Conservatives.

I tested the waters, so to speak, and repeatedly - started with the Democrats when they approached me and threatened me, I did not go looking for that! - and that's what came out.  Very interesting.

So which party threatened, which party had people that wanted to do something?  And which party votes alllll the way down the line the same or get threatened by party leaders like Pelosi and are afraid enough to sit down instead of continuing clapping at something President Trump said at the State of the Union Address this year? (As an example).

After being threatened by three prominent Dems in San Francisco over a report I made to the FBI at the University of California, which none of them were involved with, you can't help but do addition:  one plus one does equal two.   

Watch what they do.  Not what anyone else says about them, what they do.

All you have to do is test, test, test the waters, and watch, watch watch.  You will see who is involved and who is not in your area.   It could be different in different areas, just watch.

And work around them.

For those fighting the scam, be aware of that.  It's key to what gets done and not where you are at. 

In some or most cases, you are probably talking to the foxes in the henhouse.

In my case?  It was the US Attorney General in San Francisco in 1997-8 that stopped prosecutions of bosses involved in the illegal specifications.  The FBI had "Strongly recommended prosecutions" - but the DOJ - Department of Justice - refused to do anything. 

Which means they knew what would be uncovered if they did prosecute, I understand.  I know from the deposition of the FBI Agent in my case that he probably said more than the boss sitting there wanted him to - and he gave my attorneys more than they thought they would get.  

It would be many more years later that I would find out that they had "strongly recommended prosecutions" of my bosses - and been stopped.  Stopped by the the US Attorney General here.  Who was the San Francisco US Attorney General around that time?

Robert Mueller.

I can't make this up.  It's what it is and was. I still can't believe it, but it's what happened.

What would you do if that happened to you?  Keep mum for two decades as I have about it?  What did it gain? 

In the early 2000's, I got complaints from folks back east trying to get something done, that FBI Agents were told "we don't investigate School Boards".

Who was the head of the FBI for about ten years, from 2001 on and during that time?

Robert Mueller.

Left me speechless.  I don't know what to say other than I can't make this up.  It's just what it is.  

How can you explain that? I can't.  Other than to note it.  Observe. 

How much got done during that time, and how many FBI agents wanted to do something but could not?

Only one got something done.

Again, and I stress:  It's not a leftist plot, it appears that the scam is being used by those who find it convenient, to control others for money and power.

Please recognize this may be going on in your area.

The potential political involvement can affect whether or not you can get anything done in the scam in your area.  We know that politicians in various areas control the press or have the same politicial views as their supportive-only press, who don't seem to care about what is best for everyone.

You have to recognize it and catch it - or you cannot get it cleaned up.  And it takes a clean Department of Justice (no Dems) and a clean FBI, apparently, to do anything.

After what we have seen the past year with the corruption at the top of the Department of Justice and FBI, one can only wonder how far down the food chain it goes.

You will probably need local good prosecutors doing something in every locale, and they must be like Chris Christie in New Jersey, who defied Robert Mueller as head of the FBI stopping looking into the School Boards, and got the FBI in New Jersey to do it, arresting the 11 Dems on different boards and councils across New Jersey Sept. 6, 2007 over their involvement in the scam.  

I have more to say about why those reports got stopped, but cannot at present.  It's very interesting. 

But you will need a Chris Christie to go after the scam where you are.  Look for them.

There are certainly none in California.  

Be Aware.

It's best if a whole group goes after it, stop putting individuals alone at risk.  I have lost everything to do this, even with help - but I never got the one thing that's out there and needed.

To those involved in the scam - you are directly responsible for bringing this country down into the despair the Dems had us in under Professor Obama, the socialist.  They do not know how to run an economy, that is very clear at this point - and the corruption to keep them in power is dastardly and certainly not aiding your fellow citizens to having healthy lives.

It's not about your health, it's about everyone's.

You have made war on us.

Now you know (most of) the rest of the story.


Except this:  A Russian firm is very, very interested in how this scam works, out of St. Petersburg, Moscow and Palo Alto.

With recent events, it's become clearer as to why.  Find ways to disrupt us all, perhaps?

They now know most assuredly how these illegal specifications and contracts can be and have been  used to control Politicians.

Can this scam and how it has been used  be good for any of us?

________________________________________________________

The first national news story on the scam:

OHIO COMPANIES FIGURE IN N.J. BID PROBE
Officials say specs were rigged to benefit roofers
BYLINE: Steve Bennish and Cathy Mong DAYTON DAILY NEWS
DATE: October 22, 2000
PUBLICATION: Dayton Daily News (OH) EDITION: CITY
SECTION: NEWS PAGE: 1A
MEMO: Contact Steve Bennish at 225-7407 or e-mail him at steve_bennish@coxohio.com

Janet Campbell says she was trying to do the taxpayers a good turn in 1997 when she took her suspicions about inflated costs in University of California-San Francisco roof replacement jobs to the FBI.

The move ultimately cost her a senior architect's job at the university, Campbell, now the plaintiff in a federal whistle-blower lawsuit, said. But a newly released investigative report in New Jersey shows the issue of price-gouging on public sector roofing contracts spreads well beyond California. The company involved in Campbell's complaint, Tremco Inc. of Beachwood, is one of two Ohio companies targeted in a New Jersey Commission of Investigation report that alleges systematic `cost-gouging, unscrupulous bidding practices, contract manipulation, questionable design, installation and inspection procedures and other abuses'' in the multi-billion-dollar roofing industry.

The report calls the abuse "national in scope," and the commission referred the findings to the U.S. Attorney and the Internal Revenue Service. Gov. Christine Todd Whitman has also asked the New Jersey attorney general and the state's inspector general to recommend safeguards as the state embarks on an $8.6 billion school construction program.

The Dayton Daily News first spotlighted public school re-roofing practices in 1996, finding that the costs of roof repair projects in area school contracts were driven up by specifications that favored a single roof supply manufacturer. Tremco specs were dropped in two roof jobs in the Dayton area after school officials had bid specifications rewritten to make the bidding more competitive.

The New Jersey report says Tremco and W.P. Hickman Systems of Solon, or individuals with company links, controlled the bidding on roof projects by writing specifications that favored the companies over other bidders and inflated construction costs.

Tremco spokesman Carl Zeitz on Friday declined comment on the Campbell lawsuit, saying the company was unaware of it. He said Tremco cooperated fully with New Jersey investigators, adding that "building owners have a right to get quality roofing and roofing service. Tremco has been in the business of doing that for 70 years.''

Hickman officials did not respond to a request for comment about the report.

As a senior architect, Campbell says she was ordered by her boss to use overly elaborate specifications for campus roofing jobs that only one roof supply company could possibly meet: Tremco, Inc. The bid specifications are known in the industry as "proprietary.''

When FBI agents visited UCSF officials, Campbell said, her bosses easily targeted her as a dissident inside source since she had already authored a critical memo. Then, she contends, they forced her into more menial work and, finally, a layoff.

Campbell, 46, alleges that UCSF intentionally thwarted state-mandated competitive bidding requirements in 10 roofing projects, saddling taxpayers with $944,000 in needless expenses.

`It's mind-boggling that in public service you are told to do something against the law and people look the other way,'' she said. `Architects can't do that if we take our licenses seriously.''

The New Jersey commission estimated overcharges of $10 million on $37.8 million spent on replacement roofs, mainly because of overpriced proprietary roofing materials such as polymer-modified tar or asphalts marketed by a single manufacturer.

`It's major,'' said New Jersey commission staffer Lee Seglem, who helped write the final report. `Taxpayers are getting hosed from one coast to another. These ripoffs have clearly repeated themselves in other states.''
The report said "unscrupulous" individuals in the roofing industry exploit taxpayers by taking advantage of "unsuspecting, technically unsophisticated school district officials."

UCSF counsel Chris Patti acknowledged university administrators favored Tremco enough to let the company "help" write roof replacement specifications, calling Tremco an "industry leader." He also acknowledged the FBI investigation, but said no charges resulted and university officials didn't suspect Campbell as the tipster.

Patti insisted the roof jobs were open to competitive bidding. Campbell disputes that by citing bid specs that either mention Tremco products by name or mandate exact lab tests for particular materials. Tremco-formulated asphalts and other materials are the only ones that can meet the test numbers, Campbell said.
"It's a restrictive performance spec, which is in essence a closed spec,'' Campbell said.

In Ohio, schools have saved money by keeping bid specs free of proprietary language. Wright State University officials told the Daily News in 1996 that it saved $146,300 by tossing out roof replacement designs written by Tremco and The Garland Co. Inc., of Cleveland. West Carrollton schools jettisoned Tremco specs and saved an estimated $150,000 on two elementary school roof replacements, according to officials there.

David Fromma, a local roofing industry estimator, last week said bid manipulation in the public sector has decreased in Ohio. `If you get competition, you will get the right price,'' he said.

The New Jersey commission detailed a dozen examples of bid manipulation linked to Tremco or Hickman. For example, between 1998 and 1999 the School District of the Chathams in Morris County spent $356,000 on high school and middle school roofs based on strict Tremco "boilerplate" company specs submitted by company sales reps. The commission said the school district could have saved between $25,000 and $60,000 by keeping specs open. Tremco also shut out competition in the Green Twp. School District, costing the district $30,000 too much on a $176,000 job, the report said.

Tremco spokesman Zeitz said in both cases school officials preferred more reliable Tremco company products.

Charlotte Gaal, the commission's attorney who headed the probe, said abuses reached a high point in the Edison Twp. Board of Education's $6.67 million, 17-roof replacement project that began in 1997.
Key players: roofing consultant Thomas M. Saltzgueber of Mount Holly N.J., a convicted felon in a 1980s-era car wreck insurance scheme; and C. Kelcy Pegler, a Hickman Systems sales rep.

The report said Saltzgueber manipulated bidding and contract specs to ensure that Hickman received millions of dollars in materials supply contracts. At the same time, the report says, Saltzgueber and companies that he and his son controlled received more than $361,000 in secret payments disguised as fees for roof inspections from Hickman from 1995 to 1998. The probe said Pegler and Saltzgueber together pocketed $764,000 in fees and commissions on the Edison jobs.

Saltzgueber was portrayed as an aggressive salesman: He took school officials and contractors on lunches and golf outings and even lost $480 in a golf wager to one school official in Egg Harbor Twp.
Roofing experts told the commission Edison spent $1.1 million more than necessary.
Pegler and Saltzgueber declined to testify before the commission. Hickman also declined.

Campbell said school officials need to hire independent architects to keep the system honest.
"I don't like the fact that taxpayers are being so badly ripped off,'' she said.

Copyright, 2000, Cox Ohio Publishing. All rights reserved.
· Illustration: PHOTO: JANET CAMPBELL alleges that University of
California at San Francisco intentionally evaded state-mandated
competitive bidding requirements in 10 roofing projects.
CREDIT: NOAH BERGER/ASSOCIATED PRESS

The New California Law - What Got Fixed and What Didn't

So what allows the scams to continue - at least in California (and we know it applies across the country)?

 On the good side of the scam - if there is one: Lack of Knowledge, and Education. On the real side of the scam: Much worse.  

One reason for the "Much Worse" side of the scam is an involved California State Attorney General that stopped all investigations in California over the past 13 years. One of the State Attorney Generals - Bill Lockyer - is in the Roofer's Union wiht a stepfather that had a roofing contracting concern in the SF Bay Area.....did you see them investigate my claims in 1997 or since? No.  They instead tried to find out everything I knew and who all was talking to me....in 2001. Does that sound right?

So the new law the California Legislature just passed - which I will get to in a moment - wants you to go report what you find to the involved persons stopping investigations - the State Attorney General.

Why?  They won't be doing anything.

Then you can if you wish, they say in this new law, go to the State Auditor.

From my experience?

No, you should go to the State Auditor only - and let them turn it into the Feds or the State as they wish.

The best course is to stay away from anyone elected to report activities to, they have allegiances only to their buddies, and that could be anyone.

I ought to know, after 13years of attempting to get someone to listen - they still aren't protecting whistleblowers here, it's about keeping the funding sources for politicians intact. Seriously.  

So what else is "Much Worse" in this scam?  

Kickbacks.

Yes, it's true.  

How does it work?  

The involved parties are:

1. Roofing Manufacturer's Reps, who lock down the work with Government Officials long before projects are budgeted for.

2. To get work with public entities, at least in California, architects and engineers walk into a Cesspool. Here's how it works:

a. They get the job.
b. The government contact hands over sets of specs on particular products they "have to have" (illegally) sole-sourced.
c. The architect or engineer balks.
d. Payments for work stops.
e. The firm has to start laying off people.
f. The firm has to give in.
g. The firm just prays no one goes after them for it.
h. The firm can only get more work by doing it. Otherwise, shut their doors.

That's how the Cesspool works - with Government Officials taking kickbacks from Manufacturers. And that's how most architects and engineers are "involved." Some may be taking kickbacks, the majority not.

And are those kickbacks sweet that the needy-greedy addicted Government Officials get.

 3. Either the Roofing Contractor involved "kicks back" monies to the Manufacturer's Rep, who redistributes the monies to the Government Officials, Facilities Personnel, or other decision makers.

What are some of the things we hear of?
1. A former Manufacturer's Rep admitted here in California to taking $10,000 cash, giving it to another rep to hand to the Facilities Director of a School District in the LA Area, in the form of cash, coupons, etc. for a trip the guy took.
 2. A new owner of a family roofing concern in New Jersey found checks made out to the Manufacturer's Rep  

So what did the California Legislature do?

Pass a law punishing everyone but the involved persons forcing the scam - Government Officials.

Oh, there was some good stuff in there about "equals" and how to define them - but the main part of why the scam happens was not addressed. Kickbacks to the Building "Owners" - Government Officials, Government Facilities Directors and Managers and Staff Designers, City Council Members, School Board Members.....etc. All Government Officials.

Not one of them was required to sign a statement saying they had no financial interests with the manufacturers involved in the roofs they force.

The California Legislature did do something very ineffective:
They required architects and engineers, most of them forced by those in government taking kickbacks to write the "Lock Specs" (copy them), to sign the form.

It's not enough to punish those who don't know what is going on in California by making them sign a form saying they have no financial interest in the companies they have specified....when it's the School Boards, the State Dept. of Education, Facilities Personnel, Administrators and so on forcing the specs - for no good reason.

One needs to understand what laws were changed that were working, and who is stopping investigations and why, before you can make effective laws.
____________________________________

When is Water NOT Water?

When is Water NOT Water?

When it happens to be in San Francisco.



This is the kind of thing that sends architects and engineers who do things right in San Francisco over the proverbial edge.
 

 A Dam Ready To Break

 

In or about 1994, a developer cut a steep hill at about a 70% slope. At the OK of a famous Soils Engineer.

 His nephew, a contractor and all of them part of the"Irish Mafia" in San Francisco, was building about 5 homes at the bottom of the hill - one of them for the San Francisco Police Chief. 

One day, the hill fell into the homes, some being lived in Including the Police Chief's....he was living there at the time!

That's right.

That nephew was the husband of a coworker, he had no work, and I got him a house job on existing foundations on a hill in Corte Madera, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge...no way to have that happen to him again.....

Fast Forward to 1994. A Developer ramrodded his development of three huge homes into the same hill, one quarter the way around the hill, cutting deep into the hillside with a retaining wall.

See the photo above for that development.

Trouble is, he didn't waterproof it. The video below is the result.

It was shown in public meetings in the late 1990's and the local newspapers carried photos of some of the video...

See the water coming out???? In numerous places????

You can actually hear it pouring out!!!!

The Building Inspectors, when confronted by angry neighbors across the street....said that "that wasn't water."

Oh, yes.......

And so did the Planning Commission....

So what was it, pray tell???? 

Juice?  Gas?  Hot Springs - but that would be water too!  

Come on guys, water is water!
 
It's amazing to watch this!