Tiny Utility Repair Co. in Ryan Zinke's Home Town gets 300 mil Contract.

Drain. The. Swamp.
Drain. The. Swamp.
Drain. The. Swamp.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/small-montana-firm-lands-puerto-ricos-biggest-contract-to-get-the-power-back-on/2017/10/23/31cccc3e-b4d6-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html?utm_term=.b43a4e71f2a7

"The scale of the disaster in Puerto Rico is far larger than anything Whitefish has handled. The company has won two contracts from the Energy Department, including $172,000 to replace a metal pole structure and splice in three miles of new conductor and overhead ground wire in Arizona."

Why couldn't the Army Corp of Engineers have acted as the subcontractor instead of 2 two man contractor from Montana?

Two Men and a Utility Truck is a great movie.

Trump and his cronies are so fucking stupid they can't even hide their corruption well.

Uh oh.

https://nyti.ms/2yVnMnQ

Too many eyes looking at this.

From the NPR link:

Much of the controversy that has surrounded the contract has focused on the high rates Whitefish is charging for labor. The contract shows those labor rates are pricey indeed: $240 an hour for a general foreman and $227 for a lineman. The per diems are also expensive: almost $80 a day for meals, and $332 a day for lodging. Employee flights are billed at $1,000 each way.

For subcontractors, the bulk of Whitefish's workforce, the prices go even higher. A general foreman costs $336 an hour and a lineman, $319.

Usually after huge power outages, electric companies arrange mutual aid agreements with utilities elsewhere to bring in workers to help restore power. But that would most likely have required assurances of payment, and PREPA has been bankrupt since July. So PREPA CEO Ricardo Ramos made a deal with Whitefish, which asked for no such guarantee.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/27/560422492/heres-what-s-in-that-300-million-whitefish-contract

The heat was on, the contract was cancelled, but it won’t be that easy. This is corruption of some kind. Write your damn congressman.

Rocinante wrote:The heat was on, the contract was cancelled, but it won’t be that easy. This is corruption of some kind. Write your damn congressman.

When you're represented by a member of the opposition party, they enjoy ignoring your calls and emails. Congressman Bishop could not possibly care less what I think.

tGreenWay wrote:

Rocinante wrote:The heat was on, the contract was cancelled, but it won’t be that easy. This is corruption of some kind. Write your damn congressman.

When you're represented by a member of the opposition party, they enjoy ignoring your calls and emails. Congressman Bishop could not possibly care less what I think.

In my opinion that’s all the more reason to write and call and keep records of it.

tGreenWay wrote:Congressman Bishop could not possibly care less what I think.

I guess we all have something in common with Congressman Bishop.