NO WONDER THE MIRASOL SCANDAL HAPPENED: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE CONTRACTS AT SAHA

Herman Taylor, the recently-hired Assistant Procurement & Facilities Director at SAHA, has resigned after only two months reporting to Patrick Bourcier, Director of Procurement & Facilities - in shock at the contracting miasma at SAHA. Taylor, who is a professionally-certified public buyer, (know as CPPB), was the only procurement-certified manager at SAHA, says that he was appalled at SAHA's antiquated commodity code system that should have been updated "at least five years ago. "

Because SAHA has neglected using the government's national and efficient coding system for contracting, Taylor explained, the Housing Authority has little room for the many variations and categories of contracts that need to be established, reviewed, and re-configured according to governmental regulations.

SAHA has been under fire for the Mirasol Homes Public Housing Project, a westside community beset with poor construction and health problems linked to SAHA's contractual procedures.

Pursuant to his responsibilites while at SAHA, Taylor said that "When I went through and found the contracts, I went into the system and couldn’t determine what contracts were in place and the Director told me it (the contracts) was not accurate information." Taylor says there was no information on the contracts based on what was expired. So he’s (Bourcier) probably changing the contracts in the system – not in paper. So it lets him cover up the problem. Ninety percent of that (contract) information was not accurate."

Further, Taylor said there were "alot of contracts coming up for expiration," and they should be extended or renegotiated. And while many contracts are eligible for that, he made a list of "40 -50 contracts that need to be (newly) established." In other words, the contracts need to go out through proscribed governmental bidding procedures.

To get around the contracting slowdown created by incompetence, he said that SAHA is making non-profit procurement contracts via their corporate entities, to get around federal regulations. In other words, SAHA is using for-profit procurement procedures for non-profit procurement contracts.

Besides his professional buyer's certification, Taylor is also a real estate broker, mortgage broker, financial planner, securities representative, and has extensive experience with governmental contracts.

Bourcier's salary is near the range of "six-figures,' according to Taylor's estimation. Taylor also stated that he was writing a letter to SAHA's CEO, Henry Alvarez III, detailing his observations, and recommending that SAHA have two separate departments, each charged with Contract Management and Procurement.

Taylor says that while some people at SAHA wanted him to "shine," he had begun to feel he was hired to protect Bourcier, who has been at SAHA for a dozen years - and to "clean up" the Procurement Office without being given any authority whatsoever.

credits: Mirasol Homes, www.hobb.org/hobbv1/images/stories/Mirasol2.gif

Mary Alice, wife of Henry Cisneros, finds her voice in San Antonio as women battle for Free Speech in the Streets

She's a delicate bird of a woman, petite and beautifully apparelled. I know her husband, and she looks up to her supremely intelligent, charismatic, but scared of the status-quo husband. I suspect that she became a San Antonio councilwoman as a result of his lanky shadow. No matter. Yesterday, la Mary Alice stood up to the Man along with Councilwoman Lourdes Galvan and voted on the side of the Constitution and women's rights as one of two women on the San Antonio City Council who recognizes that anti-war or anti-immigrant protestors should be able to march on the streets without having to pay thousands of dollars for the privilege. While the city-wide Fiesta! bacchanal takes over the streets for weeks. With a vote of 9-2, the San Antonio City Council overwhelmingly voted to pass a new "Parade" Ordinance yesterday despite the organized protest of free speech advocates - mostly women - who believe that the City Council is violating the First Amendment of its citiz...

A battered woman from San Antonio loses her reporting job

Gina Galaviz , 43, KSAT-TV's I-love-the-police reporter, "has been fired" from the television station , according to the San Antonio Express-News, and I'm quoting verbatim here from Jeanne Jakle's byline, "after she was charged with assault following a fight with her boyfriend," Ronald Aguillen, 46. Ok, so we in San Antonio know about the time in 2004 when Gina filed charges against another boyfriend, the former SWAT cop, who was a councilman at-the-time, Ron Segovia . There were allegations of an apple being thrown at her nalgas, which humiliated her, and that he also pointed a gun at her. It was not the first time, she told me. Tough-guy Segovia got off - I think he had three attorneys representing him if I remember correctly, and in this city, like too many, the cops are in bed with the grand jury - they need and depend on each other, and this grand jury decided there "wasn't enough evidence to pursue a criminal case against him." Seg...

Today is Tuesday, May 3rd, and so much has happened. A brain tumor. More yoga and walking. A little less combat. Weight dropping. Spirit rising. Back in the city, where I belong. Looking for good photos to give you, organizing my crazy files. And a new President! So much to say, more than beating up on him -- that will only take us so far. Time to hit the streets, challenge the fears that he represents. Don't be afraid, no tengan miedo. If I survived a massive brain tumor -- big as a grapefruit -- we can survive and transcend this. More tomorrow. One day a week from now on.

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