Unlike the Town of Merrillville... Garbage Trucks for cash? Something sure stinks! Apparently Hammond is special. Apparently certain staff working for the city think they are entitled to special privileges. Last summer, a group of individuals all directly associated with the City of Hammond hatched a little scheme. The scheme involved disposing of numerous city-owned vehicles as scrap and then divvying up and pocketing the proceeds. Sometime last year, beginning in late May, and continuing through the month of June 2012, certain individuals arranged with a scrap yard in Gary to bring numerous vehicles to be scrapped. Part of the arrangement was that the payment was to be made in cash. *Let me state that it is not a legal option for individuals working for municipalities to decide to scrap any city-owned vehicles without putting them out for public bidding. The municipalities are required to publish legal ads in local newspapers prior to offering them for public bidding. From a lawn mower all the way up to a fire truck, the legal requirements are the same. No exceptions! So here is a brief summary of how the conspiracy went down: Certain individuals working directly for the City of Hammond contacted a local towing firm to make arrangements to have several garbage trucks towed to a scrap yard in Gary, Indiana on 15th Avenue, just east of Cline Ave. They agreed to a price and the trucks were towed to this scrap yard. The envelopes full of the cash proceeds from the scrapping of the trucks were given to the tow truck driver. He then brought the loot back to the superintendent back at the city garage. Then it was on to the second, third, and fourth trucks; and the second, third, and fourth envelopes for the day. Each envelope contained over $3000.00. Each envelope was actually supposed to contain $400.00 more than it did, but due to a little “mix-up” at the scrap yard, each envelope was $400.00 light. Like any self-respecting scrap yard, this particular scrap yard cheated its co-conspirators. This scrap yard shorted the individuals that were involved in this scheme to cheat and defraud the city and its taxpayers. The scale-master at the scrap yard, we’ll call him Booby (not his actual name), cheated the scammers out of $400.00 per truck. But what Booby didn’t know, was that the superintendent, we’ll call him Barry (also not his real name), knew exactly what each and every truck weighed; after all, he had to know, he sent these trucks to the landfill every day of their service life. So the individuals working for the City of Hammond, the ones who were concocted the “Garbage trucks for cash” scheme, raised all sorts of hell with the owner of the scrap yard. They threw their weight around and demanded justice. The owner of the scrap yard (Ball’s Auto Yard, not its real name either), not wanting any trouble, complied and gave them the money that Booby shorted them. In fact, the owner of Ball’s even said that he fired Booby. But he really did not, he just temporarily relocated him to another location in Bestville, Indiana (not the town’s real name) until everything blew over. Then, after all of these kinks were worked out between Ball’s and the scammers, they decided to bring over some more trucks, The next victims were recycling trucks. These didn’t even need to be towed, these trucks were driven into Ball’s. So how could they get away with all of this? Because there was involvement at multiple levels! According to an individual working for the fleet maintenance department who heard about this deal, some brass from the HPD was in on it, along with an attorney known to be very, very close with the administration, came down to collect their “fair” shares. If these trucks were put out for bid as the law requires, the City of Hammond would have surely got a lot more money than they got from Ball’s. But of course, then there wouldn’t have been a dozen or so envelopes stuffed with cash to divvy up. Just a couple of months ago, the City of East Chicago had an auction at which they sold some garbage trucks. There were numerous bidders and the trucks brought top money. Based on the bids received by East Chicago at the public auction, the City of Hammond would have gotten double what they received from Ball’s. The proceeds from the public auction held by East Chicago went back into the General Fund. The proceeds from the “Garbage trucks for cash” scheme did not. I wonder how many other deals have been going on like this in Hammond? My guess: plenty!
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 02:22:51 +0000
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