Saw a water department truck yesterday

[CarlV]

I know I posted before on our unreliable Belgian made Van Hool transit buses and the fact if you use public transit you ride one of these piles if you work at the Gillig bus plant which makes 3 transit bus models in Hayward, Ca.
http://www.gillig.com/New%20GILLIG%20WEB/story.htm

Carl

[MikeG22]

Originally Posted by Rex E.

It's usually called a board of alderman or city council or(folks elected by people from their district...)...They usually would accept bids for such purchases...

I don't know how it's done everywhere but my employer has a make/model decided on by the superintendent of the dept. Then he has to get three bids for the vehicle unless it is a state bid vehicle. Once the bid come in he presents the vehicle and price to the town board for approval.

My Chevy at work was state bid, 39k sticker and the town bought it for 23k on state bid. Again, this is probably not the way every municipality does it but I bet it is a common variation.

Perhaps a local Nissan dealer was giving the dept an excellent price on the truck? Nissan and Toyota pickups are useless for my dept, they can't plow snow for crap.

[icenine]

So Pete your drinking Union Water? lol
I see it has not brainwashed you lol....

I do miss be able to drink water straight from the tap....unlike here in Cali...

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by CarlV

I know I posted before on our unreliable Belgian made Van Hool transit buses and the fact if you use public transit you ride one of these piles if you work at the Gillig bus plant which makes 3 transit bus models in Hayward, Ca.
http://www.gillig.com/New%20GILLIG%20WEB/story.htm

Carl

Gillig is what the local RTA uses around here.

Dave

[CarlV]

Other than the free trips to Belgium at taxpayer expense I just do not know why the transit board would continue to purchase these most troublesome buses. Amazing when consider you have a fine local manufacturer with a fine history. There has to be a lot more than those free trips involved....

Carl

Interesting, I went looking for one of the articles on the A/C bus problems and found this. Very cool.

For more than a decade, AC Transit made a mockery of federal Buy American rules. The cash-strapped transit agency routinely wrapped itself in financial knots, funneling US taxpayer funds through various accounts in order to be able to buy expensive foreign-made buses. AC Transit officials repeatedly claimed that the Belgian-made Van Hools were superior to American buses, even though the agency's own records showed that the Van Hools were accident-prone and dangerous for riders with mobility problems. AC Transit officials also downplayed the numerous posh trips they took to Belgium and their side excursions to Paris and London, arguing that $1 million in public funds they spent on the getaways merely represented the costs of doing business.
But then earlier this month, AC Transit, which now has a new general manager who appears to be more interested in making pragmatic choices rather than jetting off to Europe, officially ended its costly relationship with Van Hool. The agency's board of directors, at the urging of new General Manager David Armijo, voted 6-1 to buy forty buses from an East Bay bus-maker - Gillig of Hayward. It was the first time that AC Transit had bought an American-made bus, let alone one made locally, in more than a dozen years. And it was about time.

The new $16 million purchase not only will help East Bay union workers at Gillig keep their jobs, it will provide AC Transit riders with a superior bus-riding experience. Gillig has been manufacturing quality buses for a long time, and its buses are much safer than the dangerous Van Hools, which many riders took to calling the Van Hells.
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenD...ally-buy-local

...............................

[piece-itpete]

If the government requires prevailing wage and in many cases a US made requirement in their contracts, why the Nissan?

And why isn't the rank and file in an uproar? Even the paper pushers are almost certainly in a gov't union.

It STINKS. To high heaven. As long as THEY get early healthcare paid retirement the UAW can pound sand?

Pete

[icenine]

So you want your drinking water provided to you by someone treated like your average Walmart employee?

[piece-itpete]

If I think that unions should support unions I also think we should drink bad water? The water tasted the same back when they were driving domestic vehicles.

Every single 'public servant' in Cleveland mouths support for their working class union folks.

Pete

[bobabode]

So, look into it Pete. I suspect you'll find some elected (non-union) officials making these decisions to buy Nissans. I suspect you have a few Republicans still in government in Cleveland, start there.

[whell]

I love some of the excuse-making in this thread. Sounds like the excuse-making going on with the IRS scandal; let's blame a process or some low-level flunkies, putting aside for the moment that the decision is so self-evidently wrong that anyone can see that it should never have happened.