Financial reporting within the Dec 2015 Fargo Diversion Authority packet indicates the Cass County Joint Water District (CCJWRD) as handling nearly 43 percent of the reported $247 million dollars in expenditures.
Oddly, prior to May 2015, there is little to no detail on who, what, when, where, why or how the CCJWRD is handling these dollars.
Despite several attempts to obtain transparency on the overall handling of the public tax dollars involved in the Fargo Dam and FM Diversion project, there are massive gaps in the details of how public tax dollars are being spent.
On Monday, December 14, 2015 Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney was quoted in news story that appeared briefly on the KFGO Radio website, but was deleted shortly thereafter, indicating a new project cost estimate from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (around $400 million higher) expected Tuesday, December 15, 2015 coming in about $2.2 BILLION.
The mere fact that the news story disappeared raises several questions. Especially when it gets replaced with a fluff piece claiming further delays in the new cost estimate which was originally due around August 2015.
Even more disconcerting is the suggestion by Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney that he expects the forthcoming updated cost estimate to be lower “because of a public-private partnership called P3” when voters have not yet approved a P3 funding option by any legal ballot measure.
I’m sorry Mr Mahoney, how dumb do you think taxpayers really are? Paying interest and principal on a borrowed $800 million that would have been a gift from the federal government…, isn’t a savings.
The Fargo Diversion Authority talking heads simply avoid the hard questions when it comes to the financials because that is where the entire Fargo Dam and FM Diversion project falls apart. The higher the costs, the lower the benefit to cost ratio.
This morning I fired off another email and CC’d the North Dakota Attorney General, in attempt to compel Keith Berndt (Cass County Administrator), Mike Montplaisir (Cass County Auditor) and Mark Brodshaug (Chairman – Cass County Joint Water Resource District) into providing financial transparency with the requested information.
The public has a right to know how their tax dollars are being spent…
Here is a copy of the email:
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————————————- Original Message ————————————- Subject: FOIA REQUEST: CCJWRD Expenditures From: Marcus Larson Date: Sat, December 19, 2015 8:26 am To: BerndtK@casscountynd.gov MontplaisirM@casscountynd.gov markbrodshaug@gmail.com Cc: ndag@nd.gov tutran@forumcomm.com joel.heitkamp@kfgo.com jthomas@wday.com ————————————————————————————————– Gentlemen, On June 2, 2015 I presented a 4th Request for DA Expenditures which To date, I have not received the FOIA requested information pertaining to The CCJWRD is handling nearly 43% of the reported $247 million in Under the North Dakota Open Records Statute, N.D.C.C. ยง44-04-18.10, I am The expenditure information requested is publicly funded by taxpayers and Please provide an Excel ledger report (.csv or .xls) detailing the following: Account Number Approved Contract Awaiting your reply, Marcus Larson CC: Wayne Stenehjem, NDAG ————————————- Original Message ————————————- To whom it may concern, This is a fourth request for an excel spreadsheet or electronic ledger of The quality of scanned documents in older DA packets compromises the Also included in this request: Item 1) An updated OHB expenditure report detailing payee/recipient, Item 2) A Cass County Joint Water Resource District expenditure report Looking forward to your reply, Marcus Larson |
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Since this is taxpayers funds, is needs to be opened up for all to see…If there is nothing to hide, no problem…..It has an unattractive oder…..