These are not politicians,, these are contractors and engineers that failed to build ,,,, The engineers did not inspect the work,, the city did not inspect the work, the county or state did not inspect the work. That pipes were never connected to their basins,, and then covered over with dirt,,, no one inspected,, not even the contractor. Some wet behind the ears worker,, lacking all supervision,, just did it fast and poorly.
@@jimmiller5600 Boston 1970s First hand knowledge. You had to be standing there outside the project with the plain white envelop. (100$ per meter) 16 unit building that would be 1,700 cash BEFORE he would walk in. And THEN the job had to be flawless,, code plus, quality. Kinda backwards. Because the inspector wanted nothing to come back and bite him in the butt. All the guys had vacation homes on the Cape,, or up at the ski areas,, or one had his vacation home in France. Time and place,, Boston, 1970s
I guarantee you, the city manager who left 2.6 years ago, the city accountant, the former mayor and a couple of former city council members are going to be found to have received substantial kickbacks. Those sinkholes around the manhole covers screams "no sealed connecting joints", the city public works director and his/her supervisory engineer should have caught this after the second major storm, the signs of improper construction would have shown not long after. The city and county building/construction inspector signing off needs to be added to the kickback list. When a project starts to incur cost overruns, that is the time to take a very close examination of the contractor, and it's quality of work! Kickback written allover on this mess!
I work in the water & sewer industry here in Canada and the fact those sewer drains were never inspected or tested is mind boggling. The only way you can do that is with at least several people looking the other way or falsifying reports. They probably believed it may fail 10 or 20 years down the road, long enough for time to cast a doubt on their guilt. I also find it strange that a project of this size would ever have been done without going to tender.
Always a corrupt political official who has a brother in real estate, life-long buddy in construction, sister in law’s husband with a security service, son “working” at an advertising, marketing or print company.
I don't understand how the first line of responsibility doesn't lie with the city inspectors. If joe smoe wanted to build a 10x10 addition on their house they would be all up there butt, but 3 million dollar project they turn a blind eye too! As i think more about it though my guess is the city inspectors are just paid permit writers who don't really know what there looking at anyways. Most inspectors i have ever dealt with rarely work in the trade they are inspecting.
@@rustywater3219 It could be as simple as the seals were just not installed or never purchased. My guess is this was a contractor's misdeed. No engineer would be so derelict as to not specify seals. If it was contractor error, then they need to be held accountable but also who was inspecting the work, who was the oversight?
Combining sewage with storm water has been against federal law since 1957. Thus we have violations of federal law which someone approved . Someone needs to go to jail.
Combined sewers are still in use in over 800 communities across the US, and many in Canada as well. They are legal to use providing measures are taken to prevent contamination overflow
The combining of sewage and storm water wasn't intentional in this case. It was a result of the failure of the design and/or construction of the project, which allowed sewage to enter the storm drain system.
I disagree. They knew what they were doing, It is called Government "Graft": I will "steer" some monies your way, if I get a cut. I want to know what other firms Bid on this work and what was their bid amounts?
As an engineer that has done this type of work, there is negligence all around! Complete incompetence by city officials, which is probably nearing criminal. I suspect another prime example of "going with the cheap guy and getting what you paid for"...... When you do work of this magnitude, you are not just comparing quotes, you are vetting the contracted companies involved. I would be digging up a few sites and running rovers in the pipe system to determine how bad the install was. No inspectors for the city?
Agreed. No independent inspections ? No documentary progress video / stills at each phase of a 3.1 million dollar project ? Why is sewage mixing with a Storm Drain ? Were the lines mixed together ( illegally ?) ? Taxpayers got BURNED !
I don’t know how big the city of Darlinton is but I was the utilities director for a small city. We did not have engineers on staff. We contracted our engineering out. We had our share of bad contractors and their subs. More than once we had to hold the engineering firm accountable for bad work, oversights and poor on site inspection. Sounds like Darlington missed the mark on pretty much everything.
@@spmince About a million years ago, I worked for The Ohio State University Purchasing Dept. I've hand-tabulated more construction bids than you'd ever believe, and have reviewed project proposals. All the proposals specified points in the project at which progress could be inspected -- especially things like liquid-bearing pipes, which would inevitably be buried, eliminating the possibility of later eyeballing. This drainage project was mishandled at every step. It's either deliberate malfeasance or the most colossal display of official idiocy on record.
It's corruption top to bottom and everyone playing the blame game like it's musical chairs to see who is left staving to pay the bill. It's all of them. Incompetence, negligence, and corruption. I'd pay money to see the results of a forensic accountants investigation into this whole thing. Follow the money!
she is the public face of it. The real reporter behind it is a white man. But they seem to think the disney recipe for viewers is better than letting the man that did all the work present it. They "put a black chick in his place and make her gay"
Great job once again Jody! Solid reporting as always. Sounds like a big game of finger pointing is either happening or going to. Bet nobody was wondering where to cash those checks.
That's what government does. If you've ever seen a video of a cop doing someone dirty,they lie and say well you have to contact the other police department or the judge because we can't do anything. Ive also seen where dirty contractors cut corners and the city backs up the contractors after whole towns are flooded. Ima Survivor Sanctuary here on TH-cam got started because he lost everything during Hurricane Harvey. It's my favorite channel of all time.
I can't help but wonder if Mr. Mack was a former Mayor Hines (Council at Large - for the people) supporter/voter, he's willing to tell you of the past issues but unwilling to offer an hard opinion about the project's failure and it's costs. It wouldn't surprise me if they attend the same church...ie he knows her.
I smell corruption by companies involved. I hope the city manager gets this corrected. The description of the stench and the sink holes do not seem to be signs of a project well executed.
The City Attorney along with the Law should clawback those funds and put them back into the City accounts. Then a fine for the City and issue a tax refund to the residents! Great work Jody! This is classic pay to play that goes on everyday in every part of Government
Where is the City Engineer hiding ? I've done countless of these projects in my lifetime. It is always someone's job to check everything from the Bidding specifications down to quality control of installation. Never seen a failure like this before. Some forensics will tell the tale just like they said. Pipes not properly homed and joints left un sealed look like a huge part of the failures. Glad I didn't work for the Contractor responsible for this mess. Seems nobody had any experience in sewer work here. From the top on down. The whole thing failed!
@@5ringsaudits Too funny you brought up Italian construction workers. I was blessed to have worked for a fine Union Construction Contractor that happened to be of Italian heritage. He was a fine man, I worked for him nearly 30 years until I retired. Superior Construction Company, Gary Indiana. They had one terrible bridge failure in 1982 a few years before I was hired. Forensics changed the way things were done after that. Was a failure in the temporary support foundations during the bridge erection. Nowadays, those temporary foundations are built to nearly a permanent standard. Engineered and QC'd just like the permanent structures. Peace.
@@larryspiller6633 exactly and myself, I am of Italian heritage who’s family has been in the construction industry in the Detroit area, I was embarrassed when I saw Mr. Vincenzo cut and run with the money wondering how many other’s were duped by that Bonnie and Clyde couple. Those types are all too common and it’s embarrassing.
@@joshuaguenin9507 Not bitching…but I must ask. Where does this logic you have come from? If a system is fraudulent I mean. If voting is just for dummies. How do you determine what it is I can or can not do? Do you see the failure in your thinking and the lunacy of your comments?
Sounds to me like there needs to be a forensic audit for that project to find out where the money went and who was paid off. Obviously the one contractor is shady, but were there people in the city government also complacent
The push for accepting more bids from miniority contractors over experienced companies is leading to very substandard work. Sewer project currently being done in my neighborhood was a awarded to a hispanic landscaping company. Not hardly qualified for major sewer replacement. It has been a 6 month nightmare that will continue well into fall of 2024. There has been no oversight by city engineers, even though residents have complained. The company that is doing the work has not even been on site for the past 2 weeks. On weekends, private vehicles come in the neighborhood and borrow the bobcats, which they return by Sunday night, at which time they load up on supplies....gravel, dirt, pipe. It's disgusting the amount homeowners have had to pay in monthly sewer fees and tax increases for this project, while being helpless to do anything about the theft of supplies and shoddy workmanship. It seems to be a trend for city, state and federal officials to just not give a shit about the taxpayers.
the same thing is going on where I live with that minority company owner bs and now all the reputable companies that have done city contract work for many years don't even bid because they know they are wasting their time, one of those companies had already been picked to build our new jail then the county commissioner backed out because they weren't "diverse" enough with their sub contractors
Why on earth would engineers, contractors go ahead and construct a pipeline to prevent flooding, but a poor job of sealing pipes together. Seems No one involved choosing the engineers who planned it, the contractors who assembled it did much research on finding competent participants to plan or construct it. What a waste of money, without solving the issues they intended.
Has anyone else noticed how everyone in this piece who was interviewed (even if they didn't have much to say) were very civil and polite ? I say that has a bit to do with the culture in the area , but also the journalist was hard investigating but polite with everyone . This is what good reporting looks like , and I don't have a dog in the fight there , just saying from PA , I noticed .
I see somebody exercised their failure options. So we have to back up. What caused the project scope change? Who was involved with approving the revised scope? If it was that lady submitting and winning the grants... Well that would be the turd at the top of the hill. Then we need to sort out the parties responsible for engineering selection.
Seems like a combination of Contractor incompetence (design &/or construction) coupled with inadequate &/or incompetent oversight by the City. And contractually, if exclusions were accepted for things like subsequent failure, or if re-work was to be done for a fee...the city will ne paying unless they can prove contractor negligence. Seems Jody needs to speak to contract language for a fuller picture of this debacle.
Remember...this is THE SOUTH EVERYTHING down here is done via The Good Ole Boy Network! The best contractor/bid always loses when somebody's "kinfolk" puts in a bid as well
@@Freedom_Half_Off LOL Didn't say that. Ah least those cities they TRY to hide the corruption. I've lived in million plus population cities. Any Podunk burg here in north and south carolina, are 100 times more corrupt. The general consensus in the south remains, "yeah, so what?"
Looks like the construction company has other legal tax issues, good luck getting any money out of them. Probably your typical scam work, wouldn't be shocked to find out they have gone through multiple company names. They just hit the jack pot on a big city contract.
@@Freedom_Half_Off Those cities have plenty of folks who moved from the South looking for work as well as their descendants. They brought their culture with them.
Giving jobs to the lowest bidder or your buddy from college isn't the cause? It seems like it may have been a bad idea to me. State inspectors must have been on vacation that month. If my company was neck deep in this bs, I'd be in my office trying to find a solution. He must be on vacation too. Get your $hit together before your residents start filling paperwork.
The civic administration is derelict I do not believe the city did not know the project was tofu. Levels of corruption I suspect at the city and contractor cmon where was the site inspection during the constructuon? Oversight lack equals corruption
I worked as a surveyor for a City Engineers office. The inspector from our office that was supposed to stay on site and ensure that a sanitary sewer project was done according to the specifications/plans had a young son. The contractor hired the son as a flag man and until the public works department ran a tv camera thru the line and discovered big sags full of water, no one knew how badly the sewer was constricted. Backfill is supposed to be placed in lifts of maybe 18" max and compacted thoroughly which of course takes considerable time. The inspector would go to lunch and upon his return find that blocks of sewer line had been miraculously backfilled. Why didn't he object? Compacting the backfill stabilizes the soil around the pipe to prevent it from sinking or floating during backfilling. Every sag will gradually fill up with sand and require Public Works to manually drag buckets attached to cables thru the line to remove it. This wasn't as bad as catastrophe in the video but there was definitely corruption involved.
It truly is a failure of ALL parties involved. City: Design engineer selection, Engineering design review, Design project administration, City budget insufficient to advertise/award a construction contract (typically illegal if not), Did City review Contractor past work quality/ fitness for constructing drainage project (calling other clients for references), City inspection to ensure project constructed per plan, was construction warranted for 1 year? this is typical for a public works contract. Did contractor build everything per plan? Where is sewer water entering the ditch/drainage system? They don't seem interested in stopping the pollution.
Sounds like a government contractor pulling a scam. I would bet that this is not the first time these people have done this. Unfortunately, the city government of the time seems to have been equally dishonest. They all need to go to jail.
Great reporting. It is a good look all around at what is needed to make these things work. It would appear some oversight was lacking. Someone dropped the ball, in part it seems to be the engineering, but also the construction does not appear to be done right. This happens in part when the lowest bidder is always selected. That said, this drainage project may or may not always be intended to work. What I mean by that is capacity issues. One would think that all drainage projects have a capacity, and rainfall can at times exceed that capacity. One may not want to build a proper project to handle the max capacity, because it may be possible to build a cheaper project that can solve most of the problems. The areas here previously drained naturally, and so there was limited to to no bad consequences if that continued. (houses did not flood) Installing the drainage solved the mosquito and the stagnant water problem. In mass rain events, it appears the water still backed up. This may be ok, and may be part of the design. Being pragmatic about these things is one of the ways to keep costs in control. Here they appeared to spiral out of control. One could could do 6 500,000 projects for the cost of one three million dollar project. Most cities have lots of problems, and one would think hiring engineers one would get good results. But at the same time, the actual cost of the orginal estimate 500,000 was probably the cost it would have taken bubba with a backhoe to dig the ditch. After all the land acquisition people, lawyers, public meetings and more took place you probable run that cost way up. And you probably upgraded to underground pipes (more expensive) and more. Now they may have paid $3 million and got a $500,000 project. This is where it gets complicated. Sometimes it is cheaper to fix things multiple times, than to do it right the first time. I know this is long and rambling, I guess I am just saying I see where it gets complicated, I hope others can also see it gets complicated.
Before covering the piping there had to be city, county and state inspectors looking at the installation of all this and approving the progress of the work as it was being done, otherwise progress and final payments would not have been approved.
Jody, you put on a clinic anytime you investigate and present. It is a shame that we have two news affiliates in this area and they never reported on it.
It would seem easy enough to get the plans for the project and compare them to what was done. This would tell you if it was the planners or the builders, or a combination .
Storm drains don't get pressure tested, it's just not feasible because of the massive volume of water and there are no valves in the system to test against. There are problems on all levels here but one of the big ones that I see is the on-site inspection. Storm drains are sealed in the structures with brick and mortar and obviously this was not done properly. There's no way that this would have passed proper inspection.
Complete agreement. Some municipalities do pressure test. I have owned a full set of plugs from 6 to 12 inch. 8psi for some minutes. Sanitary requires same pressure but 15 and 30 minute times. The one photo looked to me that the basins are not connected to the pipes. And the stink? A normal error is someone's sewer is draining into the storm water. The core? No one inspected anything. The city inspected nothing, the county, the state. They want to hold someone to blame,, They must begin with themselves. It was never inspected.@@floridagunrat1625
In the state I live, state or county inspects projects every step of the way. Don’t they do this in SC? I couldn’t even build a deck without a pre inspection, mid inspection and post inspection from the county I live in. I know that’s private property but I’ve also worked construction, and inspectors came in at least several times a month to check the work that was being done. My dad who was in construction had to redo parts of jobs because they didn’t pass inspection (not due to him but his boss trying to cut corners). If these projects are to be inspected, I would also fault that the city is on the hook for their failure in properly overseeing the project. Unfortunately, again, it’s the tax payers footing the bill for someone not doing their job. Jody, please find out what the city’s responsibility, if any, is in this. Govt at every level has checks and balances and I find it very hard to believe that no one from the county or state inspected this project as it progressed or upon completion. And if they didn’t, then that is a huge gap in oversight that needs to be corrected. On another note, you’re an excellent reporter and a breath of fresh air. You’re what a news reporter used to be. Keep it up!
I work in commercial construction, mostly in NC and some in SC. One important thing to remember is that the amount of money or value of considerations required to tempt a person to risk not only ending their career but also risk prison time is generally more than a residential builder or homeowner would be willing to spend to "pass" an inspection. On a $3.1 million project, the funds alloted for such costs would be six figures.
The engineers, the "inspectors" who set up and designed all this MUST be held accountable! Ridiculous. The inspectors, typically inspect and sign off. why didnt they? and that "consulting" firm.. what a sham.
So nothing being done to the politicians that were responsible for this project? At worst the city is threatening to sue the construction company and engineer... and even then they are being given almost another full year to run or dodge the system. At some level welcome to what home owners deal with though. Dodgy construction companies that go bankrupt or change their names to avoid lawsuits. Pretty sad not even the City could apparently investigate a company better to pick a better contractor.
The smelly water, use an air compressor and an aeration stone. It'll change organic decomposition from anaerobic to aerobic, which doesn't smell as much.
At least the city did not cover it up and will go after the contractor’s insurance??? Did any city inspectors look at the work before back fill or did the contractors engineer’s sign off in work in place????
I got the impression that's part of the problem, they don't know who was overlooking the project. Letting what seems like a scam contractor fly under the radar, and make a huge pay day.
I cannot say this enough... WHAT HAPPENED TO JOURNALISM/INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING?!?!?! At least we have Jody carrying that torch. Very fortunate to live in his area... Woodward, Bernstein, Cronkite, Barr...
if you want real journalism covering national and international news subscribe (online) to the New York Times. You can be assured that any information published is as accurate as humanly possible. In those instances were an error in reporting was made a retraction or correction is made promptly.
Don't cities have inspectors and engineers that are supposed to be knowledgeable enough to prevent a faulty design from getting installed in the first place?
I’ve worked in civil engineering for a long time, and it’s hard to understand why this wasn’t caught early, early on. If the pipes are undersized, that should have been apparent when the plans were inspected. Even the draftsman should have known something was wrong. Who is approving civil plans for Darlington? Who was the Project Manager? Who did inspections for the city as the work was underway? Just so hard to understand this level of incompetence.
Great work. There are local government disaster stories like these in every media market in America, but how many stations allow their journalists to do 15 minute stories?
![일상 속 기분 좋음 [Proto disco meme]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/DwmEIaZ7XGQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Politicians are getting too greedy. It used to be that they would at least build the stuff correctly while skimming funds off a project.
No doubt. Crooks they may have been, but did the Pendergasts build stuff to last in KC.
You are wise.
These are not politicians,, these are contractors and engineers that failed to build ,,,, The engineers did not inspect the work,, the city did not inspect the work, the county or state did not inspect the work. That pipes were never connected to their basins,, and then covered over with dirt,,, no one inspected,, not even the contractor. Some wet behind the ears worker,, lacking all supervision,, just did it fast and poorly.
Please cite a time & place when this was not true.
@@jimmiller5600 Boston 1970s First hand knowledge. You had to be standing there outside the project with the plain white envelop. (100$ per meter) 16 unit building that would be 1,700 cash BEFORE he would walk in. And THEN the job had to be flawless,, code plus, quality. Kinda backwards. Because the inspector wanted nothing to come back and bite him in the butt. All the guys had vacation homes on the Cape,, or up at the ski areas,, or one had his vacation home in France. Time and place,, Boston, 1970s
I guarantee you, the city manager who left 2.6 years ago, the city accountant, the former mayor and a couple of former city council members are going to be found to have received substantial kickbacks. Those sinkholes around the manhole covers screams "no sealed connecting joints", the city public works director and his/her supervisory engineer should have caught this after the second major storm, the signs of improper construction would have shown not long after. The city and county building/construction inspector signing off needs to be added to the kickback list. When a project starts to incur cost overruns, that is the time to take a very close examination of the contractor, and it's quality of work! Kickback written allover on this mess!
I work in the water & sewer industry here in Canada and the fact those sewer drains were never inspected or tested is mind boggling. The only way you can do that is with at least several people looking the other way or falsifying reports. They probably believed it may fail 10 or 20 years down the road, long enough for time to cast a doubt on their guilt.
I also find it strange that a project of this size would ever have been done without going to tender.
Yep
Always a corrupt political official who has a brother in real estate, life-long buddy in construction, sister in law’s husband with a security service, son “working” at an advertising, marketing or print company.
I do think there is a need to look at requiring financial disclosure statements from City Administrators.
I don't understand how the first line of responsibility doesn't lie with the city inspectors. If joe smoe wanted to build a 10x10 addition on their house they would be all up there butt, but 3 million dollar project they turn a blind eye too! As i think more about it though my guess is the city inspectors are just paid permit writers who don't really know what there looking at anyways. Most inspectors i have ever dealt with rarely work in the trade they are inspecting.
I think we can all agree that there was NO shortage of incompetence at every level of this project. I feel sorry for the residents!
exactly, where were the inspectors to check the work as it was occurring?
@xephael3485 Twiddling their thumbs collecting their fat civil servent pay.
Reminds me of the nonsense that was the ‘replacement’ of lead pipes in Detroit.
i dont , they fucking elected these assholes
It's not incompetence it's criminal.
Latham collected $336k for consulting. That's stunning, given that the original estimate for the project was $500,000.
GREAT point.
The engineer who signed the designs will likely be in big trouble, even though it could be the contractor who cheaped out on the seals.
@@rustywater3219 It could be as simple as the seals were just not installed or never purchased. My guess is this was a contractor's misdeed. No engineer would be so derelict as to not specify seals. If it was contractor error, then they need to be held accountable but also who was inspecting the work, who was the oversight?
@frotobaggins7169 the engineers didn't do a Geotechnical analysis for starters.
@@frotobaggins7169 LOL...I'm guessing you have not worked with engineers much?
Combining sewage with storm water has been against federal law since 1957. Thus we have violations of federal law which someone approved . Someone needs to go to jail.
It is extremely hard ti punish government workers.
Combined sewers are still in use in over 800 communities across the US, and many in Canada as well. They are legal to use providing measures are taken to prevent contamination overflow
The combining of sewage and storm water wasn't intentional in this case. It was a result of the failure of the design and/or construction of the project, which allowed sewage to enter the storm drain system.
It's always the citizens who end up paying for the mistakes of those who have no idea what they're doing!
It was pos project from the start city got a kick back from everyone,
I disagree. They knew what they were doing, It is called Government "Graft": I will "steer" some monies your way, if I get a cut.
I want to know what other firms Bid on this work and what was their bid amounts?
Tax money pays for everything. Citizens pay taxes. Simple as that.
Maybe a more accurate statement would be that citizens who have no idea who they are electing end up paying for their mistakes.
Thank you Jody! Your work is desperately needed in this country.
Good story well presented. The city will now choose a 10 member team to form a committee, every salary in excess of $100,000, to write a report.
Spot on
Don't forget the Stormwater Committee Christmas Party. And the 4 day Stormwater Convention in Vegas next September.
As an engineer that has done this type of work, there is negligence all around! Complete incompetence by city officials, which is probably nearing criminal. I suspect another prime example of "going with the cheap guy and getting what you paid for"...... When you do work of this magnitude, you are not just comparing quotes, you are vetting the contracted companies involved. I would be digging up a few sites and running rovers in the pipe system to determine how bad the install was. No inspectors for the city?
Agreed. No independent inspections ? No documentary progress video / stills at each phase of a 3.1 million dollar project ?
Why is sewage mixing with a Storm Drain ? Were the lines mixed together ( illegally ?) ?
Taxpayers got BURNED !
I don’t know how big the city of Darlinton is but I was the utilities director for a small city. We did not have engineers on staff. We contracted our engineering out. We had our share of bad contractors and their subs. More than once we had to hold the engineering firm accountable for bad work, oversights and poor on site inspection. Sounds like Darlington missed the mark on pretty much everything.
@@spmince About a million years ago, I worked for The Ohio State University Purchasing Dept. I've hand-tabulated more construction bids than you'd ever believe, and have reviewed project proposals. All the proposals specified points in the project at which progress could be inspected -- especially things like liquid-bearing pipes, which would inevitably be buried, eliminating the possibility of later eyeballing. This drainage project was mishandled at every step. It's either deliberate malfeasance or the most colossal display of official idiocy on record.
More like "going with the guy I'm related to".
It's corruption top to bottom and everyone playing the blame game like it's musical chairs to see who is left staving to pay the bill. It's all of them. Incompetence, negligence, and corruption. I'd pay money to see the results of a forensic accountants investigation into this whole thing. Follow the money!
imagine not having an engineer overlooking the project before paying 3 million dollars to start it. all of them need to go to prison
🤣 good luck on collecting on option 2
Jody Barr is a REAL JOURNALIST
she is the public face of it. The real reporter behind it is a white man. But they seem to think the disney recipe for viewers is better than letting the man that did all the work present it. They "put a black chick in his place and make her gay"
yea she made herself sound bad saying that to him, when she won't even make a comment after being directly involved
Great job once again Jody! Solid reporting as always. Sounds like a big game of finger pointing is either happening or going to. Bet nobody was wondering where to cash those checks.
That's what government does. If you've ever seen a video of a cop doing someone dirty,they lie and say well you have to contact the other police department or the judge because we can't do anything. Ive also seen where dirty contractors cut corners and the city backs up the contractors after whole towns are flooded. Ima Survivor Sanctuary here on TH-cam got started because he lost everything during Hurricane Harvey. It's my favorite channel of all time.
Keep these stories coming. We must know what our governments are spending OUR money on at all times
I agree!
@Freedom_Half_Off We sure miss him in Texas.
I can't help but wonder if Mr. Mack was a former Mayor Hines (Council at Large - for the people) supporter/voter, he's willing to tell you of the past issues but unwilling to offer an hard opinion about the project's failure and it's costs. It wouldn't surprise me if they attend the same church...ie he knows her.
@@Freedom_Half_Off can't agree more! We miss him in San Antonio Texas. It was a real loss, but he was needed elsewhere to spread his talent
Indeed! Your red state governments!
I smell corruption by companies involved. I hope the city manager gets this corrected. The description of the stench and the sink holes do not seem to be signs of a project well executed.
I always get excited when a Jody Barr story series is shown to us. Thank you Jody for all your hard work and efforts.
The City Attorney along with the Law should clawback those funds and put them back into the City accounts. Then a fine for the City and issue a tax refund to the residents! Great work Jody! This is classic pay to play that goes on everyday in every part of Government
Fine the city and issue a refund....to the people who will pay for the refund...🙄
Where is the City Engineer hiding ? I've done countless of these projects in my lifetime. It is always someone's job to check everything from the Bidding specifications down to quality control of installation. Never seen a failure like this before. Some forensics will tell the tale just like they said. Pipes not properly homed and joints left un sealed look like a huge part of the failures. Glad I didn't work for the Contractor responsible for this mess. Seems nobody had any experience in sewer work here. From the top on down. The whole thing failed!
@@larryspiller6633 look into Vincenzo , he's mentioned and also has dipped. Gives hard working Italian construction workers a bad name.
@@5ringsaudits Too funny you brought up Italian construction workers. I was blessed to have worked for a fine Union Construction Contractor that happened to be of Italian heritage. He was a fine man, I worked for him nearly 30 years until I retired. Superior Construction Company, Gary Indiana. They had one terrible bridge failure in 1982 a few years before I was hired. Forensics changed the way things were done after that. Was a failure in the temporary support foundations during the bridge erection. Nowadays, those temporary foundations are built to nearly a permanent standard. Engineered and QC'd just like the permanent structures. Peace.
@@larryspiller6633 exactly and myself, I am of Italian heritage who’s family has been in the construction industry in the Detroit area, I was embarrassed when I saw Mr. Vincenzo cut and run with the money wondering how many other’s were duped by that Bonnie and Clyde couple. Those types are all too common and it’s embarrassing.
Double dipping is a crime. She should be jailed and fined if they find she was in fact the administrator.
I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't split that money with someone in the city council
@@savagenomore I don't know how they don't think they're not going to get caught. One time maybe but I bet this is a pattern.
She got another kickback from that Contractor. Bet
@@MrNooner319they know they will, but they know there will be no consequences
They need to stop calling people who elected them "customers".
water services are paid for by customers, not everyone votes, but everyone uses water
@@joshuaguenin9507. Like “ votes” can make a difference in a fraudulent system? Lol. Keep on votin dude?
@@oNeGiAnTLiE those who do not participate cannot bitch about it
@@joshuaguenin9507 Not bitching…but I must ask. Where does this logic you have come from? If a system is fraudulent I mean. If voting is just for dummies. How do you determine what it is I can or can not do? Do you see the failure in your thinking and the lunacy of your comments?
We need more reporting like this, nationwide.
Mr. Barr aught to teach journalism. He still does it the right way. Keep being one of the good guys.
You might be the best reporter in the country, local or otherwise. Fantastic depth and clarity in every series I've seen!
It looks like some forensic financial investigations of the personal finances of those involved with this project need to be done.
Many people must have stolen from the projects.
The construction company, did the job wrong and cheap. Then vanished like a fart in the wind, good luck ever getting any money out of them.
Great reporting ✊✊✊✊✊ thanks Jody
Sounds to me like there needs to be a forensic audit for that project to find out where the money went and who was paid off. Obviously the one contractor is shady, but were there people in the city government also complacent
Not complacent, complicit.
Send those people who posed as qualified contractors to jail. For a long time .And anyone else involved!
If the motive is money, fines and loss of licenses would be far more effective. We need prison space for violent offenders.
Great job, Jody! Keep up the good work.
Fair winds and following seas to all.
The push for accepting more bids from miniority contractors over experienced companies is leading to very substandard work. Sewer project currently being done in my neighborhood was a awarded to a hispanic landscaping company. Not hardly qualified for major sewer replacement. It has been a 6 month nightmare that will continue well into fall of 2024. There has been no oversight by city engineers, even though residents have complained. The company that is doing the work has not even been on site for the past 2 weeks. On weekends, private vehicles come in the neighborhood and borrow the bobcats, which they return by Sunday night, at which time they load up on supplies....gravel, dirt, pipe. It's disgusting the amount homeowners have had to pay in monthly sewer fees and tax increases for this project, while being helpless to do anything about the theft of supplies and shoddy workmanship. It seems to be a trend for city, state and federal officials to just not give a shit about the taxpayers.
the same thing is going on where I live with that minority company owner bs and now all the reputable companies that have done city contract work for many years don't even bid because they know they are wasting their time, one of those companies had already been picked to build our new jail then the county commissioner backed out because they weren't "diverse" enough with their sub contractors
LOL, Nice try, But Hanna Engineering all white guys.
@@bend8353got'em 😅
@@bend8353damn that Hanna. Messing up the op narrative!
the smell from the water in that ditch was the sewage coming out the overflow in a combined sewer
"I gotta go. I have an appointment"
You said it all brother
Every water custimer should sue the city for fraud.
Why on earth would engineers, contractors go ahead and construct a pipeline to prevent flooding, but a poor job of sealing pipes together. Seems No one involved choosing the engineers who planned it, the contractors who assembled it did much research on finding competent participants to plan or construct it.
What a waste of money, without solving the issues they intended.
Awesome work Jody!
Jody Barr is a blessing to every community he protects by his excellent journalism.
Thanks for sharing this story and exposing this corruption by theses thieves!!!1
This is a mayor every city in this country needs.
Has anyone else noticed how everyone in this piece who was interviewed (even if they didn't have much to say) were very civil and polite ? I say that has a bit to do with the culture in the area , but also the journalist was hard investigating but polite with everyone . This is what good reporting looks like , and I don't have a dog in the fight there , just saying from PA , I noticed .
Lifetime to a government official is only the amount of time they are in office.
His answer at the end says EVERYTHING
I see somebody exercised their failure options.
So we have to back up. What caused the project scope change? Who was involved with approving the revised scope? If it was that lady submitting and winning the grants... Well that would be the turd at the top of the hill. Then we need to sort out the parties responsible for engineering selection.
At least she was paid well. 🤣
Stormwater inspector here. This is why I take my job extremely seriously.
My mom works for a civil engineering firm. They've done forensic engineering for cases, as well. This is BAD.
Seems like a combination of Contractor incompetence (design &/or construction) coupled with inadequate &/or incompetent oversight by the City. And contractually, if exclusions were accepted for things like subsequent failure, or if re-work was to be done for a fee...the city will ne paying unless they can prove contractor negligence. Seems Jody needs to speak to contract language for a fuller picture of this debacle.
Remember...this is THE SOUTH
EVERYTHING down here is done via The Good Ole Boy Network!
The best contractor/bid always loses when somebody's "kinfolk" puts in a bid as well
@@Freedom_Half_Off LOL
Didn't say that.
Ah least those cities they TRY to hide the corruption.
I've lived in million plus population cities. Any Podunk burg here in north and south carolina, are 100 times more corrupt.
The general consensus in the south remains, "yeah, so what?"
Looks like the construction company has other legal tax issues, good luck getting any money out of them.
Probably your typical scam work, wouldn't be shocked to find out they have gone through multiple company names.
They just hit the jack pot on a big city contract.
@@Freedom_Half_Off Those cities have plenty of folks who moved from the South looking for work as well as their descendants. They brought their culture with them.
Why is no one talking about a "Performance Bond" or the lack thereof?
TY for shining light on this fiasco.
Great piece of investigative journalism.
Keep up the good work!!!
I'D be curious to look into the contractors bonding. I've had competors bids thrown out because their bonding was fake and the city didn't investigate
They left with fat pockets
Giving jobs to the lowest bidder or your buddy from college isn't the cause? It seems like it may have been a bad idea to me. State inspectors must have been on vacation that month. If my company was neck deep in this bs, I'd be in my office trying to find a solution. He must be on vacation too. Get your $hit together before your residents start filling paperwork.
The civic administration is derelict I do not believe the city did not know the project was tofu. Levels of corruption I suspect at the city and contractor cmon where was the site inspection during the constructuon? Oversight lack equals corruption
That poor man with the stinky yard.... 😢❤ Here's hoping this mess gets fixed before the rainy season!!🙏🙏🙏
I worked as a surveyor for a City Engineers office. The inspector from our office that was supposed to stay on site and ensure that a sanitary sewer project was done according to the specifications/plans had a young son. The contractor hired the son as a flag man and until the public works department ran a tv camera thru the line and discovered big sags full of water, no one knew how badly the sewer was constricted. Backfill is supposed to be placed in lifts of maybe 18" max and compacted thoroughly which of course takes considerable time. The inspector would go to lunch and upon his return find that blocks of sewer line had been miraculously backfilled. Why didn't he object? Compacting the backfill stabilizes the soil around the pipe to prevent it from sinking or floating during backfilling. Every sag will gradually fill up with sand and require Public Works to manually drag buckets attached to cables thru the line to remove it. This wasn't as bad as catastrophe in the video but there was definitely corruption involved.
It truly is a failure of ALL parties involved. City: Design engineer selection, Engineering design review, Design project administration, City budget insufficient to advertise/award a construction contract (typically illegal if not), Did City review Contractor past work quality/ fitness for constructing drainage project (calling other clients for references), City inspection to ensure project constructed per plan, was construction warranted for 1 year? this is typical for a public works contract. Did contractor build everything per plan? Where is sewer water entering the ditch/drainage system? They don't seem interested in stopping the pollution.
The engineer and contractor belong in prison.
Solid local reporting… good job
Well if it don't rain it don't flood. That killed me. Some real wisdom in that quote.
All bad actors should be held liable in a civil suit and held responsible
You get what you vote for South Carolina
Overbid, cut corners, and pocket the difference.
Follow the money!
Wow! Absolutely appalling. How many unscrupulous people lined their pockets over this bogus storm water project.
Sounds like a government contractor pulling a scam. I would bet that this is not the first time these people have done this. Unfortunately, the city government of the time seems to have been equally dishonest. They all need to go to jail.
Great reporting. It is a good look all around at what is needed to make these things work. It would appear some oversight was lacking. Someone dropped the ball, in part it seems to be the engineering, but also the construction does not appear to be done right. This happens in part when the lowest bidder is always selected. That said, this drainage project may or may not always be intended to work. What I mean by that is capacity issues. One would think that all drainage projects have a capacity, and rainfall can at times exceed that capacity. One may not want to build a proper project to handle the max capacity, because it may be possible to build a cheaper project that can solve most of the problems. The areas here previously drained naturally, and so there was limited to to no bad consequences if that continued. (houses did not flood) Installing the drainage solved the mosquito and the stagnant water problem. In mass rain events, it appears the water still backed up. This may be ok, and may be part of the design. Being pragmatic about these things is one of the ways to keep costs in control. Here they appeared to spiral out of control. One could could do 6 500,000 projects for the cost of one three million dollar project. Most cities have lots of problems, and one would think hiring engineers one would get good results. But at the same time, the actual cost of the orginal estimate 500,000 was probably the cost it would have taken bubba with a backhoe to dig the ditch. After all the land acquisition people, lawyers, public meetings and more took place you probable run that cost way up. And you probably upgraded to underground pipes (more expensive) and more. Now they may have paid $3 million and got a $500,000 project. This is where it gets complicated. Sometimes it is cheaper to fix things multiple times, than to do it right the first time. I know this is long and rambling, I guess I am just saying I see where it gets complicated, I hope others can also see it gets complicated.
Great to see someone investigating. Sometimes, the cost construction bid is not the way to go.
Before covering the piping there had to be city, county and state inspectors looking at the installation of all this and approving the progress of the work as it was being done, otherwise progress and final payments would not have been approved.
I tell ya, seems like Mr. Alva Mac is such a good soul and extremely patient to have put up with this since the early 80’s.
Jody, you put on a clinic anytime you investigate and present. It is a shame that we have two news affiliates in this area and they never reported on it.
The Mayor patting herself on the back... 😂
It would seem easy enough to get the plans for the project and compare them to what was done. This would tell you if it was the planners or the builders, or a combination .
That's pretty standard for government workers in government contractors. When you mix nepotism with greed, this is what happens.
I bet the city leaders have immunity to prosecution for any actions they took while in office.
Jody should have a million subscribers by now. He's doing amazing work.
They didn't say who's life time. I think they based that on who ever was the oldest person there.
The city was way in over their head and obviously didn’t have competent city employees overseeing the project.
Did the city or county inspect the pipes or pressure test the pipes before accepting the project as complete?
Storm drains don't get pressure tested, it's just not feasible because of the massive volume of water and there are no valves in the system to test against. There are problems on all levels here but one of the big ones that I see is the on-site inspection. Storm drains are sealed in the structures with brick and mortar and obviously this was not done properly. There's no way that this would have passed proper inspection.
Complete agreement. Some municipalities do pressure test. I have owned a full set of plugs from 6 to 12 inch. 8psi for some minutes. Sanitary requires same pressure but 15 and 30 minute times. The one photo looked to me that the basins are not connected to the pipes. And the stink? A normal error is someone's sewer is draining into the storm water. The core? No one inspected anything. The city inspected nothing, the county, the state. They want to hold someone to blame,, They must begin with themselves. It was never inspected.@@floridagunrat1625
In the state I live, state or county inspects projects every step of the way. Don’t they do this in SC? I couldn’t even build a deck without a pre inspection, mid inspection and post inspection from the county I live in. I know that’s private property but I’ve also worked construction, and inspectors came in at least several times a month to check the work that was being done. My dad who was in construction had to redo parts of jobs because they didn’t pass inspection (not due to him but his boss trying to cut corners). If these projects are to be inspected, I would also fault that the city is on the hook for their failure in properly overseeing the project. Unfortunately, again, it’s the tax payers footing the bill for someone not doing their job. Jody, please find out what the city’s responsibility, if any, is in this. Govt at every level has checks and balances and I find it very hard to believe that no one from the county or state inspected this project as it progressed or upon completion. And if they didn’t, then that is a huge gap in oversight that needs to be corrected. On another note, you’re an excellent reporter and a breath of fresh air. You’re what a news reporter used to be. Keep it up!
I work in commercial construction, mostly in NC and some in SC. One important thing to remember is that the amount of money or value of considerations required to tempt a person to risk not only ending their career but also risk prison time is generally more than a residential builder or homeowner would be willing to spend to "pass" an inspection. On a $3.1 million project, the funds alloted for such costs would be six figures.
The engineers, the "inspectors" who set up and designed all this MUST be held accountable! Ridiculous. The inspectors, typically inspect and sign off. why didnt they? and that "consulting" firm.. what a sham.
This problem is thought the state of South Carolina
So nothing being done to the politicians that were responsible for this project? At worst the city is threatening to sue the construction company and engineer... and even then they are being given almost another full year to run or dodge the system. At some level welcome to what home owners deal with though. Dodgy construction companies that go bankrupt or change their names to avoid lawsuits. Pretty sad not even the City could apparently investigate a company better to pick a better contractor.
stay on it jody!
Name and Shame the contractors AND the inspectors who signed off on each stage of that project.
Remind me to never move to Darlington..😂😂
Have mercy, that's just nuts.. Talk about crooked politicians..
The smelly water, use an air compressor and an aeration stone.
It'll change organic decomposition from anaerobic to aerobic, which doesn't smell as much.
Yep need to hold those accountable, such BS. Who approved engineering and should have watched where the money went.
"We've got our very best people on this."
At least the city did not cover it up and will go after the contractor’s insurance??? Did any city inspectors look at the work before back fill or did the contractors engineer’s sign off in work in place????
I got the impression that's part of the problem, they don't know who was overlooking the project.
Letting what seems like a scam contractor fly under the radar, and make a huge pay day.
So where are the criminal charges against the CITY project manager, accountants, engineers and inspectors?
Corners are being cut to fill certain peoples pockets. Same with fires everywhere, we pay for clearing undergrowth but it's misappropriated
50% of "engineers" are in the bottom half of their class. In 40 years as an electrical engineer, I have been impressed by less than a dozen designs.
I cannot say this enough...
WHAT HAPPENED TO JOURNALISM/INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING?!?!?!
At least we have Jody carrying that torch. Very fortunate to live in his area...
Woodward, Bernstein, Cronkite, Barr...
There are lots of them out there. You have to stop listening to fux and friends though...
@@Failure_Is_An_Option you forgot CNN and all MSM?? Or did ya?
if you want real journalism covering national and international news subscribe (online) to the New York Times. You can be assured that any information published is as accurate as humanly possible. In those instances were an error in reporting was made a retraction or correction is made promptly.
When people of culcha are in charge, what other outcome is expected. SMH!
"You all, need to do some investigating reporting". They are, just saying
$7k to apply for a grant. That's 64 hours of work at her $108/hr rate!
Wow, just wow! 😮
Incompetent Republican governance.
Don't cities have inspectors and engineers that are supposed to be knowledgeable enough to prevent a faulty design from getting installed in the first place?
I’ve worked in civil engineering for a long time, and it’s hard to understand why this wasn’t caught early, early on. If the pipes are undersized, that should have been apparent when the plans were inspected. Even the draftsman should have known something was wrong. Who is approving civil plans for Darlington? Who was the Project Manager? Who did inspections for the city as the work was underway? Just so hard to understand this level of incompetence.
The pro Buisness red states really know how to get things done without all that pesky regulation .
Great work. There are local government disaster stories like these in every media market in America, but how many stations allow their journalists to do 15 minute stories?
I’m grew up in a rural area and there were ditches in just about everyone’s yard. The water never stayed so long it stunk.