We asked every major government organization in St. Johns County to make available their no-bid contracts on their websites and to provide statistics on their annual cost. The response to date is slow.
Wonder why?
But our St. Johns River Water Management District has already sent an invoice.
No phone call, no cooperation, just an invoice for $238.11, curtly demanding I pay money for information on what it admits are 396 no-bid contracts and 158 no-bid purchase orders.
Does that seem like a lot to you?
SJRWMD claims it would take "eight hours" of staff time to share this information by "burning" it to a DVD. I did not ask SJRWMD for a DVD. I asked it to place it upon the SJRWMD's website for all to see.
SJRWMD reports that it has hundreds of full-time equivalent (FTE) employees. They work for us.
Or do they?
SJRWMD has an annual budget of some $135.5 million.
It's our money. Or is it the employees money?
Do you think we should pay the SJRWMD to learn about its hundreds of no-bid contracts? Or should SJRWMD do what I asked, and put them on its website, as Orlando does with city contracts?
Openness and transparency, please.
It's our money.
What do y'all reckon?
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