By: Libi Uremovic | Original Article at patch.com
Ten hours before the office of Urban Logic Consultants was raided by the FBI and Riverside D.A.’s office Kiernan McKiernan stood before Council and proclaimed his innocence. Let’s review:
“.. this quote/unquote ‘money was embezzled’. I don’t believe any of that is true…”
I tried to hand Kieran McKiernan documents showing money funneled to Urban Logic, but he refused to take the documents, so I took them to the Company’s Sacramento address listed on the Secretary of State’s website. Turns out the company at the address was a ‘mailbox store’ that was used as a front for dummy cooperations like Urban Logic. If McKiernan threw the documents away without looking at them then he’s a fool.
‘… hear outlandish claims that there is no wastewater treatment plant. You’ve all been there, you all see it….’
The City has a sewer plant. Until the facility can produce Title 22 Compliant Recycle Water it is a sewer plant. If McKiernan was honest he would tell Council the truth about the condition of the sewer plant.
‘… I am not that history….’
McKiernan uses all of the same employees/consultants as the old Urban Logic including the former owner – Deepak Moorjani.
‘… I’m an individual that bought a company 2 1/2 years ago…’
The question is: What did you buy Kieran McKiernan?
When McKiernan became the face of Urban Logic the company didn’t even have an office. Their ‘phone’ was a cell phone issued by the City to the sewer department. All Urban Logic had was a flow of money coming out of the City of Beaumont that McKiernan knew or should have known was being acquired illegally.
207:30 McKiernan: I heard what was just said and I feel like I’m being pre-judged and my integrity is in question and that I’m lying to you tonight. I can tell you very clearly that we have had no input on this RFP. I’m an individual that bought a company 2 1/2 years ago. We’re a bunch of individuals that are in this community and this quote/unquote ‘money was embezzled’. I don’t believe any of that is true. I hear outlandish claims that there is no wastewater treatment plant. You’ve all been there, you all see it. You all drive on the roads that were built here over the years. I don’t even want to give any credence these outlandish claims of embezzlement. I don’t know of anything. I’m not driving or flying planes or doing anything.
209:00 McKiernan: We’re a bunch of hard working individuals. As the City Manager mentioned, I do hire different consultants from different firms with different specialties in different areas. We’re working on a project down at the Salton Sea. I have certain specialists who work on that, that work on dealing with the water issues on that might end up tying into a solution for the brine. That said; I understand there’s a history here that – I’m getting a lot of comments from the peanut gallery behind me – but we are not that history. I am not that history. I believe we deserve an honest chance to bid on these projects. We are here. I am here every day making sure that we are covering the city and protecting what is going on in this city from an engineering standpoint. To prejudge me and say that if I can swear on an affidavit we didn’t work on – and I know specifically that none of my consultants worked on it or that I had any relationship to this things. I want to make sure there’s transparency here too so you guys feel comfortable hiring us and continuing with us. I think and as a matter of fact I know that we are the best qualified for this job because we have the continuity. We know where all the pipes are, we know where all the potential problems are. What you’re going to get with us is a firm that’s done a lot of the background work already that you’re not going to have to pay another firm to redo and reinvent for you.
211:00 McKiernan: There are a lot of great sources of funding at 1% money right now up at the State. There’s a lot of water funding and water resources that are available for this city for these specific projects. The State is looking to give it to you guys.
211:20 Knight: I want to thank you and I do want to say something here; ask our City Attorney. I’m not comfortable with the language, with the Motion, and I want to make that clear to my Colleagues. I’m comfortable with us moving forward in the sense of an RFP as far as making sure that the process isn’t tainted. But I am not comfortable knocking any business, any entity out of not bidding. That is their right. And for us to try to subdue that; I’m not comfortable with that and I won’t vote for it.
212:00 White: I have never said that anyone in this City is a criminal. I have never said that anyone is a crook. I have never said that anyone has embezzled any money. I didn’t say that you were a liar. I didn’t say that you weren’t honest. What I’m saying is that there’s a history that has a lot of questions involved and it’s a main reason three of us are new up here is because of that history. We did have a conversation, you made a good argument why Mr. Moorjani is still working for you. I’m just telling you that there’s a lot of questions about the relationships between the old Urban Logic and the City of Beaumont and the new Urban Logic. If the new Urban Logic had no association to the old Urban Logic I would not have a problem. You bought a new company, you’re moving forward.
213:00 White: The problem I see as a citizen before I was up here is that we watched for two years and we really weren’t sure who Urban Logic was, who owned it, when it was sold to you. It was not clear to the public that the transition had happened. The Council Members may have known, but the rest of us didn’t. I’m not telling you not to bid on it, I’m just telling you that if I want to show true transparency it is important to me that we don’t work with the fog if we don’t need to and I don’t think we need to. I’m not saying that if you sign an affidavit or whatever that says no one that works for you has worked on this, I’m not questioning your credibility. What I am questioning, because there are a lot of questions on whether or not you were told upfront what we weren’t told upfront and that is; who worked on these different RFPs and projects. We have no way of knowing from what the Steiner Group presented to us.
214:00 White: I’m not accusing anyone of embezzling, I’m not accusing anyone of lying or being dishonest. I’m just saying that there’s a fog over the old Urban Logic and it’s an issue that’s important to me because something that I ran on was that we needed to start doing business differently. I’m okay if you buy a company; I will give you a fresh start. But there’s still a connection and that fog there; that’s where it’s hard for me to grant – but I’m only one of four.
216:00 Motion to continue this Item with direction to Staff to determine any connection with Land Metrics and Dee Moorjani have to the three potential Proposers listed in the Staff Memo.
Motion by White, second by Lara
White: Yes
Lara: Yes
Orozco: Yes
Knight: No