Ohio Leaders Refuse to Build Four Schools for the Price of Five
This week, Ohio leaders stood up and said NO to taxpayer funded handouts to Big Labor. The Ohio School Facilities Commission (OSFC) voted Thursday to approve a policy that prohibits the use of government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) on school construction projects financed by the OSFC. This reverses a policy adopted by former Gov. Ted Strickland’s […]
Solving Euclid’s Project Labor Agreement Problem
Corruption, Big Labor’s powerful special interest lobby, a change in Ohio’s political leadership, and poorly researched and half-baked public policy are all variables in a complicated equation the people of Euclid, Ohio, are desperate to solve. In November 2009, Euclid City School District voters barely passed Issue #105 – a $40.3 million bond measure (see election results […]
More Evidence That Project Labor Agreements Reduce Competition and Increase Costs
Big Labor Bosses and their hand-picked political puppets claim that anti-competitive and costly government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) are in the public’s best interest. In reality, PLAs are crony contracting schemes implemented by corrupt elected officials that funnel lucrative public works contracts to union contractors and their union employees in exchange for political support. Numerous […]
Public Awareness Brings Down Ohio PLA
There is an old adage that the best weapon against wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreements (PLAs) is sunshine. This has once again proven true, this time in Ohio. Officials from the Ohio Schools For the Blind and For the Deaf have agreed to drop a PLA requirement that had been imposed on the upcoming […]
ABC Chapter Takes to the Airwaves to Call for OSFC Chief’s Ouster
The Northern Ohio Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors has launched a new radio ad campaign calling on Gov. Ted Strickland (D) to fire embattled Ohio School Facilities Commission (OSFC) Executive Director Richard Murray. As TheTruthAboutPLAs.com readers know, Murray was the subject of a scathing Aug. 5 report by the Ohio Inspector General’s (IG) office […]
Ohio School Facilities Commission Controversy – Latest Developments
There are new developments in the controversy over Ohio School Facilities Commission (OSFC) Executive Director Richard Murray’s effort to drive lucrative school construction contracts to Big Labor. As readers of TheTruthAboutPLAs.com are aware, the Ohio Inspector General’s (IG) office released a scathing report on August 5 that brought OSFC E.D. and former Laborers official Richard Murray’s efforts […]
Columbus Dispatch: OSFC Director’s Union Bias is Inexcusable
Today The Columbus Dispatch published another editorial blasting Ohio School Facilities Commission (OSFC) director Richard Murray for engaging in numerous acts of “union bias” and steering lucrative school construction contracts to union contractors and union members via project labor agreements (PLAs). Murray has been the subject of an investigation by the Ohio Inspector General’s office TheTruthAboutPLAs.com covered here and here. […]
Ethics Complaint Raises Questions About UMass Crony Contracting Scheme
Yesterday, The Boston Globe reported that a group of nonunion contractors filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission alleging that a project labor agreement (PLA) favoring union labor on $750 million worth of construction at the UMass Boston campus violated the state’s conflict of interest law when it was approved by a board that includes two […]
Misfeasance: Ohio IG Report on OSFC PLA Scheme Continues to Gain Traction; Calls for Murray to Resign Grow
The media attention over the August 5 release of the Ohio Inspector General’s review of Richard Murray’s tenure as head of the Ohio School Facilities Commission (OSFC) and his efforts to strong-arm local communities into wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreements (PLAs) continued to gain traction over the weekend. Readers of TheTruthAboutPLAs.com know that Murray […]
Bids Reveal Increased Costs for Ohio School’s Crony Contracting Scheme
TheTruthAboutPLAs.com has covered how former Big Labor Boss Richard Murray, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland’s (D) appointed Director of the Ohio School Facilities Commission (OSFC), is under investigation for forcing school districts to utilize anti-competitive project labor agreement (PLA) schemes that funnel lucrative school construction contracts to unionized contractors and union labor after these special interest groups have contributed […]