HOW TO FIGHT THE SCAM IN YOUR AREA

Monday

For all the Roof Consultants, Contractors, Roofing Sales Reps and Architects and Engineers fighting the scam, if the documents listed below don't help you, here's how to fight the scam:

UPDATE 04/21/08:
A great School Board Member in Ellwood City, PA has stopped Tremco in their School District after that member made a presentation to his School Board in an emergency session a few weeks ago.

As a result, a number of other School Districts in the area have stopped Tremco from gaining their business.

His Presentation was very effective and simply done. Please see the Power Point Presentation at:
http://roofingscam.blogspot.com/2008_04_20_archive.html#1615796448469744353

Please see the following links to the Newspaper Articles regarding the School Board's resulting actions:

And another group that has caught on to the scam - Hoosiers for Fair Taxation - reported the confused wonder of a local School District's Parents (Citizens fo r a Better Education) over the fact that the local School Board was more interested in school construction projects than having bells to ring to change classes with or getting the paper needed for students, at:

http://indianacitizensforeducation.blogspot.com/2008/03/issue-bells-not-working-at-nchs.html


However, Hoosiers for Fair Taxation had a local roofing contractor reporting the scam and possible "wooing" of a Facilities Director by the manufacturer to get their business, at:

http://hoosiersforfairtaxation.blogspot.com/2008/02/worthy-roofing-business-that-didnt-get.html

Other than alerting your School Board, the following should be considered:

1. Contact your State Auditor. Only in Wisconsin and California are
we aware of politicians controlling what a State Auditor can look into,
which should be criminal, frankly. In California, however, the State
Auditors are very smart and want something done....and they will
find a way.


2. Contact your local and state representatives in Government.
Vet them first, though.


Usually - not always! - we have found Republicans to stand up to the
scam and otherwise from the Democrats - word to the wise! See how
heavily the Asphalt Industry as themselves or as an "Associated
Engineering Contractors" (with utilities and road paving contractors
in them or some such nonsense) are giving to the campaigns of your
representatives, and look at their records, before ever speaking to
them. Be careful!


3. Contact your local Taxpayer Advocacy Group.

In Indiana, the local taxpayer Advocacy Groups are more than
admirable -but in San Francisco, woefully not.....look at who
their "friends" are in government, first, and who gives to their
campaigns. If they work with the Democrats, good guess they
are helping the scam proliferate by not doing anything about it...
as a "shill" organization. Watch actions, not words.


4. Tread carefully before you divulge too much with State
Attorney Generals' and other Attorney General's Offices
(as in Federal).

You can't imagine what it is like to discover that a three years'
belatedly arriving State Attorney General's "political consultant",
flying in from Los Angeles to San Francisco once a month to
"download" information off you is actually working for a State
Attorney General (SAG) who himself is in the Roofer's Union
and had a stepfather who owned a Roofing Contracting business
in the San Francisco Bay Area (Fremont area), in which this
State Attorney General worked.

The SAG was inducted into the Roofer's Union out of San Leandro,
next to Oakland, a year or so previous. Guess who called to tell me?

Roofer's Union guys very concerned for myself and others - from
Southern California....and confirmed by the head of the local
Roofer's Union who inducted the SAG himself into the Union.

By the way, the political consultant called for the SAG the first
time bright and early on a Monday morning out of the
Sacramento offices of the SAG to talk with me (remember - he
was from LA) ....and a day after the Saturday night release onto
the New York Times Newswire re: the first national link of the
roofing scam, linking my story with that of the New Jersey SCI
Report. It was printed on the front page below the fold of the
Dayton Daily News, Oct. 22, 2000.

So when I say don't trust, I mean it. If politically connected,
nothing will get done - the perps have somehow gotten there
first. If someone from an AG's Office wants to "help" - better
to make them prove it first.

Ask yourselves - has anyone done anything about the scam in
its' over 40 years' operation from any Attorney General's
Offices? Or instead, have you seen "persecutions" of those who
stand up to the scam (Idaho - a roofing contractor and Missouri
- a School Administrator) carried out on the behest of the perps
instead?

With politicians and a number of Justices, the lobbies seem to
control. And worse - twice Tremco has been known to bring
folks up on false criminal charges for standing up to them as
in stopping a bid from going competitive (Idaho, a roofing
contractor) and a specification from being opened up to
competition (Missouri, a School Administrator). And in
Indiana? It appears in early 2008 that Tremco's attorneys
are also in at the State Attorney Generals' Offices, "helping"
to rewrite law....you get the picture.


5. If you go to the FBI like I did, they can't do anything unless you
know what the kickbacks are. Understand what I am telling you.....it
usually means you had to beinvolved...or saw what someone got or
they told you what they got.

Read the list under the "Anatomy of a Billion Dollar Scam" for what
I was told by insiders - and this was from Sales Managers - for
illegally sole-sourcing their products, and from former Contracts
Managers at UCSF - where I worked. That's what you need to
start looking for - any kind of "lifestyle enhancements" you suspect,
the origin of. Don't expect the sales reps to know what if anything
was given (possible separate "downlines", if you will, out of the
companies... from their national offices).


For instance: a former sales rep for a very famous and good
manufacturer (now passed away) was so angry at the Santa
Monica School Board in the Los Angeles Area, he started
investigating the School Board members, and discovered
the cars (Mercedes) they (two of the School Board Members)
were driving were leased by one of the "big three". I received
conflicting information as to whether or not the cars were leased
by the company themselves or an "affiliated" construction
company we all know about......I heard about this in the early
2000's....and nothing was ever done.


I asked the California State Attorney General's Offices to look into
it - pull up all the car registrations listed to certain companies, past
and present, and then on those vehicles, who was the insured. They
refused - the State Attorney General himself was in the Roofer's
Union and shielding the perps.


If you run into anything folks need when fighting the scam, let us
know at "roofreports@gmail.com". It will be posted if OK - to
save someone else the heartbreak and wasted time of getting an
involved government agency tipped off...we'll make a long list if
we have to!


For all the Contractors out there fighting the scam, here's the best links and published pages on this and another blog:

Midwest Roofer Magazine 1997 + articles:
http://www.roofingscam.blogspot.com/

WLWT NBC TV Cincinnati, Ohio - Two News Reports on primarily Tremco and Garland - and Hickman - the "big three", May 2001 and February 2003:
http://www.wlwt.com/news/790350/detail.html
and
http://www.wlwt.com/news/2010987/detail.html

KOBT Albuquerque Report on Garland, 2001:
http://web.archive.org/web/20010614222720/http:/www.kobtv.com/archive/2001/may/23/4wtk-roofing.htm

Link to the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation Report, 1999,
"Waste and Abuse in School Roofing Projects":
http://www.state.nj.us/sci/school.shtm
For the Summary of Findings:
http://www.state.nj.us/sci/pdf/rooffind.pdf
For the Generic Guide to the Roofing Scams,
http://www.state.nj.us/sci/pdf/roofscam.pdf
For the whole report:
http://www.state.nj.us/sci/pdf/Roofing_Report.pdf

Tremco In-House Training Documents, 1992:
http://schoolroofingscam.blogspot.com/2008/02/tremco-in-house-training-documents.html
or if the link won't work, go to the top right-hand portion of this page and click on the same.

Article on the Tremco In-House Training Documents, 1997, Midwest Roofer:
http://www.roofingscam.blogspot.com/
and scroll towards the bottom.

California State Auditor's Report, Sept. 17th, 2003 (Chapter 5):
http://www.bsa.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/I2003-2.pdf

Garland's Consent Order with the Los Angeles DA's Offices, late 1990's - they were caught bid rigging in Los Angeles, a former Tremco rep on staff doing so..... located here:

(coming soon)

Anatomy of a Billion-Dollar Scam, written 2000-2008 with the latest updates, for the California State Attorney General's Offices (initially):

Graphic Charts to hand out to School Board Members and Facilities Personnel, and Architects and Engineers, showing:
How the Public Bidding Process Should Work
 How Roofing Manufacturers Control Bidding Processes
 How a Roofing Manufacturer Controlled and Subverted an
Educational Purchasing Agents' Association Bid Process
at:
http://schoolroofingscam.blogspot.com/2008/02/roles-responsibilities-of-facility.html

Comparative Costs (A way to present materials to whom you are speaking):
and
 

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