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Re: NCRA says NWP Repairs are completed awaiting inspection
Author: Hipshot
Date: 10-23-2009 - 13:03
If anyone is trying to rewrite history, "john," it is you, Sir. Everything you say about the NWPY is a pure fabrication; not merely false and misleading but actionably libelous.
The NWPY never refused to pay into the RR retirement account. From the time NWPY began hiring employees in July 2000 until NCRA repudiated its signed contracts, all payments were made (albeit, sometimes late). However, because NCRA walked away from its obligations, NWPY had no money to pay the 2nd and 3rd Quarter installments for 2001.
Except for the paychecks covering the period ended September 15, 2001, which remain outstanding, paychecks were never late. Those last paychecks could not be paid because NWPY’s investors and lenders refused to advance any more money to NWPY after NCRA repudiated its contracts and refused to pay its bills -- bills which NCRA has never challenged as to accuracy or completeness.
It is a pure fiction to say that the equipment was junk. Except some of the maintenance equipment leased from the NCRA, all NWPY locomotives, work equipment, and vehicles were either brand new or recently fully overhauled. The three locomotives, an SW-1500 and two SD 40-2s were leased from Locomotive Leasing Partners (LLPX, an EMD/GATX equipment leasing firm) were fully reconditioned before being shipped to NWPY. NWPY’s Chief Mechanical Officer, Darrell Gattis, performed all daily car and locomotive inspections and repairs. Fuel was provided by Royal Petroleum, Inc. of Petaluma, which, except for vehicles, delivered fuel to the NWPY. Individual employees were responsible for going to Royal’s location for fuel. The only and rare instances were anything ran out of fuel were when someone tried to skip a visit or stretch the miles between visits to Royal’s inconvenient location, or forgot to submit a purchase requisition.
It is a bald-faced lie to say that NWPY stranded any car – or any piece of equipment or any kind – for which it was responsible. When operations ceased on September 14, 2001, there was not one single foreign line car on the railroad that was NWPY’s responsibility. The only cars on line at shutdown were those that had been there when NWPY arrived. Every single one of those bad-order and/or inaccessible cars were NCRA’s sole responsibility. All other NWPY equipment was either sold or returned to the appropriate lessor in an orderly fashion after operations were suspended. With only minor exceptions common to all railroads, any vandalism that might have occurred was visited on NCRA or privately-owned equipment that NCRA either could not or would not take steps to protect following NWPY's departure.
The NWPY is not solely, or even principally, responsible for the distrust between the State’s agencies and the NCRA. That distrust arose in 1998 – long before NWPY – when Caltrans and FEMA suspended all funding to the NCRA as a result of State and federal audits which found accounting irregularities and misuse of public funds going back as far as 1993. Investigations by a Federal Grand Jury and the various audit agencies found massive failure to comply with applicable regulations, but could not prove any criminal intent – only incompetence. As a result of these failures, NCRA was labeled a “high risk agency” – a rubric which surely must have been erased by now.
Blame the NCRA? It was the NCRA that marched into NWPY’s offices on September 10, 2001, and, without one word of explanation or justification, stated, “We don’t care what the contracts say, we are not going to pay you one dime.” It was the NCRA that was in violation of the laws and regulations that led to FRA’s Emergency Order No. 21, the State’s Environmental Consent Decree, and its designation as a “high risk agency.” NCRA never made the slightest effort to discharge its contractual obligations to the NWPY; they are the ones who lied to the NWPY’s managers and owners in 2000 regarding its ability to use the Traffic Congestion Relief Program funds to pay its contractual share of maintaining its broken down railroad. Is it any wonder that in late 2001 every one of NWPY’s six or seven owners and its lender all refused to invest even one more nickel in doing business with the NCRA?
So, cut the crap about the NWPY.
The NWPY never refused to pay into the RR retirement account. From the time NWPY began hiring employees in July 2000 until NCRA repudiated its signed contracts, all payments were made (albeit, sometimes late). However, because NCRA walked away from its obligations, NWPY had no money to pay the 2nd and 3rd Quarter installments for 2001.
Except for the paychecks covering the period ended September 15, 2001, which remain outstanding, paychecks were never late. Those last paychecks could not be paid because NWPY’s investors and lenders refused to advance any more money to NWPY after NCRA repudiated its contracts and refused to pay its bills -- bills which NCRA has never challenged as to accuracy or completeness.
It is a pure fiction to say that the equipment was junk. Except some of the maintenance equipment leased from the NCRA, all NWPY locomotives, work equipment, and vehicles were either brand new or recently fully overhauled. The three locomotives, an SW-1500 and two SD 40-2s were leased from Locomotive Leasing Partners (LLPX, an EMD/GATX equipment leasing firm) were fully reconditioned before being shipped to NWPY. NWPY’s Chief Mechanical Officer, Darrell Gattis, performed all daily car and locomotive inspections and repairs. Fuel was provided by Royal Petroleum, Inc. of Petaluma, which, except for vehicles, delivered fuel to the NWPY. Individual employees were responsible for going to Royal’s location for fuel. The only and rare instances were anything ran out of fuel were when someone tried to skip a visit or stretch the miles between visits to Royal’s inconvenient location, or forgot to submit a purchase requisition.
It is a bald-faced lie to say that NWPY stranded any car – or any piece of equipment or any kind – for which it was responsible. When operations ceased on September 14, 2001, there was not one single foreign line car on the railroad that was NWPY’s responsibility. The only cars on line at shutdown were those that had been there when NWPY arrived. Every single one of those bad-order and/or inaccessible cars were NCRA’s sole responsibility. All other NWPY equipment was either sold or returned to the appropriate lessor in an orderly fashion after operations were suspended. With only minor exceptions common to all railroads, any vandalism that might have occurred was visited on NCRA or privately-owned equipment that NCRA either could not or would not take steps to protect following NWPY's departure.
The NWPY is not solely, or even principally, responsible for the distrust between the State’s agencies and the NCRA. That distrust arose in 1998 – long before NWPY – when Caltrans and FEMA suspended all funding to the NCRA as a result of State and federal audits which found accounting irregularities and misuse of public funds going back as far as 1993. Investigations by a Federal Grand Jury and the various audit agencies found massive failure to comply with applicable regulations, but could not prove any criminal intent – only incompetence. As a result of these failures, NCRA was labeled a “high risk agency” – a rubric which surely must have been erased by now.
Blame the NCRA? It was the NCRA that marched into NWPY’s offices on September 10, 2001, and, without one word of explanation or justification, stated, “We don’t care what the contracts say, we are not going to pay you one dime.” It was the NCRA that was in violation of the laws and regulations that led to FRA’s Emergency Order No. 21, the State’s Environmental Consent Decree, and its designation as a “high risk agency.” NCRA never made the slightest effort to discharge its contractual obligations to the NWPY; they are the ones who lied to the NWPY’s managers and owners in 2000 regarding its ability to use the Traffic Congestion Relief Program funds to pay its contractual share of maintaining its broken down railroad. Is it any wonder that in late 2001 every one of NWPY’s six or seven owners and its lender all refused to invest even one more nickel in doing business with the NCRA?
So, cut the crap about the NWPY.
