I just found ANOTHER payment on 8/22/16 for $5,298.75. New TOTAL of $44,786.25.
By: Diane Benjamin
I’m doing some research I’d been thinking about doing for months but haven’t gotten to.
I had to stop and show you this:
This is from Bills and Payroll – 6/13/2016 http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=242&parent=9535
Who is Genesis Authority LLC?
Note Yocum is listed – misspelled as Yokum.
From LinkedIn:
But that’s not all. Genesis Authority was also paid:
10/12/15 $8,066.25
11/23/15 $4,173.75
3/14/2016 $4,781.25
Total: $39,487.50
What did you get for $39,487.50?
Not a clue. I could probably get more redacted documents by FOIA. Maybe somebody (lots of you) should FOIA.
I don’t see where the City Council ever approved hiring Genesis Authority. Of course, a couple of years ago the Council decided David Hales could spend $50,000 without their approval.
Brilliant!
.
.
.
I guess that all this PROVES is, IF you can afford to send your child to college, have them major in CONSULTING, as it seems these folks are NEVER out of a job. Must be a job propagating business? IF you question them, they’ll tell you to get a 2nd opinion (read: another consultant) WHERE does the buck stop in this town? Please, I don’t need a consultant for the answer.
All I can say is WTF? The incompetency of Hales as city manager is completely INSANE!
The list of payments, for the most part, are for the enterprise funds. The largest payment is for the Coliseum. We are paying a professional management company to oversee the Coliseum!! Why do we need to pay an additional $11, 600 for a management consultant? I can understand paying someone to advise the Storm Water and Lake Maintenance to promote efficiency, but the Administration should not need a consultant to advise them to do the job they were hired for. The city’s compensation package is to attract the best and brightest to the area. Time to get rid of perks and just hire consultants.
Unauthorized practice of law? Sure don’t see a licensed attorney with the name Leslie Smith Yocum, nor Leslie Yocum within the State of Illinois. http://www.iardc.org/ldetail.asp?id=317800032
No surprise. When it comes to ethics anything seems to goes for most City Administration, City staff and City consultants.
From the ABA journal: http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/tussle_over_titles/
“In the United States, esquire over time came to refer “commonly and exclusively” to lawyers, stated the opinion, but how that happened is a mystery. The only certainty, the committee stated, is that “based on common usage it is fair to state that if the title appears after a person’s name, that person may be presumed to be a lawyer.”
Actually, however, the law is not settled on whether a person using esquire (or Esq.) and other such seemingly benign designations as lawyer, attorney at law and juris doctor is entitled to practice law. Lawyers who use those terms indiscriminately may find themselves sliding down a slippery ethics slope.
Rule 7.1 (Communications Concerning a Lawyer’s Services) of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct states that a lawyer “shall not make a false or misleading communication about the law or the lawyer’s services.” Rule 7.5 prohibits lawyers from using firm names, letterheads or other professional designations that violate Rule 7.1. (The ABA Model Rules are the basis for the professional conduct codes for lawyers in most states.) . . .
Today, most of those opinions permit lawyers to use professional designations that are not “false or misleading.” Unfortunately, however, the issue is not as simple as it sounds.
The “usual suspects” in most of the opinions that tackle this issue are law school graduates who have not passed the bar, lawyers who are on inactive status or licensed only in another state, and lawyers engaged in a business or profession other than the practice of law.
Law school graduates who have not passed the bar are treated essentially as nonlawyers by UPL rules. Accordingly, unlicensed law school graduates may not practice law or hold themselves out as lawyers, and they are prohibited from identifying themselves by such terms as lawyer and attorney at law.”
The first link didn’t work for me. Did you check Leslie Smith?
Email me please – [email protected]
I’m assuming all of these city leaders are educated, professional people. Pretty soon each one of them will need a consultant to go to the toilet. What in heaven’s name is THEIR job?
My goodness! Some must think this firm is absolute genius considering the multiple different subject matters they have consulted on. Noting the education resume there is no note of any degrees or accomplishments, just attendance evidently. Wow, David Hales certanly goes out of his way to hire the best, LOL! Now to do a google search on the Oklahoma City University School of Law,,,waiting,,,there it is. It’s a single four story building! How impressive, NOT! If I were a betting person, I would bet this is another assignment to another crony.
Nice work!
You tell me how to file Foia and I will. I have time in my day.
Easy! Send an email to [email protected]
Title it FOIA request
Request any documents you think they might have like invoices, reports, emails to and from her. It takes some imagination. They will try to figure out a way to deny it. Include your name and phone number.
It doesn’t have to be fancy. Keep your email as proof you sent it.
Yes, I did search the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission http://www.iardc.org/ for a Leslie Smith, also. The age of the registered Leslie Smith doesn’t jibe nor does the registered professional affliation.
Yes, if her invoices suggest she’s performing legal services . . . we can certainly file a complaint with the ARDC. If she purports to supply other financial related consulting services . . . if a license is required and she has none, then the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation will take a complaint. http://www.idfpr.com/
If she’s legit . . . great. If not, complaints will have to be made.
File a FOIA. Be very specific!