Auburngate
03-16-09 Ya got to wonder.....is it an Auburngate unfolding....here's an update......There were three bits of information that I wanted from A.U. related to this whole matter.....the first one of them I started trying to find out starting back in late August of last year....at that time there was no lawsuit and no talk or threat of a lawsuit.....I had gone to the Procurement Office at A.U. to see the contract between A.U. and the CLC.....they couldn't find it and ended up sending me to Sanford Hall and the Trademark Office....which lead me to Susan Smith, who is in charge of that office....to make a long story short, I never heard from Susan Smithover this six week period of trying to contact her, either by phone, email or mail even though I sent two or three emails and made numerous calls.....after A.U. filed the lawsuit in late September, the day before I had to be in court for the first time, I went to the mailbox to find an envelope from Sirote and Permutt which happened to have a copy of the CLC contract without a cover letter or note of any kind......hummm....interesting but I did finally receive a copy of this contract......It was originally initiated in 1981, signed by Don Little V.P. and was entered into without going out for bid.
Now we are up to late December.....The lawsuit ended in early December and all issues settled....I called the Comptroller's Office to Linda Pierce and was told that she was on vacation....I placed a few more calls to her in early January and continued to get voicemail so on a trip to Auburn in mid-January I stopped by her office to see her in person and she was in this time....I introduced myself again, as we had met in the fall when she had given me some general pie chart info on athletic dept. expenditures.....she said she had gotten an email about all this and she tried to find that email and couldn't at that time....so I ask her if she generally remember what it said and she said that it said not to talk to me because of the lawsuit.....I let her know that the lawsuit was over and told her that there were still two bits of information I was looking for and thought she would be the person that might have it......I told her that I wanted to know how much money Auburn paid the CLC in "07" and "08" under their contract for their services.....I told her that i also wanted to know how much money the University was billed by Sirote and Permutt for their representation in this lawsuit.....she said she would check on it and let me know......
A few days later she emailed me and said I would have to contact Susan Smith and make a "formal written request".......So on 1-14 I sent a certified written request with a return receipt to Susan Smith.....I told her want info I was looking for and suggested that I thought 10 days should be sufficient for a response from her....She received this letter on 1-16....In this request I only ask about the CLC fees as I still thought that Linda Pierce would have the other info.....On January 30th, I received a certified letter from Susan Smith dated 1-27 providing the CLC fee info.....A.U. paid the CLC $365,264 in fiscal year 2007/2008 and $333,107 in fiscal year 2006/2007....
After receiving this email, I contacted Linda Pierce once again and let her know that I had gotten that info and wondered if she had the legal fees info yet....She said no that I would also have to get that from Susan Smith so on 2-10 I sent another certified letter with return receipt to Susan Smith asking for this info....once again I suggested that I thought that 10 days should be sufficient for a response since it had already been over two months since the lawsuit ended and I felt that it would be reasonable to believe that by then the University would have been billed by Sirote and Permutt.....She received this letter on 2-11.......as of today, 33 days after Susan Smith received this second request for info, I have not heard from her....not letter, no call, no email.......AUBURNGATE.....hummmm....I don't know....there is more on this and I'll write about it in the next blog entry.....so stay turned....till then....WAR EAGLE !! M
Now we are up to late December.....The lawsuit ended in early December and all issues settled....I called the Comptroller's Office to Linda Pierce and was told that she was on vacation....I placed a few more calls to her in early January and continued to get voicemail so on a trip to Auburn in mid-January I stopped by her office to see her in person and she was in this time....I introduced myself again, as we had met in the fall when she had given me some general pie chart info on athletic dept. expenditures.....she said she had gotten an email about all this and she tried to find that email and couldn't at that time....so I ask her if she generally remember what it said and she said that it said not to talk to me because of the lawsuit.....I let her know that the lawsuit was over and told her that there were still two bits of information I was looking for and thought she would be the person that might have it......I told her that I wanted to know how much money Auburn paid the CLC in "07" and "08" under their contract for their services.....I told her that i also wanted to know how much money the University was billed by Sirote and Permutt for their representation in this lawsuit.....she said she would check on it and let me know......
A few days later she emailed me and said I would have to contact Susan Smith and make a "formal written request".......So on 1-14 I sent a certified written request with a return receipt to Susan Smith.....I told her want info I was looking for and suggested that I thought 10 days should be sufficient for a response from her....She received this letter on 1-16....In this request I only ask about the CLC fees as I still thought that Linda Pierce would have the other info.....On January 30th, I received a certified letter from Susan Smith dated 1-27 providing the CLC fee info.....A.U. paid the CLC $365,264 in fiscal year 2007/2008 and $333,107 in fiscal year 2006/2007....
After receiving this email, I contacted Linda Pierce once again and let her know that I had gotten that info and wondered if she had the legal fees info yet....She said no that I would also have to get that from Susan Smith so on 2-10 I sent another certified letter with return receipt to Susan Smith asking for this info....once again I suggested that I thought that 10 days should be sufficient for a response since it had already been over two months since the lawsuit ended and I felt that it would be reasonable to believe that by then the University would have been billed by Sirote and Permutt.....She received this letter on 2-11.......as of today, 33 days after Susan Smith received this second request for info, I have not heard from her....not letter, no call, no email.......AUBURNGATE.....hummmm....I don't know....there is more on this and I'll write about it in the next blog entry.....so stay turned....till then....WAR EAGLE !! M
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