Crazy Service: Life's Little Locoisms

I don't want HBO, Showtime, or nonagenarian politicians.

Before some of you fact checkers write me to explain that locoism is a disease cattle contract by eating loco weed and a malady not inflicted on humans, let me assure you that there are some in our society who dine on this delicacy every day, based on their actions. There are a lot of loco service activities going on in our world and frankly there are days when I too join the ranks of those crazy, frenzied folks. Let me give you an example of what is making me a bit askew:

Our cable provider, AT&T, just offered us one month of free service for Encore and Showtime. Two months ago, we took the free HBO offer for two months. After two months of “Caddy Shack” and “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” reruns, we decided to cancel. Now after just two days of Showtime we are ready to cancel again. What pushed us over the top was a rerun of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”... in July. So come tomorrow we will return to our regular programming. Frankly, we don’t need 300 channels anyway.

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Add this to the locoism list.

The town I live in hasn't done a property value reassessment in 40 years. Having unilaterally decided to redo the property value scheme the board decided to put the job out for bid. Three companies responded. Two are local and one is from 300 miles away. The third company bid $300K more than the lower of the other two (who were within about $50K of each other). Without consulting their customers (the property tax payers) the board chose - you guessed it the high priced distant company.

I wrote the town's supervisor and asked what logic they used to make this decision. I didn't think I would get a response, but I did. He said "well that's only $10 more per property and we thought we would get a better result with this company".

Can you guess who gets my vote next time?

But will the requirements be met

The town supervisor's answer and your action (your vote) does not ask or answer the right questions.
What are the requirements for property reassessment?
Without knowing this you cannot see what you are getting and not getting from the 3 bids. Maybe the selected company is offering the data and results electronically for all property owners to see on line. Or maybe they are offering to reconsile discrepancies and challenges at no additional charge (if yes, then I suspect thier process and results will be better than those who charge for followup assessment challenges).

As with all products and services, we need to learn what is desired of the customers (taxpayers, town authorities, state tax revenue laws) and ensure our specifications are written to provide the desired product. Then the review of the bids and the resulting work should be measured against the specs.

Yes, the higher bid is $10 per taxable property, but I am sure you would be much more upset if a year from now you visit town hall, check the report and find your neighbor is paying hundreds in less taxes for the same style property.