i am the chief administrative services officer of the general services administration. in that capacity i coordinate internal management and support services to promote efficiency twn agency, covering a wide variety of issues, including travel and conferences. as you were aware our acting administrate member was not able to appear. we reached out to request this hearing be scheduled at a mutually convenient date so that he could personally appear, but informed that the chee was electing to proceed with today's hearing with the awareness that he was unavailable. he looks forward to continuing to work with the committee to improve the efficiency of gsa and refocus the agency on the core mission, of streamlining the administrative work of the government to save money for the american taxpayer. given that the genesis of this hearing was the acting administrator's recent referral to the inspector general of a 2010 awards ceremony for the federal acquisition service. i have come here today to outline the steps we have taken to prevent waste from happening again. as of april of

general services administration's... spending habits...///.the... g-s-a... is...posed to save money... by... maintaining office space... and supplies... for... government agencies...///. but... this... past image... shows ...a.. top... g-s-a... manager... in vegas... on the... taxpayers' dime...///. and... these pictures ...from the... resort in... opryland near nashville.../ show ... another ...g-s-a conference ... underway...///. "we just can't take it anymore. let us defend the employees who are good and hard workers at the general services administration but not to defend this kind of garbage that's a waste of taxpayer money and that makes all of us in the public not have any confidence at all that the good workers at gsa can do their job." job." the g-s-a ...hired... a... new administrator ... after the vegas scandal.../ who... promised the take control ... of... wasteful spending. doctors ... fight... for their right... to... talk to patients... about guns. guns.florida... doctors ...filed suit... to... overturn... a... 1--year old... law.../ banning... doct

general services administration's... extravagantspending habits...///.the... g-s-a... is...ntaining office space... and supplies... for... government agencies...///. but... this... past imaae... shows ...a.. top... g-s-a... manager... in vegas... on the... taxpayers' dime...///. and... these pictures ...from the... resort in... opryland near nashville.../ show ... another ...g-s-a conference ... underway...///. "we just can't take it anymore. let us defend the hard workers at tte general services administration but not to defend this kind of garbage that's a waste of taxpayer money and that makes all of us in the public not have any confidence at all that the good workers at gsa can do their job." job." the g-s-a ...hired... a... new administrator ... after the vegas scandal.../ who... promised the take control ... of... wasteful spending. 2000---people... are evacuated... from the ...san antonio... airport... following... a... bomb threat...//. it... happened ... today..../ you... can see... people, .../ waiting... for... bomb-sniffing dogs... to... check things out... insi

the general services administration spent more than $800,000 of taxpayer money on the vegas gatheringn 2010. now, lawmakers and the inspector general are looking into more spinning sprees. >> the taxpayer wants to know why. >> reporter: the agency is under investigation for spending more than $260,000 on a one-day conference in arlington, virginia. $20,000 was spent on drum sticks for attendees. >> and there are serious allegations of excessive spending and activities of dubious merit. >> reporter: lawmakers are asking questions about as many as 77 conditions. after the las vegas scandal, a handful of gsa employees were let go and the administrator resigned. >> we had requested, of course, mr. tangerlini, and as you said, he had the family issue. we invited the deputy chief administrator and. >> reporter: the chief administrative officer did attend today. >> we have cancelled 37 previously scheduled conferences. those are a few of the reforms administrators have taken. >> reporter: the gsa is currently holding a conference at the opera land convention center in nashville, tennessee. t

>> there is no such travel associated with anything that the general services administration is involved in. that may be some other third party. >> so there is no expense to the federal government for the general jackson lee steamboat that is having a party tonight. >> that is correct to the best of my knowledge. >> we look forward to looking into that further. >> i apologize for my delay. i had a judiciary hearing. good to have you all with us by the way. mr. miller who brought your strike that. who brought this conference to your attention? >> acting administrator brought it to my personal attention. there was a -- we did receive a hot line complaint in may of this year it was an anonymous complaint of about five single-spaced pages with about four lines of general information about this conference. >> were you familiar with it prior to havin seen the notice? >> no, i was not. >> it appears, and i hope i'm not being duplicative. but it seemed the conference took place in two cities. a reception th costed over $7,000 at the tea bridge marriott. the reception, i'm furthermore told was co

from a conference in crystal city, virginia in 20 thereto 10 and showed members of the general servicesl acquisition service handed out the whackers and noise makers and chanting to ryths. it was an absurd looking thing and cost taxpayers a lot of money. one of 77 conferences that have now surfaced since the las vegas, fiasco. is this agency in need of an overhall. >> absolutely. since i became chair we head the first hearing in the empty federal building, two blocks away from the white house and empty for 15 years and starting an investigation of gsa. it is the biggest property owner in the world. and it holds all of the properties and buildings and trust for the american people. we knew that the administrative expenses soared 300 percent and tried to find out where. and came with the inspector general and other information gathered to see the conferences that were wasting millions of taxpayer dollars and the latest one, those were drum sticks. i had a set of them handed to me they cost the taxpayer 20,000 and 30,000 for picture frames and we are going after the agencs at least under m

building -- spending at the general services building.'s new questions about millions of dollars in bonuses. alison burns has more. >> reporter: there are reports that the gsa handed out $33 political in undisclosed bonuses last year. the head of the house holding this hearing says it's outrageous. >> amazing! give your leaders right here a round of applause! >> reporter: the hearing is focusing on a 2010 awards ceremony where the gsa spent 010 on drumstick, 36,000 on picture frames and handed out thousands in bonuses. >> if you can't manage conferences and bonus, how do you expect that congress is gonna allow you to handle billions of dollars worth of leases? >> it appears that gsa employs about 1% of the federal work force, they say, but has handed out about 10% of bonuses. the gsa official testifying this morning said the agency is involved in a top-to-bottom review but would not comment about the bonus situation. reporting live from washington, d.c., alison burns, ktvu channel 2 news i want to show you video of the president leaving t

the general services administration employee. he was a perfect candidate. for $86,000 a year, he was on the payroll, not in an office in honolulu but from his home as a virtual employee of the kansas city office. it's showing how working from home can make employees happy, save on office space. and for this employee, what better example than to hire a guy in hawaii. >> that was one of the directors showing that she wanted to embrace telework. >> you are kidding me. >> i am not kidding you. >> reporter: we are hiring someone in hawaii to work in kansas city. >> that is correct. >> reporter: and confirmed by the person in charge of all other teleworkers here. the regional administrator said that mr. x with was perfect for the job, travel costs included. >> when factors all those in, it was determined he was the best candidate even in light of the cost that would be incurred. i don't think he comes to kansas city very often. and again that is a reflection of the technology we have available to us. >> reporter: we found that he may not come to kansas city a lot

i am the chief administrative services officer of the general services administration. in that capacity i coordinate internal management and sport services to promote efficiency twn agency, covering a wide variety of issues, including travel and conferences. as you were aware our acting administrate member was not able to appear. we reached out to request this hearing be scheduled at a mutually convenient date so that he could personally appear, but informed that the chee was electing to proceed with today's hearing with the awareness that he was unavailable. he looks forward to

general services administration's... spending habits...///.the... g-s-a...overnment agencies...///. but... this... past image... shows ...a.. top... g-s-a... manager... in vegas... on the... taxpayers' dime...///. now...// there's... another ...g-s-a conference ... underway...///. from the... resort... in... opryland... near nashville.../ "we just can't take it anymore. let us defend the employees who are good and haad workers at the general services administration but not to defend this kind of garbage that's a waste of taxpayer money and that makes all of us in the public not have any confidence at all that the good workers at gsa can do their job." job." the g-s-a ...hired... a... new administrator ... afterrthe vegas scandal.../ who... promised the take control ... of... wasteful spending..../ apparently... he... ámissedá... opry--land...// join... our waste watch. if... you see crazy stupid government waste.. like this..// call... our hotline.. 410-662-1456. or... go to fox- baltimore dot com. the... tea party.../...the group... wanting... to keep... go

general city responsibility. this is a part of the city budget that contains funds that are citywide in nature and not specifically allocated to a department. this department contains debt service funds as well as the mou reserve, litigation reserve, the general fund reserve, and other reserves we have in the city. the budget analysts, we have been working on a list of budgets and we have made a recommendation to reduce the audit adjustment reserves to $5 million. we are not in agreement, but we will work with the budget analyst over the coming weeks. supervisor chu: thank you very much. quick question. with regards to the piece of legislation that we just passed, the question to the mayor's budget office, there is a item that we passed the full board of supervisors, and i'm wondering where that would reside at the moment. it is not in the budget. i am wondering if this would be the place where that would go. >> the -- that piece of legislation would impact the city's revenue. that comes into the budget and then gets distributed as general fund. if that legislation were to be approved, and if the programmer to be funded, we would effectively reduce our revenue by an estimated $

just about an hour from now part two of a hearing on capitol hill looking into abuses of the general services administration. coming up at 5:15 the focus of today's hearing a one-day gsa awards ceremony that cost $.25 million. >>> sal is coming back. you know all about our commute. everything okay? >> yeah. things are okay to start, dave and pam. right now we are doing pretty well, so far. let's go out and take a look at what we have on the morning commute on 80 westbound coming out to the mccarthur maze. it looks good even in richmond. this morning we are looking at the toll plaza westbound and this traffic continues to look very nice on the way into san francisco. livermore, castro valley, 680 danville down to san ramon that is a nice start to the commute if you are driving on the san mateo bridge we are off to a decent start. the fog is not really super low so you can actually see pretty well where you are driving. 5:07 let's go to steve. >>> thank you, sal. that is correct. it has lifted a little bit. yesterday it was down on the deck. inland temps will still be warm to hot. coast bay and

i am the chief administrative services officer of the general services administration. in that capacity i coordinate internal management and support services to promote efficiency twn agency, covering a wide variety of issues, including travel and conferences. as you were aware our acting administrate member was not able to appear. we reached out to request this hearing be scheduled at a mutually convenient date so that he could personally appear, but informed that the chee was electing to proceed with today's hearing with the awareness that he was unavailable. he looks forward to continuing to work with the committee to improve the efficiency of gsa and refocus the agency on the core mission, of streamlining the administrative work of the government to save money for the american taxpayer. given that the genesis of this hearing was the acting administrator's recent referral to the inspector general of a 2010 awards ceremony for the federal acquisition service. i have come here today to outline the steps we have taken to prevent waste from happening again. as of april of

i know that there has been a general service trade packages that include the type of work the you do end the taking bids on those types of things. you guys talk about contract compliance hasn't payments and stuff. who watches you guys? i am a woman own business. i have done all of these certifications and there is an ongoing contract for the city had a contractor was given that and charges what he wants. i had tried the opportunity. i have a small business, i can't afford a lawyer. i have been trying to do business and i have been denied. tell me, where do i go from here so that i can have the opportunities that everyone else has? anybody. the port authority? the housing authority? >> we will have one last person. >> i am going to be very quick. i would like to say that the majority of us here are contractors, consultants and we offer professional services or whatever it may be. we are accustomed to getting paid at the very end of the 30 days. not to be disrespectful, but it would be really great if we can get all of our checks on time. you get paid, i am assuming, every two weeks. i

the general services agency will attract new initiatives through the community investment division, investing in local neighborhoods and capital projects to include infrastructure. city administrator's office will ensure successful delivery have the projects. -- of the projects. and the question earlier about investing in neighborhoods and the overlap between woed and the city administrator's office, i think it is more in partnership. oewb talks to businesses in the external facing primarily. and also we have the community challenge grant within the city administrator's office. then we provide individual community groups with the residents and their interaction is more with the public. efforts to make government more responsive. we talked about the local business enterprise ordinance and the community investors program. and also, strengthening disaster efforts. i'm trying to get through this as groovy as i can, because i know there is a lot underneath. a lifeline, this is strengthening and prepared ness. it is an initiative with a focus on post-disaster, reconstruction, and recovery. it is ve

. >> and general services administration is probed for sphen conferences and award ceremony. the chairman of the house committee joins us on america's news head quarters. we'll see you soon. thos hot temps are causing a hole in america's wallets. it could get worse. 140 coal power generators are expected to close by the year. one culprit is government regulations . >> oh, my god. the government is killing the coal industry. and all this means in the end the of day my electric bill is going up. oil and coal. they are affordable forms of energy. why are we killing them. they did it with ethanol and renewable credits. think it through before you cut us off at the knees. >> wayne, we are seeing a move to natural gas it is cheaper, do you think that is part of the reason or electric bills will go up no matter what? >> all of the coal powered facility will go to natural gas. it is cheaper and we have an abundance of it sooner or later it is coming to that or just a matter of time. >> julian, you knowledge electricity bills will go up this year? >> it dependotz climate. wayne is rig

he made as much as $421,000 per year in his role as general services director. now he wants $837,000 in compensation. plus unused vacation and sick time, an attorney for the city of bell calls that demand " outrageous ". and it was shut down by the feds , the berkeley marijuana club has found a new home. the owners says she's not worried about threats from the authorities. they were forced to close in may because the dispensaries was too close to schools. they sold more than $15 million worth of marijuana prettier and their new home is just down the street from the old one on san pablo avenue and. santa clara great america had a big announcement today. >> it had nothing to do with the 49 years. it was all about a new roller coaster, the old striker will be the tallest in fast as the northern california. it will open in the spring of 2014. >> are you a fan of roller coasters? >> my parents would take me to the boardwalk, so that was my first experience, and those are great roller coasters. >> this special honor for a facebook user from menlo park, >> and an,,,,,,

foe bus was $30 million -- focus was $30 million in previously unreported bonus money at the general servicesdministration. gsa chief administrative services officer cynthia he iser testified before a health committee. committee members from both parties said before our report they'd only known about $10 million in bonus money. >> we have $44 million in bonuses absolutely stunning amount. >> what's the percentage of the employees at gsa who received bonuses? >> i will have to have someone get back to you with that information. it's not part of my responsibilities. >> she was on the hill yesterday in place of gsa acting administrator dan tangor lee knee. he had a family matter he had to attend that. >>> frederick county homeowners may be getting an early christmas present. commissioners will vote today whether to return a budget surplus to county residents. frederick county is $6.7 million in the black. the average rebate check would be about $100. board president blaine young hopes that residents will spends that money to stimulate the local economy. >>> we're turning our attention now to the

we take certifications from the california state department of general services. we take certifications from the department of transportation. and we also take h.r.c. certifications on the programs that we run depending upon of funding source. additionally we imcomplement a very strong employment program. pinetta scott is here and can talk to you about the employment programs we run on our projects. we have complied fouly with full source and with local hiring to the extent we are able to do so. i am happy to answer any questions you may have and look forward to meeting those i have not yet met. thank you. [applause] >> again, my name is harbaugh alan kelly with the san francisco public utilities commission. one of the major programs that is currently under way is a water system improvement program. it is a $4.6 billion program, and the current status is that we have 50% of the program complete. a lot of the projects are in major construction. a lot of the construction is in the region area which is outside of san francisco. so we have been working with h. r.c. to

. >>> a 9 wants you to know investigation about $30 million in unreported bonuses hat the general servicesas led to calls for investigations and accountability. >> as investigative reporter russ tells us, they didn't have many answers for capitol hill. >> reporter: the official who did testify said she was not an expert in bonuses and couldn't answer the questions prompted by our investigation. >> do you know anything about the total number of bonus dollars that were expended? >> unfortunately i do not. >> reporter: cynthia metzler, the chief administrative services officer said the acting director couldn't be there because he's on a previously planned family matter. committee chairman republican congressman john mica focused on the 9 wants to know investigation. he said until our report, the committee had only known about $10 million in bonuses. >> so we have $44 million in bonuses, absolutely stunning amount. >> what's the percentage of the employees at gsa that receive bonuses? >> i have to have to have -- i will have to have somebody get back to you with that information since it's not

here in front of you you have a unique opportunity to see our general service boat. at the earliest stage of production it's special in that it's made out of pressed panels so the number of welded seasons is kept to a minimum. that means it will be safe and will have to slice up during the design process engineers are toiling over every ground engineer and there's a scale and they weighed every single piece before it was added to the construction so that was done to ensure that there's not a single unnecessary ground on this. so in the end it ought to look something like this just over nine meters long in three and a third meters wide thanks to his twin shaft propulsion unit and lightweight construction you can officially cruise it thirty two knots or nearly sixty kilometers per hour. the cabin can accommodate up to ten passengers it can support up to nine hundred kilograms of supplies aboard. the exemplifies what moscow shipyard views as its main task as a boat builder. such as the ship building plans main objectives is to gather together the very best things produc

not 9 want to know and apparently so do several lawmakers about the exorbitant spending at the general servicesinistration. one big topic today at the hearing, about $30 million worth of unreported bonuses that our russ ptacek first reported here last night on 9news. he joins us now with the fallout as it came tumbling down on the hill today. >> emotions on capitol hill, anger, shock, exasperation and the hearing didn't get off to a good start when the man in charge of gsa was a no sh

general services administration showing paychecks bigger than the vice-president's and the chief justice's of the supreme court. new revelations into the agency responsible for government real estate and supposedly keeping costs down. >> reporter: beside me, you're seeing the 13,000 gsa payroll records we obtained with the freedom of information act. we spent more than a week sorting through them all. the gsa top ten shows everyone making more than $200,000 a year. heavily weighed by bow now'ses and unused leave pay. for this electrician supervisor earning $200 thousand, most of it from over time. ♪ ♪ >> the president of the united states makes $400,000 a year. and that's one of few government paychecks higher than what our analysis found at gsa. >> they absolutely should be explaining. >> reporter: congressman jeff denham, wants explanations for gsa's top 10, identified by our investigation, all making more than denham. although the president did earn more, six gsa workers got checks bigger than the vice- president, even more than the chief justice of the supreme court. sharing in the mil

the $30 million unreported bonuses we uncovered at the general services administration sparked demands for investigations and for some accountability. >> but as russ tells us, if g.s.a. didn't send anyone to congress who could explain how their bonus system worked, or the lack of transparency. >> reporter: the official who did testify said she's not an expert in bonuses, and she couldn't respond to the increasing wave of questions prompted by our investigation. >> ms. metzler, do you know anything about the total number of bonuses, dollars that were expended? >> chairman, unfortunately, i do not. >> reporter: cynthia mezler, g.s.a.'s chief administrative services officer said the acting commissioner couldn't be there to answer questions because he is on a previously planned family matter. >> it's absolutely outrageous. >> reporter: the committee chairman and others repeatedly focused on the 9 wants to know investigation that uncovered $30 million in unreported g.s.a. bonuses. mikah said until our report, the committee had only known about $10 million in bonuses. >> so, we have 44 milli

this morning's hearing hearing going to address the general services administration and is a review ofncy mismanagement, wasteful spending titled part two. please to have members join us and apologize for slight delay on the start. someone should do something about traffic in washington. we are pleased to have you here today. also to be holding this important oversight hearing and investigating hearing regarding the latest spending abuses which has seriously called into question gsa's ability to save taxpayer's money. i'll start with my opening statements and we'll get to our panel of two witnesses. we will proceed with questions after we hear from those witnesses. we're focusing on some of the problems we had and waste and abuse of taxpayer funds and the general services administration is particularly alarming because the general services administration is the chief procurement agency for the federal government. also responsible for maintaining many public assets, trustees of public assets. when you have abuses in an agency with that mission you have some serious problems. we'll addre

the general services administration spent more than $800,000 of taxpayer money on the vegas gathering2010. now lawmakers and the inspector general are looking into more spending sprees. >> i think the question the taxpayer wants answered is why? >> reporter: the agency surgeon investigation for spending more than $260,000 on a one-day conference in arlington, virginia. $20,000 was spent on drumsticks for attendees. >> there are serious allegations of excessive spending and activities of dubious merit. >> reporter: lawmakers are asking questions about as many as 77 conferences. after the las vegas scandal a handful of gsa employees were let go and the administrator resigned. >> we had requested, of course, mr. tangherlini and he as you said had a family obligation. we requested the deputy administrator. we'd invited the chief of staff. he's not coming. >> reporter: the chief administrative officer did attend today. >> we have canceled 37 previously scheduled conferences. these are a few of the many reforms the acting administrator has taken. >> reporter: while questions are asked on ca

services for women mandated under the affordable care act. >> i think it's just a huge win for women's health in general. >> the covered services include contraceptionsits for women, breastfeeding support and supplies, screening for gestational diabetes, counseling for domestic violence and testing for stds and hpv. the contraception requirement includes access to the morning after pill which some groups claim is the same as abortion. >> to force women of residence views and values and certainly pro life -- religious views and values and certainly pro life to subsidize this is wrong on many levels. >> reporter: but christine appreciates the new rules, especially the breastfeeding support. most women won't get free benefits today. the new regulations kick in only when their insurance plan is renewed. so an estimated 47 million women are in health plans that must cover those services without copays or deductibles. certain religious organizations such as churches and schools are exempt. under the healthcare law there are he also free preventive services -- there are also free preventive services for men and kids. >>> baltimore's national aquarium is ge