TriMet WES railcar supplier fails (big suprise, huh?)

Company behind TriMet WES railcars fails

Colorado Railcar Manufacturing, the company TriMet kept alive the past year with more than $5 million in public money, went out of business last week, unable to attract new financing.

I’m astounded by some of the statements from TriMet in this article

The agency contracted with Colorado Railcar in 2005, aware that the company was in financial peril. Agency executives said they also were aware that the company’s owner, Tom Rader, had prior business troubles in the rail industry, including being forced to scrap a specialty train commissioned by cigarette maker Philip Morris. Philip Morris paid $70 million before stopping the project.

TriMet board members said they were not told of Rader’s business history when they approved the $17 million contract. Internal agency records contain no reference to that past.

“Nothing was mentioned to us about the owner’s problems,” said board member Robert Williams, a retired union official. He said such information “would have made us have a lot more questions.”

Board member Tiffany Sweitzer, a real estate developer, said that had the board known, “we probably would have done some further checking into his background and maybe stopped the process.”

Don’t these guys have a fiduciary responsibility to the public to do some research in before signing contracts? Some heads should roll over this.