I know that Ken Svoboda (partially?) owns Ray's Lawn Care. What I don't know is the extent of his participation in the business. Without knowing that, it makes it difficult to determine what I should think about Ray's crappy median maintenance record. In articles about Svoboda and Ray's, the Journal Star sometimes implies that Ken Svoboda = Ray's Lawn Care, which makes me think he plays a pretty direct role in the company's day-to-day operations. Other times the Journal Star makes it seem like Svoboda's day-to-day influence isn't so great.
Can anybody tell me more about Svoboda's involvement with Ray's? Just how much does poppy-gate reflect on Svoboda personally, as opposed to on his company?
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Last year, the city was threatening to drop the contract they had with Ray’s Lawn Care because the medians were not being maintained. Svoboda’s response was something along the lines of “Well, this is what happens what I leave the day-to-day oversight of this company, and from this time forward I will be back in control”. So I think it’s a little bit of both—he puts in some camera time when he wants to look like a hero and bails when everything is quiet.
And those medians/advertisements for Ray’s Lawn Care are completely unnecessary.
I hear from a contact at Clark Enersen that Ray’s (and Svoboda by proxy) have been beyond negligent in living up to their contract for maintenance of city medians.
I was willing to give Svoboda the benefit of the doubt on that issue but now that I’ve heard more, I don’t think I can.
The _Journal Star article wasn’t exactly accurate. It states that the City paid Clark Enersen $185 an hour to oversee work on the medians.
Truth be told, the contract Clark Enersen has with the City included a design fee. That fee has been gobbled up by having to audit the work Ray’s has not completed. The City was on the hook to pay the design fee anyway.
Svoboda’s comment “they could have hired an intern to do that” was laughable. Should ANYBODY be hired to do that? How did he get away with that statement?
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