Competitive Bidding? — Baloney!

January 22, 2013

Today, Tuesday  January 22, 2013, city council will be considering (ha! when was they last time they did not approve a purchasing item on the agenda?) the approval of two brand new job order contracts (items 11C and 11D).  The city uses these contracts for construction work where they do not want to choose based upon competitive bidding but instead want to cut corners in choosing their favorite contractor.

Each contract is for $1,500,000.   These contracts are different from the ones originating out of Houston that I have been writing about.  They are administered through our own Region 19 Education Service Center.  Evidently the Region 19 cut (% percentage paid by the contractor to Region 19) might stay in El Paso instead of sending our money to Houston.  That would be a good thing.

You remember Region 19  — that is the organization that is supposed to clean up the El Paso Independent School District for us.  The Region 19 web site is far less open than the City of El Paso web site.  If you poke around long enough you can find the results.  They are tucked away under “National Job Order Contracting Services.  Evidently Region 19 wants a piece of the national construction business.  You can read the award summary here: Region19joborder13-6901sum (2)

My problems with this start with the Request For Proposals that Region 19 issued.

  • The pricing is based on a percentage of the price published in a price survey, not based upon market conditions today.  The contractor indicates that it will charge X% (lets say 90%) of the price published in the book.
  • Evidently 18 contractors responded.  According to the award summary “One proposal received was not in accordance with the scope of Job Order Contracting and was not considered”  In other words they awarded the contract to 17 different firms!
  • How can they award a contract to virtually everyone who bid?  Why would they do that?  Maybe because Region 19 will get a cut of anything awarded.  Maybe Region 19 was not looking for competent low cost construction but instead at a revenue stream from other government agencies.  Maybe this was not bidding at all.

Did all 17 firms bid the same prices?

  • If they did we have a serious price fixing issue going on here
  • If not, how can this be competitive?  Some must be lower than others.  A competitive bid would award the contract to the lowest cost qualified bidder.  Why did 17 out of 18 firms get awarded contracts?

Also interesting is that

  • The firm that the city has been issuing these contracts to (most recently $4 million for work on the buildings that the city plans to move into after they have demolished city hall, see Minimal due to condition of building) was awarded one of the contracts by Region 19
  • Now that the city has another buy board to use they are not choosing their old firm any more, they are choosing two different firms
  • If the original firm was the best choice why are they not being chosen again?  If the city had used real competitive bidding would they have chosen one of these two firms instead of the one that they have been doing business with?  Is this “spread the wealth” instead of choosing the best firm?

I have not been able to look at the responses from the individual firms.  That will have to come later.

In the meantime rest assured that this is just another ruse to avoid doing the real work involved in competitive bidding.

Why does the city even have a purchasing department?  They seem to let city staff chose their favorites anyway.

Now the city can spend another $3 million of our money without telling us what it is for, and they get to pick their contractor to boot.

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | City government, El Paso Independent School District, Purchasing | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

We need reporting, not repeating

January 9, 2013

Today’s (1/9/2013) El Paso Times says in an article that the El Paso Independent School District hired two people last night — their first in-house attorney and a director of guidance services.

The writer  evidently asked the interim superintendent what the salaries to be paid were.  The printed response was that they had not been determined.

For crying out loud!  Who would take a job without knowing at least the low point of the salary range to be paid?

For that matter what reporter would not ask how a job can be offered but salary not determined (at least in a range)?

What kind of an answer was that from an administrator who is supposed to be rebuilding public confidence?  It seems that things have not changed much over there.

It seems that some of the writers at the El Paso Times think that their job is to simply repeat whatever some government administrator tells them.  No questioning allowed.  That is unless part of the article was edited out.

If I wanted to read government press releases I would.

Instead I buy the El Paso Times because I would like to read critical reporting. 

The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

1 Comment | El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Cato

More money, less learning

January 8, 2013

Another anonymous correspondent sent me this and has given me permission to publish it:

——————————–

This article was posted on the El Paso Times web site today.

The idea of the local school districts asking for more money and a lowering of standards is both humorous and sad.

How do they ask for those things with a straight face? Is this so they will have more money to waste on fraudulent deals and/or so that they will not have to cheat on tests by “disappearing” students now that they know they can no longer get away with that?

Bottom line: more money would be spent to hopefully achieve lower standards.

Whatever happened to the concept of people working to achieve higher standards rather than lowering the standards?

As wise man once told me, “once you abandon your principles, everything else is easy”.

1 Comment | El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Council Deceit

December 15, 2012

I try to keep each article focused on a single issue.

Next weeks council agenda won’t let me do that.  There are too many things that they are planning to do to us.

Here is a list of the items that caught my eye on my first reading of the agenda:

  • Item 19 on the regular agenda allows the city to sign a lease for antenna space on top of the Wells Fargo building for the public safety radio system.  Those antennae used to be on top of city hall.  Turns out that city hall was a ten story building and the multiple new buildings they want to move into are not tall enough for the antennae.  Cost? $40,800 a year (to start) for ten years.  That’s another $408,000 that I will add to the running total of the cost of tearing down city hall.
  • Item 18 on the regular agenda asks for permission to change the Bond Overview Advisory Committee (BOAC) resolution. Council created the BOAC so that we citizens would feel that we might get someone honest to watch how the bond money was spent — trust us, we will have civilian oversight.  The resolution stated “No member of the BOAC shall hold any other public office of honor, trust or profit in the government of the city, county or state during his or her term of office”.  That meant no elected officials or government staff.  The agenda item includes “The City Council will consider deleting this provision in order to allow more individuals to apply and be considered for appointment to the 2012 BOAC.”  In other words we want to stack the board with our insiders so that we can spend the money without citizen interference.
  • Item 17A on the regular agenda asks for permission for to have “City Development Department staff draft an ordinance implementing urban design standards/criteria for public assembly use buildings to include all City of El Paso civic buildings and schools.  Furthermore, that staff develop a process by which civic buildings and schools are vetted through an Architectural Design Review Committee to ensure compliance with urban design standards.”  In other words they want control over the design and construction of all of our local schools.
  • Item 10A on the regular agenda contemplates the establishment of the “Baseball Stadium Venue Project Fund”.  Maybe that makes sense.  What does not make sense is that it allows the city to use money in the fund to “pay the principal of, interest on, and other costs relating to bonds or other obligations issued by the City or to refund bonds, notes, or other obligations; …”   In other words they can steal money from the fund to pay for other things not related to the ballpark.  Is this an accidental phrasing?  Do they mean they only want the fund to pay for the ballpark?  Regardless of their intentions, the language is clear — they want to be able to pay for anything.

I will stop now to let you think about these things:

  • $408,000 being spent because the antennae on top of city hall need to be put somewhere else
  • Change the bond oversight committee to allow politicians and government insiders to control what is happening
  • Let us decide how schools will be built and what it will cost to build them
  • Let us spend the Hotel Occupancy Tax on whatever we want to spend it on.

We deserve better

Leave a Comment » | Ball park, City government, El Paso Independent School District, Open Government | Permalink
Posted by Cato

Meet me in the stacks

December 12, 2012

It would appear that City Council intends to conduct its meetings in our main library for the foreseeable future once city hall is torn down.

I guess that means city management staff has to leave it’s offices on Tuesdays, drive (or walk, that might take longer) over to the library, and spend much of the day away from their offices.  The way it works right now many of them can have someone watch the progress of the agenda and go down to attend the meeting close to when they will be needed.  They are in the same building after all.

We have been told that the library has all of the equipment necessary to conduct and broadcast the meetings.  Let’s keep an eye on what they have to buy to make this work.

Will they arrange the agenda to be convenient to staff (department “A” will be on the agenda after lunch, department “B” will be first on the agenda) so that they will not have to attend all day?  What effect will that have on the public?

Speaking of the public, where will they park?  How much will it cost?

I predict that this is step one of their old two step.  At some point in time we will hear about plans to build new council chambers.  After all they will need to spend the money to increase efficiency.

In the interest of efficiency, why don’t they meet in the county commissioners court chambers, or where the El Paso Independent School District board meets?  They have already greased their skids.

We deserve better

Leave a Comment » | City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by jcurrey

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