Playing the "Single Source Vendor" Card

Recently re-elected school board member John Whalen stated very clearly during his STAR interview,

"The school board is responsible for setting policy to give direction to the school district. We're policy makers and it's up to the administration to figure out procedures on how it gets done, and that flows down to the principals and the staff," Whalen said. "That's, I guess, my style. Some people get caught up in wanting to micromanage the individual areas, and I see this as more of an oversight position."

What we're wondering however is, at what point does the aversion to MICROmanaging become so great that no managing at all is the end result?

First we have no record that the board has received quarterly bid reports discussed in a previous post. In addition, along the continued theme of competitive bidding, we have yet another board policy that is being ignored.

Way back in October 2006, the discussion of architects for elementary #7 (Creekside) came before the FT&T committee. The committee was prepared to simply name Bray Associates as the architect without any bidding until a citizen and a board member commented on that move.

The simple questions asked were.

"How does simply handing Bray Architects a contract without competitive bidding a fiscally sound decision?

How can we be sure that we will get the best design that will be cost-effective while meeting our elementary space needs?

How do you hand Bray a contract when your own policy requires competitive bidding on all contracts of this magnitude?"

The answer came from--of all people-- Caren Diedrich, who responded that by virtue of having done work on all Sun Prairie schools, they essentially met the criteria of "single source vendor" that allows an exemption from competitive bidding.

Wow! With that line of thinking, Caren, you should be in Congress, not the school board!!!!

The issue was voted on at the October 23, 2006 school board meeting. Voting "NO" (meaning they felt that competitive bidding WAS necessary)were former school board members Jim Gibbs and Steve McHoes. Voting to just hand all architectural work to Bray Architects were current board members John Whalen, Caren Diedrich, David Stackhouse, and former board members MaryEllen Havel-Lang and Cheryl Batterman.

Hmmm...seeing as the "AYES" represent only THREE current board members, it seems this issue should be raised once again to the full board.

Eschewing common sense in deciding NOT to require competitive bidding for architectural services seems a stretch to any clear thinking individual. It's almost like Sun Prairie is immersed as the central focus of a special edition version of the popular role playing card game "Magic- The Gathering". Perhaps we are under the influence of a magic spell in the form of a "Single Source Vendor" card, which someone has played???

Quick! Someone call the police! The board's common sense has been stolen!

Board members, your policy and procedures are clear:

POLICY DJ PURCHASING
1. Bidding Approval
The Board shall approve any bids or quotations as required by state or federal law, and all quotations and/or bids greater than $25,000, except as otherwise provided. Any bid needing Board approval will first go to a Board sub-committee, when practical, for approval and then to the Board, unless it is an emergency purchase.

2. Budget and Purchases
All school district purchases shall conform to the current fiscal year budget. All unbudgeted purchases shall be submitted to the School Board for approval.

3. School Board Oversight
The Finance Committee shall ensure that all district purchases are in compliance with board policy, the proposed or approved budget, and state and federal laws, then forward their recommendations to the School Board. A quarterly report will be given to the School Board on bid items between $10,000 and $24,999.


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PROCEDURE DJ-R(1) PURCHASING PROCEDURES
B. BIDS OR QUOTATIONS
1. Bids are not required for:
a. Instructional materials such as textbooks, books, tapes, films, workbooks, educational kits, periodicals, computer software and audiovisual materials.

b. Miscellaneous and operational supplies less than $5,000 or replacement parts for existing equipment where the value of the replacement parts are estimated to be less than 50 percent of the total value of the equipment.

c. Prices from single source vendors.

[SP-EYE: Single source vendors, more commonly termed "sole source" vendors is not often defined, since its definition is intuitive. Seeing, however, that we appear to be in need of a definition in policy, let's explain it for the board. A "sole source" vendor is essentially the only vendor in the world who manufactures or markets a particular "widget". Since Bray Architects is certainly not the only architectural firm in the world, architectural services cannot fall under the "single source" exemption. Caren Diedrich's claim that Bray's knowledge of the schools makes them a soul source vendor is moot at best. Since we own the drawings, ANY architect can use existing drawings to re-design anything. Perhaps, however, we COULD always spend some taxpayer dollars and solicit a legal opinion that will defend your approach. ]

3. The District Administrator or his/her designee is authorized to purchase any single item or a quantity of the same item costing more than $5,000 but less than $25,000 upon the solicitation of at least three written bids.

4. Except as provided in sub-section 1, no purchases shall be made for supplies, services, or equipment costing $5,000 or more unless competitive quotations or bids for those items are obtained, provided the purchase is a budgeted item and the purchase is approved by the Board.

So...Mr. Whalen....will you now explain to the community why you voted on awarding architectural contracts in violation of policy?

Oh, and meanwhile we have a number of checks currently being written to Bray Associates for "architectural services rendered" for the pool, the 8/9 Upper Middle schoo, and the 10-12 High School projects. Things that make you go "hhhhmmmmmmm". Of course, the board's position is that since Bray did the original design work (without having to bid), they of course should work on any refinements.

Bray & Sun Prairie - Just how cozy are we?

Cozy enough that we buy THEM lunch...not vice versa! Imagine that. WE (the taxpayers) buy the architect (who we payed over $3M just for their work on the new high school) lunch!

That's right. Buried within pages and pages of checks written by the school district is one to Milio's. Thanks to the questioning of a detailed community member, an inquiry was made regarding check number 855855 in the amount of $209.11 to Milio's for the dreaded "Multiple Invoices".


What does "Multiple Invoices mean? Well it means you have go to another file "the Check Detail for 04-14-08". From this we get the information at right. That this is actually THREE checks made out to Milio's (SP-EYE: see the BAFFLE report for more info on that subject).
http://sp-eye.blogspot.com/2007/08/more-pizza-and-subs-for-district.html

Step 3 of the convoluted process is that someone has to make an inquiry to find out exactly what $44.70 for "HS Office Supplies" really means. Deputy District Administrator Phil Frei explained,

"Bray and Paul Keats met with staff regarding the new high school. In the past Paul Keats (via the district) would pick-up the bill for subs for the architect for one lunch and then Bray would pick-up the next bill."

The good news is that Frei added, "In the future all parties will pay for themselves each time."

The not-so-good news is that how did we come to this decision ONLY after an inquiry from a resident? Why isn't the Finance Committee looking into these expenditures? No one on Finance or the School Board even batted an eye, let alone asked a question. For new board member Terry Shimek, this is just one of those little expenses that he doesn't worry about. Who cares about $45 of taxpayer dollars? Who cares about a $300+ steak dinner for school board members? [SP-EYE note...why does it always seem to involve food???] As he indicated during his campaign, he's only concerned about the really big expenses. Newsflash, Terry. The little ones add up. And abuse is abuse. whether its a "small" one or a mega-scale one. And...shouldn't we be addressing the small abuses BEFORE they become large ones? You think former Governor Spitzer started out with $4500 call girls? Or did it start with something innocent like a lunch on the taxpayers?

Is this really only the tip of the iceberg? What other cozy arrangements are hidden inside our $65M annual budget.

What really should get one to wondering is how at Monday night's school board meeting, it was announced (with pride I might add) that it is anticipated that the new high school project will be under budget by....get this....about enough to build that pool (and operate it!) that got voted down in the recent referendum.

Many of us are not opposed to a pool, but, as Chris Mertes says, "This one doesn't pass the smell test".

Ok...so $45 lunches that we buy for the architect don't cause you any heartburn? Fine. Then how about this:

Despite School Board Policy DJ (Purchasing) which states,

Because the Board cannot relinquish its responsibility and accountability as an agent of the state and to the citizenry of the district, the following guidelines are established with regard to purchasing:
1. Bidding Approval
The Board shall approve any bids or quotations as required by state or federal law, and all quotations and/or bids greater than $25,000, except as otherwise provided. Any bid needing Board approval will first go to a Board sub-committee, when practical, for approval and then to the Board, unless it is an emergency purchase.

and in Procedure DJ-R(1) (Purchasing Procedures)

2. Except as provided in sub-section 1 (see below), no purchases shall be made for supplies, services, or equipment costing $25,000 or more unless competitive quotations or bids for those items are obtained, provided the purchase is a budgeted item and the purchase is approved by the Board.

1. Bids are not required for:
a. Instructional materials
b. Miscellaneous and operational supplies less than $5,000 or replacement parts
c. Prices from single source vendors.
d. Municipal/government/state or federal contracts.
e. Maintenance contracts of one year or less duration and less than $25,000
f. Used equipment ...
g. Negotiated purchases. ....where multiple bidders are not available

See anything there which suggests that the board isn't required to bid the architect out?

When asked, Caren Diedrich's response was that because Bray is the only architect "that really knows the school district's buildings" (gee...that's not because they built them all, is it?) then Bray qualifies as an exemption from bidding as a "sole source vendor" under 2.c above.

The school board did not put the architect out for bids. The jobs were handed to Bray without even thinking about getting a better price through a policy-mandated (never mind common sense fiscal responsibility!) competitive bid project .

...and THAT is what a $45 lunch of Milio's subs gets you.

Bray sharpens its pencil...at least on the pool cost.

At last night's (8/27) school board meeting, Administrator Tim Culver announced that in response to questions about the proposed $4.5M cost for the pool, Bray architects has apparently re-checked their figures and the new cost is slated to be $3.75M. That a 17% error.

Hmmmm......I wonder if a similar error might have been made in figuring the high school costs!
But I doubt that either Culver or the board are posing that question to Larry Bray of Bray Architects.