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Wednesday, June 1, 2011

The writes and wrongs of specification drafting

“BuyBoard” Official Admits: TASB Administered Agency Allowed Vendors to Write Own Bid Specs
Chapter 791 of the [Texas] Government Code allows units of government to rely on pooled resources through cooperatives for the purchase of goods and certain services. This is often a successful tool for school districts and other municpalities to rely on for economies of scale in their procurements.

“BuyBoard” [is a] a non-profit purchasing agency serving [Texas] school districts, municipalities & counties.

The head of the “BuyBoard” admitted his “agency” allowed a roofing vender to write roof repair specifications that required the use of the vendor’s products.

Legislators are expected to vote on HB 800 by Rep. “Doc” Anderson, perhaps before the end of the legislative week, to stop such unscrupulous roofing vendors from manipulating bids & contracts at taxpayer expense.

Road woes continue for Chelsea
Town Manager Angela Gordon, who serves as road commissioner, wrote bid specifications for road work that selectmen have deemed unacceptable.

Town attorney Stephen Langsdorf said Gordon was asked to draft the documentation before she went on vacation this week. But all she produced were blank contracts, he said. "She started working on the project before she left and tried to use the same type of bidding documents used by Carole (Swan)."

Swan is accused of accepting kickbacks from Whitefield contractor Frank Monroe, who is alleged to have paid her $10,000 in 2010 at a time he retained the town plow contract without bidding. A year later, Swan is accused of going back to Monroe for kickbacks related to the town's purchase of road sand. That precipitated her arrest on charges of aggravated forgery, attempted theft and two counts of improper compensation for services.

In light of Swan's arrest, Board of Selectmen Chairman Linda Leotsakos said the board voted at a previous meeting to put road contracts out to bid with "specific specifications."

Specifications in requests for proposals consist of the body of information a contractor would need to do the work. They help formalize the bidding and pricing process so prices can be easily evaluated and compared.

officials will be seeking help from the Maine Department of Transportation and the Maine Municipal Association.

"There are many, many resources available to all town managers to solve all kinds of problems and learn how to do things like bidding and other jobs that managers may not have the initial training for," she said. "There's MDOT's Maine Local Roads (Center) and we are a member of MMA, which affords all kinds of resource help."

Peter Coughlan, director of the Local Roads Center within the Maine Department of Transportation, said the center provides training and technical assistance to municipalities.

He said www.mainedot.gov, which links to the center's page, provides all kinds of information including grading specifications, how to pave roads and information on snowplow training.

"We have grading specifications right there on the website," he said. "All they have to do is tweak it for what they need."

He said much of the information available can be referenced back to specifications MDOT uses in its own requests for proposals.

"Whether it's signs or guardrails or pavement, DOT does all this stuff," he said. "Towns reference these things all the time and (Chelsea) should do the same."

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