This column is going to contain three backhanded compliments to the Henderson City Council.
You know the kind — first, you congratulate someone and then tell them what they did wrong or how they could have done it better. I am sorry, but here goes:
First, the city council is to be complimented on hiring an engineer. I assume that Mr. Peter Sokalski has an engineering degree from an accredited university. When I served on the city council, I assumed that the city engineer was an engineer and had a degree in engineering, so it was a grave concern when I found out that that was not the case. For years the municipal code required that the city have a professional engineer, but that was not followed. I do commend the city for hiring an engineer, and I implore city employees and council members to look to him for expert advice.
Second, I commend the city council for refusing to award a bid for sewer renovations without having other bids for comparison. The city management assured the council that they “thought” they were going to save money by not bidding. I ask you, how do you “know” you are saving money if you have no comparison bids?
Next, why would the city ever consider awarding a contract of $500,000 from a grant with a matching $500,000 to be paid on an hourly basis? After reading this, all the old nightmares of our city dealings with consulting engineers came back to haunt me. It only took one reading of the contract to find out that the city council was being encouraged to approve hiring the very same engineer who, in my mind, had very questionable business practices with the city in the past. Only the firm has changed, the engineer remains the same.
The story published about this bidding process on HiH stated that no bids were taken, but that Mr. Frank Frazier had “checked” on work by the firm of O’Brien and Gere and that the “personnel” of that firm had worked for the city before. Now the work of O’Brien and Gere may be just fine, but the city engineer should be the one who makes that determination.
The project manager who was going to manage this million dollar contract at an hourly rate turns out to be the same engineer who mismanaged projects for Henderson in the past. That mismanagement was serious and egregious in my opinion. Part of the problem came when Henderson signed off on invoices and time sheets that were obviously flawed, and part of the problem came when Henderson paid invoices without proper documentation. There was plenty of blame to go around. The minutes from the city council meeting will attest to many of the convoluted discussions we had with this engineer. So, for the city management to even consider hiring this same engineer to oversee the project is disturbing on all kinds of levels.
The city council at one time was under a directive that all contracts for services over $25,000 should go to bid. This should still be the directive. Also, the bidding process should be formal with a formal opening. During my first term on the council, it was shocking to me to see how the city took bids for work. A process should be published and followed to allow for fairness and equity for the taxpayer.
Of course, it is acceptable for people who work well with the city and who have worked well and faithfully for the city to have repeat contracts, but they should win those contracts through a bidding process each and every time. It is also acceptable for the city to refuse to hire people who have not performed well, and there always needs to be an arm’s length in all our business deals.
Consequently, I would say that allowing the firm of O’Brien and Gere to do the planning stage of this project will give them an advantage in the bidding process for the complete project. Consequently, all their reports should be open to any bidders.
Again, I congratulate the council on not awarding this bid, and I challenge them to keep up the scrutiny. Don’t accept the excuse that the city management could not find anyone to bid on our work.
Now here is the backhand to that last compliment: If the City Council had an active Public Utilities Committee (which is also mandated in the municipal code) then the wishes of the council could be carried out more professionally and in a more timely manner.