The state Attorney General issued a severe reprimand to the town of Oak Bluffs Tuesday for a long list of violations of state public bidding laws between 2009 and 2011. Citing “a pattern of disregard and certain evidence of intentional avoidance of public construction bidding laws,” the attorney general upheld a protest that had been filed by a former town selectman, but stopped short of issuing any fines or penalties to the financially-troubled town.
The state investigation began early this year, triggered by a complaint filed by former selectman Kerry Scott about possible violations to public procurement laws on renovations to the town hall. The investigation widened to include repairs to the roof of the former town library and a variety of electrical work performed by Powers Electric for the town.
In the 11-page decision released Tuesday assistant attorney general Deborah Anderson found that the town failed to follow competitive bidding laws, violated a town bylaw on bidding procedures and gave the appearance of bid-splitting, defined by the state as intentionally splitting a purchase into two or more smaller purchases for the purpose of evading a bidding law.
She wrote: “The town procured electrical services from Powers Electric totaling $185,546 from September 2009 through April 21, 2011. That work was divided into 113 payments. While intent to split bids may be difficult to prove, this large sum of money paid to a single contractor, divided into over a hundred different payments, at the very least, presents the strong circumstantial evidence and appearance of bid-splitting. This practice likely hindered the town’s ability to get the best price for these service, resulted in more frequent and smaller purchases, administrative inefficiency and diminished transparency and integrity in its procurement process, all contrary to the Inspector General’s guidance on procurement practices and the purpose behind the public construction and bidding laws.”
The town will now be subject to quarterly monitoring by the Attorney General for its compliance with bidding laws, and the town administrator and other department heads will be required to receive training in procurement laws.
Oak Bluffs selectman and board chairman Kathy Burton said Tuesday she had not yet read the decision but was happy to have the training and monitoring.
“I’m very pleased that someone will be coming down to give us training because obviously we need it,” Ms. Burton said. “I’m also pleased that we will be giving the state quarterly performance reports so that we can stay on top of this.”
A complete story about the Attorney General’s decision will appear in the Friday Gazette.
This article appears in June 7, 2011.
While we are on the subject… Do RFP’s go out for the landscape maintenance contract for Ocean Park??
I agree with johhnywatcher…and I have asked many people with STILL no answer as to how much the “barebones” Town Of Oak Bluffs pays the private contractor to take care of Ocean Park every day of the week? and boy do they make it so that is the case..right after mowing,place 50 pallets of fertilizer,(can smell it all over town) water constantly come back every other day and repeat!! Can the gazette get an answer to this??? The selectmen keep saying barebones,here is a place to have the already in place park dept do its job.
Important question is now that the attorney general has basically given town officials a pass, will someone of integrity lead the charge to identify the culprits behind this violation? For a start, Powers Electric should be suspended from further contracts pending a full investigation. Otherwise, it’s just corrupt Island business as usual.