Is Lisbon Following in Chelsea's Steps?

TOWN CONTRACTS

Our Town Council has approved two contracts which are NOT in accordance with the town’s Purchasing Policy.  This is extremely disturbing after reading about Carole Swan and everything that went on in Chelsea.  I hope this is NOT what Lisbon is in for.

During the council meeting on July 2, 2013, the council approved a renewal on the Biosolids Disposal contract with Casella Organics (formerly New England Organics).  The town has maintained a contract with this company since 2008.  This contract is for approximately $80,000 tax dollars and per our Purchasing Policy is required to go out for bid. 

The town engineer and the town manager failed to put this contract out for bid.  According to these two, New England Organics was the only business to submit a bid in 2008.  Five years has passed and a lot has changed and this is why it is important to comply with the Purchasing Policy and put this out for bid.  None of the councilors asked an obvious question, “How are the surrounding towns disposing of their bio-solid waste and what companies are they using?”  

Before the town manager or the town council can claim this renewal is in the “best interest of the town” they should at least make an effort to see how everyone else is handling their waste.  Instead they just approved the renewal, which begs the questions “Why ignore our Purchasing Policy and is someone receiving a kick back?

During the break in the meeting, I explained the obvious problems with renewing the contract without submitting it out for bid.   Two councilors said they would look into it.  On Monday night, I received a phone call from one of these councilors stating the council recognized their mistake and will correct it.  When I brought this out to the council, Chairman LaRochelle stated there was nothing wrong with the renewal and moved on with the meeting.

On the agenda for July 16, 2013 town council meeting, was voting on the “Road Striping” bid.  The council voted to approve the contract to Markings Inc. out of Massachusetts.  I personally contacted the other two businesses the town said they sent the bid to.  Lucas Striping out of Sidney, ME said they never received a copy of the RFP but would like to bid on the contract.  I relayed this to the council but they did not care.  In fact, Councilor Ward stated she wanted to move on with this contract instead of allowing a Maine company to place a bid. 

 Why the hurry?   

I also contacted Sir, Lines-A-Lot, LLC who stated they received a FAX with the RFP.  According to Mr. Eldridge, a letter was forwarded to these companies but we know that is not true because Sir, Lines-A-Lot, LLC received a FAX and did not want to submit a bid.  But the strangest thing about the award of this contract was there was no bid attached from Markings Inc.  How can you approve a contract without a bid being present?  Instead of the tabling this until they received a copy of the bid from Markings Inc, they approved it without an actual bid being present.  This begs the question “Why approve this without a bid being present and why not give a Maine company time to submit a bid?” 

These inconsistencies in the contract/Purchasing Policy mirrors what Chelsea and Carole Swan are going through in court.  Is Lisbon going to be next?

Larry Fillmore