Why Not?
Tracy Warner posted on the perennial voice of opposition provided by Jon Olinger on FWCS. Mike Sylvester made a good point in the comment section that is yet to be properly covered by any of the area news agencies.
Why was this contract not put through the normal bidding process?
This is one of those things that could have wide political costs to board members.
Why was this contract not put through the normal bidding process?
This is one of those things that could have wide political costs to board members.
posted by Indiana Pundit at 10:25 PM
3 Comments:
Why should it cost $389,000? That is too much!
On the news last night the showed Snider HS in a bad state of repair. I served in the US Navy and the steam pipes I saw on the news along with the valves showed little to no preventative maintenance. The rust on the valves is due to leaking steam. The rusted pipe flanges have seals that have failed. How many times have they changed these low cost and easy to fix seals? Now they spend in excess of $300,000 to due a study. Give me a break. The principals of the schools are responsible for their schools. This includes maintenance. It appears some have failed to adequately maintain their buildings. Now if the principals have requested funds for maintenance and the school board has not approved them, then the school board is negligent.
Much of the problem is the result of using cash flow accounting instead of accrual. Build a nice building and do little to maintain it for the first 15 years. Accrual no funds to replace the heating or AC in 15 years so that it is another one time big cost. A roof is another big time cost. For example if a roof costs $250K every ten years, then you need to be setting aside $25K a year or more to pay for it when it is needed. The same is true for all consumables. What I saw at Snider showed little to no maintenance. Now they come to the taxpayer and want them to pay to fix their negligence.
People speak about coroners needing to be educated; well the same is true of school board, principals and representatives.
Unfortunately, In Indiana, there really is no "normal bidding process" for consultants. Government executives can hire virtually any consultant they want if the fiscal body agrees to pay for it.
Usually, responsible agencies will put out requests for proposals, but even then there is no obligation to accept the best price. For some really specialized work, there may be only one experienced consultant in the state or region.
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