One of the more interesting developments of the council meeting last night was created by Amanda Brown. When she suggested that she had a letter allegedly to the Mayor with a quote of $75/ton by CRRA, as I noted in the meeting report –I immediately though she violated something. That something is the very public Norwalk procurement guidelines. We learn from these guidelines that bids over $100k must be sealed bids.
§3-203 Competitive Sealed Request for Proposals. Any procurement of special or professional services or design-bid-build, which are in excess $10,000.00 shall be based upon competitive sealed request for proposals. The Purchasing Department shall assist the User Department The procurement of these services shall not be artificially divided so as to avoid this requirement under this Section.
Which makes the actions by Brown truly bizarre. She said on the Council floor that she had solicited a price from CRRA, but then makes reference to a letter faxed from CRRA to the Mayor about a new lower bid, she admitted that she was the one who made the contact. CRRA didn’t bid through the RFP process, which is clear about what you can and can’t do.
(5) Receipt of Proposals. Proposals shall be opened so as to avoid disclosure of contents to competing proposers during the process of negotiation. A Register of Proposals shall be prepared in
accordance with these Procurement Guidelines, and shall be open for public inspection after
contract award.
So, no disclosure of the what the bids are, and that there must be a register of proposals that is open to the public. Brown’s actions suggest a solicitation for a bid outside the RFP process, which certainly opens up the issue of who is talking to who and attempting to influence a sealed bidding process. The interesting aspect of that is whether this constitutes an ethics violation. And that gets even more interesting since this council hasn’t appointed an ethics panel, yet, even though its July. The relevant bit:
§3-702 Reporting of Anti-competitive Practices. When for any reason collusion or other anti-competitive practices are suspected by the Purchasing Agent, or any Purchasing Agency, among any bidders or proposers, a written notice of the relevant facts shall be transmitted to the Law Department.
There’s no way that Brown, as a decision maker on a sealed bid contract, should have contacted a non bidder to obtain price information.
They need to hold an ethics hearing against Brown for her actions. Was she taking money from them ?
What’s worse is that she probably discussed the letter in caucus and the other dems knew about it and didn’t shut her up.
My guess is that while her orginal intentions may have been good, she may have just really wanted to have an “ah ha!” moment. I know from past personal experience that those things tend to backfire.
Still, I wish the whole matter had been handled and managed in a way that they would see fit to send Crescent back to committee.
Don,t be too quick to assume she went to them. They have been very vocal trying to convince the council, and the public, they could do better than City Carting, despite what Alvord claims. I wouldn’t be surprized if they sent that same letter to a lot of people. Alvord said they made a “sleazy” effort to get around the RFP/BID process. Their lawyer has spoken at every opportunity since Alvord first presented the City Carting deal.
Why is it important for the bid to be sealed? Wouldn’t you want money like that out on the table for every one to see? Maybe that is what Ms Brown thought? I would like to look for the good.
Aunt Bertha, Bids are sealed to prevent bidding wars I assume. It is common practice that bids are sealed to prevent insiders from disclosing information to their buddies. If these bids were open, then people could give this information to those they want to get the jobs and give them information as to how to underbid the rest. The way Ms. Brown went about this is highly unethical and whatever information she had should have been passed out to the entire council prior to it being put on the floor. Grandstanding has its draw backs and causes alot of problems that we see during these meetings. Most of the council was unaware of what was being put out and therefore had no prior knowledge. Not defending Alvord here but this information should have been presented to him as well and the item pulled from the agenda for further discussion in committee where they could have questioned Alvord on this particular item. Again, as has been said so many times before “Do committee work in committee and not on council floor” Someone needs to tell Amanda Brown to stop taking direction from those who are not on the council as it is making her look bad.
Thank you Anonymous 6. I understand now. So do you all look over the sealed bids in a closed session?
The bids are opened by the Purchasing agent or his designee with a witness present. Then all bids are open to public inspection (from the link to Procurement guidelines above)
The dems in caucus should have realized what Amanda was opening herself up to. Especially Laurel Lindstrom. My guess is that Amanda is not liked well by her fellow dems so they let her hang herself. That’s petty and vindictive.
could be a foreshadowing of corruption on the city council.
Perrodin Urges Probe of Garbage Contract
By Daren Briscoe
March 13, 2002
Ripping his predecessor’s administration as fraught with corruption and nepotism, Compton Mayor Eric Perrodin on Tuesday called for an investigation into a $7-million trash contract approved under former Mayor Omar Bradley.
“It’s terrible here,” Perrodin said at a news conference in a mayor’s office that has changed hands three times in eight months.
After comparing Compton to Chicago, a city notorious for political corruption, Perrodin said he believed that law enforcement had turned a blind eye to wrongdoing by Compton’s elected officials because it did not wish to create the impression of persecuting a “majority black” city.
“If this stuff was going on in a city that’s Caucasian, there would have been a lot of indictments already,” he said.
According to the 2000 census, Compton’s population is 53% to 57% Latino and the black population is 40% to 41%.
Perrodin spoke to reporters minutes before leaving for a City Council meeting. He said he was making the comments because he has gotten no help from council members who support Bradley. “The only thing I can do is let the citizens know what’s going on,” he said before airing numerous complaints and accusations.
Bradley was said to be meeting with attorneys and was unavailable for comment.
“The trash deal smells,” Perrodin said, deriding the City Council’s January 2001 approval of a 15-year, no-bid contract to Hub City Disposal, a company run by Michael V. Aloyan. Aloyan testified in 1996 that he gave bribes to two former City Council members who were later convicted of extortion and sent to federal prison.
Perrodin said Aloyan sent Bradley and former Councilwoman Marcine Shaw and their families on trips to China and Africa. He did not provide documentation Tuesday to back the allegations. “[Bradley’s] brother chairs the company’s board of directors, and Shaw’s son sits on the board. It seems like a quid pro quo,” Perrodin said.
Aloyan hung up on a reporter when asked during a phone conversation whether he paid for trips by Bradley and Shaw.
Perrodin also criticized the council’s approval of a claim by Bradley that would pay him $840,000 in legal fees and $43,000 in back pay. The council, still controlled by Bradley supporters, approved the claim the same day Perrodin was reinstalled.
Bradley incurred the fees during his legal challenge to the June election that unseated him. Bradley returned to office briefly last month after a judge ruled in his favor, but the state’s 2nd District Court of Appeal reinstated Perrodin, pending the outcome of his appeal.
Perrodin, a deputy district attorney, criticized the hiring practices of Bradley’s administration.
“I’ve never seen so many ex-convicts,” he said, adding that he dislikes coming to City Hall because “I could be walking down a corridor and end up with a knife in my back.”
He also questioned what he said were excessive payments to Frank Wheaton, a city spokesman during Bradley’s two terms who was rehired during Bradley’s brief return to office.
Wheaton, whose salary is $75,000, said that any payments by the city above that amount were for services “above and beyond the call of duty,” and were approved by the council.
“I don’t have to defend my work,” Wheaton said.
Doing Committee work on the council floor is the problem here and council people not getting all the informtion prior to speaking on issues is what causes so much dissention. I don’t believe any of the council people are crooked or corrupt, just uninformed and are not getting the information from department heads long enough in advance to make educated decisions. If there were lower bids on this they should have been presented in committee and it is not up to a council person to go out looking for more bids once the bidding process is complete. However, it is up to the department head to keep the process open to all bidders for a reasonable amounyt of time and therefore allowing for the best possible pricing available. If the department head is actually making deals behind closed doors then it is up to the council committee to question the antics and to assure the taxpayers that this process will cease and desist immediately upon learning of the illegal practices. If Ms Brown felt that Mr. Alvord was doing something untoward and had genuine concerns she should have brought these concerns to the DPW committee and laid them out for them instead of springing this on the full council without prior notification. Doing these things will not get her re-elected they will only serve to bring ridicule and distrust to her methods. I suggest in the future that if a council person feels that a department head is making hasty decisions that will have an adverse effect on the community that he/she bring these concerns to the committee and allow the entire council to be privy to the goings on.
Obviously Ms. Brown was just trying to kill the Meadow Street proposal. She obviously needs counsel from Purchasing and Corporation Counsel on the process. Let’s hope that these same people who were so worried about “quality of life” and the Meadow Street Transfer station finally stand up and take some responsibility for addressing the problems of South Norwalk. Though, I’m not optimistic – this was largely about dems vs. republicans (and Fred Bondi).
Ultimately, Crescent St. isn’t a real long term solution either.
Taking advice is one thing but trying to corrupt a bidding process and coluding with a company is another.
The problem is that the information needs to be shared with others so they can make an educated decision as to whether or not something isn’t quite right and the item needs to be sent back to committee. The council is not a one man show and shouldn’t be treated as such! We elected a group of 15 people to make the right decisions and when one or two go off half cocked with information and ideas it just doesn’t work to the benefit of the community. This goes to both sides of the isle! getting your name in the paper is not a productive thing and can in the long run hurt the process more than help it. Now with today’s article and those reading it people who were not at the meeting will all be upo in arms about something that was not a known item to the entire council.
Does Amanda now intend to get bids on pacing contracts? What about the drainage pipes? Is every bid now this circus with people questioning the integrity of all departments?
Brown needs to be more careful about who she gets her information from and how they are telling her to go about making a name for herself. Its obviously someone that has political ties and is feeding her the wrong way of doing things!
Councilman soliciting bids sounds crooked. Why would a councilman seek out bids themselves ? Smells pretty bad.
Its a bid for attention and it backfired!
There is a DPW committee that should be looking into the bidding process and not a single council person wanting to make a name for themselves. You would think that her caucus would have advised her against this.
I’m disappointed in this. Amanda better start talking to a lawyer.
A councilman soliciting bids on their own for a city garbage carting contract ? She was looking out for the residents ? Does a certain state rep have ties to the carting company ? It should be looked into. Smell pretty bad.
What happens now? What happens if procedures have been compromised? Surely, this cannot be ignored.
Where’s the Geakster when the going gets tough? Did you know about Amanda’s foible in advance?
Soliciting bids from garbage companies, going around the competitive bidding process and working behind the scenes to steer city contracts to prefered companies, that friends have many ties is something much more than foible. It is an act that is punishable by law. Somethin stinks here !
#22: Geakster???
No, I didn’t know about this in advance. She had mentioned that number, but I had assumed it was either public or that she had gotten it from DPW. Besides, CRRA had not submitted a bid, so I wasn’t terribly interested in discussing them.
Mr. Geake what do you think of councilman soliciting bids themselves and working outside the competitive rfp process to steer contracts to ones friends ?
the “art-ster” is so transparent.
a wee bit sad he thinks he is not.
The problem with the question in #25 is assumes certain things are fact. Was Councilwoman Brown “soliciting bids” or was she merely getting the quasi-governmental CRRA’s published rates? Was her purpose to “steer contracts to … friends” or was her paralegal training kicking in to compell her to gather as much information as possible given the difficulty we were having getting straight, complete answers? Unlike the “sharks” out here, I don’t react to “blood in the water”; I require facts.
But to answer your queation, a case that happened exactly as you have posed is not only improper, it’s illegal.
MGeake and Anonymous 25: Just to set the fact record here, once a bid has been accepted, you cannot go out and get other bids or prices. CRRA in this case was solicited in 2007 to participate in the RFP process and chose not to submit a bid.
Remember Cheney’s obscene response to US Senator Leahy? That was in response to Leahy’s open criticism of Haliburton’s war profiteering in Iraq and the White House role in steering “no-bid” contracts to this company that Cheney headed just before assuming the Vice Presidency. The bidding process should be in place to ensure that this sort of thing does not happen.
connect the dots, it spells: it stainks. is that certain councilwoman lookin out for city interests or her own interests. maybe should look into any big purchases, bank accounts or new digs for the councilmembers to see whats afoot. maybe should also get all the councilmembers writings with the garbage solicitation of this persons.
why doesn’t Mrs. Brown just come on the blog and explain her actions ?
Mr. Geake:
Even though you are somewhat of a novice on the council it is pretty well established that you would not compromise a vote because of public pressure. I think you understand that special interest groups, as a whole, are not exactly “pure” in their intent. Any group that gets coverage attracts politicos. That said, perhaps you can impart that it is wise to consider all sides and to be very careful not to be used by those who yell the loudest.
like anyone in this city plays by the rules? Its great when the top dog players get screwd its refreshing to think long laid plans are being disrupted too bad we can’t stop the developments and rethink those.Its ok we will have something to point our fingers at when the best laid plans fail from others who constantly thing they know whats best for Norwalk.
Can of worms? Now Lajoies is saying they never realized what they were doing to the area.That goes without saying even the fire dept took care of hiding the fact after the last explosion so it didn’t even show up.Too bad Homeland security got involved now the fire chief has some explaining to do whats going on at the site afterall.
Exposing firefighters to obvious dangers at the shredder may change the way the fire dept responds and fights fires there.Its a shame our public employees are exposed to dangers that are logical dangerous situtations without protection.
Once you live in Norwalk and see whats going on it takes a novice to change things.Anyone connected to the machine is smart enough to know not to try and change things its not worth a good name.
Thank god Norwalk has a novice or two the city may be saved after all.
The Norwalkn Inn is playing the same political game with the historic district. Them that’s “in” gets to do what they want and line their own pockets — until somebody shines the light.
so simply set up floodlights its time these jackasses understand the city has plenty of pissed off taxpayers who now undertsand old time residents don’t make great department heads nor do the ones we have right now.The fire chief seems paralized in asking for anything Rillings is too busy hiding creative bookkeeping and the DPW has now come under glass after the last employee was hurt.
Does anyone care about this guy still in itensive care are we doing anything to help his wife out? Come on lets get this city organized lets take it away from these jerks who have done evrything in their power to lie deceive and distort fact to make themselves look good.
We are what concerned about what Borown did? If its bothering some city mucy muck more power to her stick it up all their hineys.I know political hineys is anothet term but I’m trying to keep the posting clean.
ya right!
There is no leadership on the council or by the mayor on telling any department what to do.
This is the craziest thing ever. In the name of protecting South Norwalk, Ms. Brown working with Bobby Burgess blocks the city’s plan for one regulated transfer station. So now we get an unregulated Meadow Street private transfer station and another City owned station at Crescent Street at a much higher annual cost. Good Job. Twice the pollution anda higher cost to the city. Yikes.
And this was all done so that Burgess/Brown could try to block City Carting from getting the contract. Everyone says CCRA was not bidding but in fact wasn’t CRRA aligned with the other bidder that attorney Butler was pushing? Thus by getting a bid from CRRA, Ms. Brown was helping that other bidder outside of the policies of the city for procurement. It certainly does stink and someone needs to investigate the whole bunch. Was Lauricella in this too? Was she a paid consultant? Inquiring minds want to know!
Are you serious? Diane Lauricella was a paid consultant? Honestly, before rumors get out of hand, exactly what are the implications here? I’ve read about collusion with a company; how so? What does this mean? Can anyone supply the facts?
Someone should ask Diane if Envirotech is a client.
The city should raise the mil rate on those that live on Meadow St to make up for the million that the city has now lost. Oh wait, how many residents on Meadow St pay taxes???
#10 anonymous – ALL OF THEM pay taxes. Either as the property owners themselves or as part of the price of their rent. WTF. (I just sigh and shake my head- just effing amazing that such prejudice and ignorance still exists in this day and age- truly sad)
And btw,the city didn’t lose a million – it never had the million, and it is doubtful that the number even existed without the smoke and mirrors.
Diane, actually most of the neighbors do not pay taxes on the scale homeowners do; they live in subsidized housing – most, but not all. This is not to say they deserve to live with dust, smell, traffic, etc. but get your facts straight
Diane if the million dollars is not real, why will the council have to transfer a special allocation of 500k to pay for the garbage staying at Crescent street? Are you getting paid by CRRA?
C’mon Diane…I probably pay more property taxes on my cars than most of the residents on Meadow St. pay in property taxes. Then when you factor in how much of our state and federal income taxes go to pay for their subsidized housing…. So let’s burden the city taxpayers with another million dollars on behalf of the people who live in an industrial zoned area who don’t even own the property that they live on.
#12 anonymous- property tax is property tax, and the homeowner pays just like I do. What portion of that amount is paid by the renter is actually not relevant to this discussion. I don’t really give a rat’s ass what % they pay or don’t pay – I spent a good deal of my childhood in public & section 8 housing, and know first-hand what it’s like to be treated like a second-class citizen because of it. It is ridiculous to say they should now pay more rent, thus taxes, because the the city won’t save money by dumping a dump on them.
#13 anonymous (same person?) The transfer is because the smoke and mirror million was already factored in to the budget by Hal and Tom, and now must be backed out.
But think about this- if the Crescent Street option went back to the committee for further review, perhaps more savings could have been found for that operation. Whip out your financial comparison sheet and let me know what you think.
And no, I don’t work for or support CRRA – THAT is an agency just crying to be investigated, and no one seems to have any oversight. Wish I had time to do research on them, but I choose to spend my time keeping on eye on the common council. I have no personal agenda and no ulterior motives. I am not running for office and I am not a part of any political party.
#14 And thus the great social injustice, that the poor deserve what they get.
Sickening, heart-breaking, and disgusting.
Remember this: there but for the grace of God go each of us. You brag on your cars and property, and criticize them for having none, and then because you feel they don’t pay their share, they should be treated differently (read: poorly) than you. But all that you have could change in the blink of an eye, and a one room studio on Meadow catching the bus each day might sound like the effing Ritz Carlton to you compared to living on the streets.
Wish you could walk a mile in their shoes, pal. Then you can let me know what you think.
How many residents around Meadow St pay taxes???The ones who inhale what Meadow st omits,lets be realistic.Argue with some sense and include hundreds of children who could suffer respiratory problems that live accross the street if everything goes unchecked..
Trouble ahead for Amanda Brown. Must turn over records for her private garbage talks with CRRA. Emails with Bruce Morris about the garbage must also be turned over. Today the request is being out in for Bruce Morris’ records on the garbage. Funny how Bruce Morris also at the garbage meetings. Smelling more and more by the day.
What does Bruce Morris have to do with the garbage contracts for the city?
Hey almost everyone has heard that Amanda and Bruce have a “special relationship” and that he programs her on political issues too. So some suspect that he pulls the strings on the issues she gets loud about. On this the hand of Bruce and maybe Bobby B are working under the table.