Secret
Adjective:
1. done, made,
or conducted without the knowledge of
others: secret negotiations.
2. kept from
the knowledge of
any but the initiated or privileged: a
secret password.
3. faithful or
cautious in keeping confidential matters confidential; close-mouthed;
reticent.
4. designed or working to escape notice, knowledge, or observation:
a secret drawer; the secret police.
Does the Mullett Board have a secret?
At the April 3, 2012 Mullett Township
Board of Trustees Meeting, John Brown
made a motion to give Willard E. Morgan, Jr. permission to have Wade Trim send
invitations to several contractors in the area to bid the driveway, parking lot
and two ADA parking spaces with a walking ADA path to the pavillion, in Boy
Scout Park, Dennis Dombroski seconded, motion passed.
A FOIA
request asking what criteria were used to select the contractors who would be
invited to submit bids has been answered NO such document exists. Apparently, there was no criterion used to determine
who could bid. Was the type of equipment available a qualifier? Was the number
of years in business a qualifier? Was the locale of the contractor a qualifier?
Were all licensed Mullett Township contractors asked to bid? Were all licensed Cheboygan
County contractors asked to bid? Were all licensed northern Michigan
contractors asked to bid? Was it who you know a qualifier?
It’s apparently a secret.
A FOIA
request for the names of the contractors who were invited to submit bids has not
been answered.
It’s apparently a secret.
At the May
9, 2012 Special Meeting of the Board, three sealed, supposedly competitive bids
were opened and the contractors and bid amounts were duly announced and
recorded.
Those names
and amounts are now public knowledge.
Does that mean
the taxpayers of Mullett Township got the best qualified and lowest priced contractor
available and willing to do the job? Who knows?
The Mullett
Board has historically practiced both nepotism and cronyism in selecting suppliers
for goods and/or contractors to perform services.
Case in
point: Trustee John Brown still feels an entitlement to employ himself or his
family to cut grass and install/remove the dock at Boy Scout Park. The entire
Board drafted and passed a Resolution last year approving this nepotism.
Are we supposed to ignore the ethics of this action by elected officials?
Case in
point: Most contract work for the township over the years has been awarded
based solely on a single, noncompetitive “quote”. The township hall needs painting and we have a
quote, approved. The township hall needs new gable siding and we have a quote,
approved. The township hall needs a new well pump and we have a
quote, approved.Tens of thousands of dollars of work has been approved and paid by
this Mullett Board with taxpayer’s money without any formal procurement or bid process or policy.
This all
worked fine until the TDA asked if the Topinabee pavilion could be repainted. The
Mullett Board went to their “go to guy” who gave a quote of about $3,500. A TDA
member asked for a quote from a local painting contractor who quoted about
$1,700.
Wow, less
than half the price. That’s embarrassing to the Board. Does that mean all of the work
done over the years with only a single non-competitive quote cost the taxpayers
of Mullett Township twice as much as it should have? Probably not, but it could
be more than twice as much or maybe it was a fair price. Who knows if the Board does not
shop around and seek competitive bids?
Has the
approximately $40,000 job at Boy Scout Park been competitively bid?
If the Board only sought bids from a
select few contractors with no criteria used other than people they like, the
answer is no.
Topinabee Pavilion painted by competitive bid. History in the making.
