At the last Kenner City Council meeting, the Council
approved over $600,000 in non-emergency, no-bid
professional services contracts at the request of Mayor Mike Yenni.
The two companies that received the contracts, Digital
Imaging & Engineering and Harman Engineering, both contributed the maximum
amount allowed by law to Mayor Yenni’s campaign, and also contributed to each
of the 7 Kenner City Councilmen including almost $5,000 to Councilwoman
DeFranchesch’s campaign account.
Last year, the Kenner City Council unanimously approved
allowing Kenner voters to vote on a charter change which would allow council
oversight and public comment on all no-bid professional services contracts
valued at over $100,000. The vote was approved by a 70%-30% margin.
The contributions to Mayor Yenni and the council were not disclosed
at the council meeting and none of the councilmen in attendance (Councilman
Kent Denapolis was not present at the meeting and Councilwoman Jeannie Black
walked out of the council chambers during one of the votes) abstained from
votes that directly benefited the companies that contributed money to their
campaigns.
And, despite the charter change, except for a couple of
questions from District 2 Councilman Joe Stagni regarding the selection process,
there was no discussion from the council regarding the qualifications of the
winning bidders, the price involved in the contracts, or the fact that both
contracts were given to two different companies for work at the same location.
Adriane Quinlan from the Times-Picayune covered the no-bid
contracts and ClickJefferson.com wrote about them as well.
In addition, Fox 8 and Nola.com have done an excellent job
discussing issues with Jefferson Parish contractors who contribute Millions of
dollars to the campaigns of Parish councilmen and, in return, receive lucrative
no-bid professional services contract.
In May of 2012, the Bureau of Governmental Research issued a
scathing report regarding Jefferson Parish’s contract selection process.
Until the Fall of 2011, price was considered in the Parish’s
contract evaluation process. However, District councilmen were still given wide
latitude to select any vendor they wished regardless of the score given to the contractor
by the Evaluation Committee.
While agreeing that price should not be the only
consideration, BGR stated that price should be a factor.
“Price is not necessarily the most important factor for selecting
services that depend on technical or specialized skills. But the inclusion of
non-price considerations results in a more subjective process – and the
potential for favoritism, waste and abuse.”
Jefferson Parish President John Young agreed.
In a Nola.com article, Young said:
“I asked the Parish Attorney to draft an ordinance placing price back
in the equation. Though price shouldn’t be the sole determining factor, it
should be a factor to be considered.”
Young also said that, when the Parish was recommending a
vendor that was not the lowest-priced vendor, his staff would include a letter
stating why the lowest-bidder was not selected.
“I requested my people to put that in writing in the resolution (to
explain) why we didn’t go with the low-bid process.”
“In public bids, the contract must be given to the lowest responsible bidder.
But when hiring professionals, like engineers and attorneys, the council can
select anybody regardless of price or the rankings by evaluating committees.”
The Editorial Board also endorsed another recommendation
from BGR: including price as a factor in the selection process.
“The parish also should include cost as part of its evaluation process,
and cost should also be an important factor in selecting the firms. As of now,
price is not required to be a factor at all, meaning taxpayers are often paying
more than they should for services. Indeed, almost every professional contract
that local governments have recently opened for competition has led to savings.”
At last night’s Kenner City Council meeting, Councilwoman
DeFranchesch took to the microphone to defend Mayor Yenni and the council’s
decision to award the two non-emergency, no-bid professional services
contracts.
Citing state law and the Federal Brooks Act, DeFranchesch,
reading from a prepared statement despite the fact that it was on the council
agenda as a “discussion” item, said that she wanted to clear up “confusion
regarding whether these contracts should be put out for bid.”
Despite it being a "discussion" item, there was no discussion from any council member expect for DeFranchesch.
The state law, which has been amended several times since its
introduction in 2006 (most recently in 2012 to allow the Port of New Orleans to
include price in their professional service contract evaluations), states:
“It is the policy of the state of Louisiana, its political
subdivisions, and agencies to select providers of design professional services
on the basis of competence and qualifications for a fair and reasonable price.
Neither the state nor any of its political subdivisions or agencies may select
providers of design services wherein price or price-related information is a
factor in the selection.”
And that makes perfect sense.
You don’t always want the lowest-priced vendor. However, you
do want the most qualified vendor that you can afford and who will provide the
best value for your constituents.
The Brooks Act cited by Councilwoman DeFranchesch, is a law
specifically related to Federal contracts and has no applicability to local
bodies like the City of Kenner.
The Brooks Act does describe a process whereby firms should
be selected.
That process was parroted several times by Councilwoman
DeFranchesch.
“Price is a secondary factor – it is negotiated after a vendor is
selected,” DeFrancesch said.
“If you cannot come to an
agreement that is fair with the first company (selected), you go to the second.
Then, you can go to number three. You can pick up to three that is (sic)
reasonable”.
So, now we’ve gone from the Top Three (which is reasonable)
to the Top 13?
According to Councilwoman DeFranchesch, if the process is that
you select the top rated, most qualified company and negotiate price with them,
it would appear that the Top 8 companies were negotiated with and all declined
to come close to the city’s estimated price.
With all of that negotiating, it’s a wonder that anything
gets done in Kenner.
The reality is, there was never any negotiation between any
of the companies other than Mayor Yenni telling his two campaign contributors, “I’ll
give you this contract and I’ll give you this other one that’s for a little
less money. Next time, I’ll make it up it to you.”
While Councilwoman DeFranchesch can continue defending the
indefensible and carrying Mayor Yenni’s water, since the Mayor didn’t comment
at the council meeting or to Nola.com and walked out of the Council meeting
when I got up to address the council the council about Councilwoman
DeFranchesch’s comments, the fact is that these contracts don’t pass the smell
test.
There is no possible way that Mayor Yenni or Councilwoman
DeFranchesch can claim that these contracts are in the best interests of the people
of Kenner. They were payback for political contributions – nothing more,
nothing less.
Are we to believe that contracts are dispensed to the most competent
vendors regardless of political contributions and influence, when the 9th
and 13th highest rated vendors are selected and Councilwoman
DeFranchesch wants to look into the camera and say in essence, “Our hands were tied. We
talked to the first 8 companies and we couldn’t agree on a price”?
The Kenner City Council is the steward of Kenner tax
dollars. How can Kenner taxpayers trust that the Council is seeking out the
best value and using our tax dollars wisely?
With all of the debate and scrutiny over Jefferson Parish
contracts, it would appear that the antics of Mayor Yenni and members of the
Kenner City Council deserve some further scrutiny too.
Perhaps the next editorial in Nola.com should be to demand
reform in Kenner and rebuke Mayor Yenni.
I can dream, can’t I?
