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Show District Wasting Tax DoEars, Manager Says ( By TOM BUSSELBERG . North County Editor ! FARMlNGTON -- A Bountiful carpeting distribu-r distribu-r is upset with the Davis School District-not, he VedIms because f losing a nearly $100,000 bid, but cause he believes unnecessary extra funds are lng spent. I DOUG GRAHAM, manager for Sure Commercial fg'Wsin Salt Lake City, but himself a 20-year plus Rn (im resident is an8ered the district is spending tfro T mre fr carPeting he claims is compatible V "i his firm but was rejected for what he believes invalid reasons. ilina 'n some oids antl vou ,ose some," he said ' ""iterview-that's not the problem, the manager tflnUed' noting his firm deals with anencies rang- - Irsam0ntrads of hundreds of thousands of dol- ! Hl" Air Force Base to state government agen- 4 dinS the University of Utah, and area I SEVF tr'CtS- l,0 ERAL questions are raised by Mr. Graham, rieayS he'S concerried as a taxpayer why the '& ten.; . Wem to a higher bid for reasons he claims i Jhin?iJU,sUfied--saying, "How do you know some-1 some-1 Jo be 'm0'"8 wrong"we have about every reason i DistriVe ' there could be Problems- he said- liind "ct officials quickly list several reasons be- Ka? 8 the hi8her bid- citinS what they be" Ned lproblems with the way Sure Carpeting pre-fettL pre-fettL rbid- "We accepted the lowest bid that laid 'wSp"lflcations," Board Clerk Roger Glines i be a e don't want one that will unravel, there has 'l!!llee against that in the specifications. !! Til JiliMfi "THAT BRAND (submitted by Sure Carpeting) didn't even produce any specifications on it-they wanted to do it verbally-they said their carpet meets all the specifications. They didn't submit anything from the factory, a guarantee or anything. "They wrote a hand-written note across the bid saying this meets all the specifications," Mr. Stevenson Steven-son added. MR. GRAHAM said he did not bring all the guarantees with him because the bid document didn't require that but was ready to submit them after the bids were opened-a process he claims is normal elsewhere. Such material wasn't requested, only such specifications as no edge ravel and not less than five years under normal use. "They based their bid on Lee's Faculty," Mr. Graham said. "With public money (used in payment) it has to be that or equal. We submitted on three projects that were equally-all were for considerably less money. We've been reviewing the bid list and they had only one bid on the highest priced product. Out of five bidders, only one bidder on the product ended up selected-at the highest price. "WE'RE GETTING laboratory tests showing they are in fact equal (products)," he continued, although those results weren't yet available at press time. Mr. Graham contends his firm wasn't allowed to provide back-up documents proving guarantees because be-cause they weren't presented with the bid opening, although while that was to take place at 2 p.m. June 29, it didn't actually transpire until about 9 a.m. June 3o'because Buildings and Grounds Supervisor Dean Penrod couldn't attend the regular time. DISTRICT Purchasing Director Douglas Richins said that was done with Board Clerk Glines and a purchasing department secretary as witnesses the next day although no bidders were contacted about the change, with only Mr. Graham's firm attending the original bid opening later, postponed. He said that's normal "procedure and indicated perhaps a change should be made, notifying bidders in the future. fu-ture. "He wanted to turn in, an extremely vague bid and then more or less sell the product (to us)," Mr. Richins said of Sure Carpeting's bid procedure. Conversely, Con-versely, Mr. Graham says the district wasn't willing to make any telephone calls that might lead to saving sav-ing $13,000, because it didn't meet their convenience. conveni-ence. THE DAVIS School District Procurement Policies, Poli-cies, adopted in July, 1982, say "no late bid, late modification or late withdrawal will be considered unless received before the time fixed for the closing for submission of bids." Exceptions would only be if district personnel had errored in actions with bidders, bid-ders, it says further. As for submitting additional information after the bid opening, Mr. Stevenson said "June 29 was the deadline for submitting those bids. Any supplementary supplemen-tary material a bidder intends to submit must be submitted by that time. It's the vendor's responsibility responsibil-ity to provide all information-this individual failed to do that." SCHOOL OFFICIALS cited what they felt was a disclaimer about the ability of the Sure Carpeting bid to meet specifications by their national dealer, but Mr. Graham said that dealer was referring to impossibility impos-sibility of meeting a specific requirement for Lee's Faculty-although comparable ability was provided . Kill; ppm, it t .- mIB..W.Tl .. "-J i. li mi im. i.m ijl " under a different process name. While Mr. Graham questioned not conducting the bidding in an open school board meeting, as some other districts apparently do. Asst. Supt. Gaylc Stevenson insisted "We have numerous purchases of that type-by law they do not require that" those bids be opened in a regular school board meeting. "The board authorizes the administration to proceed. pro-ceed. In the monthly accounts payable they would review and approve" such purchases, in this instance, inst-ance, reviewing July's in an August meeting. THE POLICY manual says further quoting the Utah Procurement Code, opening and recording of bids "shall be opened publicly, in the presence of one or more witnesses, at the time and place designated desig-nated in the invitation for bids and in the case of schoolhouse construction, such bids shall be opened and read by the board of education publicly." - Projects over 520,000 are advertised, as required by law, Mr. Glines says, in a newspaper of general circulation-in that case it was Salt Lake daily papers, pap-ers, and in the Utah construction trade journal. "I DON'T think there's anything that specifically say s what has to be opened by the board of education at the board meeting," Mr. Glines said. "Every time they (board) pass on the claims, they've reviewed all those, know all about them." Board Pres. Shcryl Allen said in a telephone interview inter-view she hadn't been aware of that specific bid opening open-ing until notified after Mr. Graham's complaint but Mr. Glines said the carpeting was for the new Sarah Jane Adams School as well as several other buildings and would be considered previously authorized as part of general schoolhouse bids, which were conducted con-ducted in an open board meeting. I',t..pi1iw.mf l ,l. . i, .',! i 'Wiiw.ll iMm w wpn v.'. 'v 'rr'V.'T T-1 " V' -'H-'Tfj .... -nfr- in '-Tin--r--( r -ii - T -i i i ' 'i i " 'n'l i -"V .-i r-'--'-.-' |
