By: Diane Benjamin
Monday night the City Council approved buying new video board equipment for the Coliseum – $1,389,605 before interest accrues from borrowing the money. The documentation and discussion claimed the purchase was competitively bid because a group called The Cooperative Purchase Network was used for the purchase. The documentation given to the Council also states that CIAM (Central Illinois Arena Management) prepared the proposal.
http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=8817 Page 239
Since the local media doesn’t do investigative reporting, I Googled TCPN (The Cooperative Purchasing Network). It looks like most of what they do is for schools, but they do bid contracts for government. The problem is they have Certified Vendors. If a vendor isn’t on the list, the vendor isn’t bidding on a contract.
Here’s where it gets tragic for the taxpayers of Bloomington. The ONLY vendor on their list for video scoreboards is the one that got the contract: Daktronics. See the list here: http://www.tcpn.org/Pages/facilities.aspx
The system purchased Monday night was NOT competitively bid. Competitors like Mitsubishi, Sony, All American, Fair-Play etc are NOT on the list!
Electro-Mech makes scoreboards high schools use, they don’t make video boards.
David Hales made a big deal Monday night out of the competitive bidding process undertaken by The Cooperative Purchasing Network. Either he is clueless or he is once again “STRETCHING THE TRUTH”.
If you read the Council agendas, many items are purchased using “purchasing networks”. How many times has the Council been told that competitive bidding wasn’t necessary because one of these groups did the work for the City? Answer: Frequently.
After Hales performance earlier this week on WJBC (http://blnnews.com/2015/07/15/david-hales-misleads-wjbc/) and now this fiasco, how can the Council trust anything Hales says?
The Council should have quit trusting anything John Butler and Bart Rogers say a long time ago. Neither were present Monday night, but a vote was taken anyway.
One more thing: There is no cost to buyers for asking TCPN to help with contracts. This article says TCPN get s a COMMISSION from the supplier: http://wikiroof.blogspot.com/2013/10/tcpn-favors-tremco-associates-and.html
How much cheaper would the boards have been if Daktronics wasn’t paying TCPN?
Even the Chicago Cubs bid their video boards: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-sullivan-cubs-cardinals-spt-0924-20140924-story.html
The taxpayers deserve better.
Flashback:
COUNCIL MEETING AGENDA
MONDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2004, 7:30 P.M.
When you think it can’t get worse…
WHO got the kickback on THIS affront? There ARE better signs for a better price out there then Daktronics. Who signed off on this?
Hales put it on the Consent Agenda. The Council wasn’t suppose to discuss it.
So when the City Blm borrows money, what do they put up for collateral? Anything or just a nod and a wink?
I believe borrowing is based on their bond rating and the ability to repay much like school boards do. There is no physical collateral backing the loans.
From my experience on a board the financial companies out there to sell the bonds is big business. I remember being wined and dined by one company after we sold bonds for capital development. I laughed and told another board member that we paid for this and this is just to make us feel good. I should say the taxpayers paid for it.
A major problem is finding someone willing to investigate David Hales in his current position.
The city council, less one, and the mayor let him have a free reign to do about anything he wants or dictates to them to do. What it is going to take is a new mayor and council majority to oust this guy and even then no telling what it will cost to get the job done but probably worth it in the long run. I’m sure there are better managers out there in the pool of qualified candidates. How he floated to the top of candidates when he was chosen is beyond me. You know how the saying goes and what floats best.
By the next election he will have his eight years in – therefore qualifying for a pension. He will be gone on his own.
You’re probably right because the mayor and council members, less one, handed him the golden goose egg with the salary he is earning.
He is breaking City law, Chapter 2: Section 39 and should be ousted for that reason alone.
Post a link please!
This has to do with his lack of enforcement of Chapter 24 ordinances
http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=262