[MassHistPres] CPC-funding issue

[Tucker, Jonathan]

Under Chapter 30B, single source procurement is permitted if the work being done is design, planning, or similar consulting work (i.e., not capital construction) and the amount of the contract is under $10,000.  Projects costing from $10,000 to $50,000 require at least three written quotes from prospective contractors in response to a description of the scope of the work, an estimated cost, a timeline, and other requirements.  Only projects over $50,000 require a full RFP or IFB process.

The annual payment of $21,000 to the consultant in Brewster is well over the threshold for sole source procurement.  As a fellow Town employee, Ms. St. Sure should walk over to the Accountant’s office and inquire about how this project was procured, has been contracted, and is being paid.  That’s public information.

Again, some of the initial assertions about skullduggery or error with respect to this project appear to be assumptions and only partially informed.  I would proceed with caution, and make no accusations—just gather the real information.  The simple act of asking and finding out will daylight any problems and prompt any necessary actions by others.

In the end, the project is potentially a very useful one.  The primary concern is making sure that it is being conducted according to the rules and that the product will be what the community needs.

Jonathan Tucker
Senior Planner
Amherst Planning Department
4 Boltwood Avenue, Town Hall
Amherst, MA  01002
(413) 259-3040
tuckerj at amherstma.gov<mailto:tuckerj at amherstma.gov>


From: masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu [mailto:masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu] On Behalf Of Henry Cooke
Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2017 4:03 PM
To: estsure at comcast.net; masshistpres at cs.umb.edu
Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] CPC-funding issue

I may be mistaken, but I believe that such sole source bidding is illegal under Chapter 30B of Mass. General Laws, and would certainly discovered when the accounts were audited by an outside agency.  Only exception is if the goods or services are so unique that there is only one contractor/supplier who can furnish it. Reworking Form Bs is not a unique service, and should be bid through the RFP process like other municipal consultant services.

Henry Cooke, Chairman
Randolph Historical Commission


-----Original Message-----
From: Ellen St. Sure <estsure at comcast.net<mailto:estsure at comcast.net>>
To: masshistpres <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu<mailto:masshistpres at cs.umb.edu>>
Sent: Wed, May 3, 2017 3:52 pm
Subject: [MassHistPres] CPC-funding issue
I need advice.

The Brewster CPC some months ago agreed to a request from the town’s Historical Commission to provide them with the funds to hire a researcher who had approached them with a proposal to re-do nearly 300 studies of local historical houses—up to 70 houses a year at $300 each ($21,000 per year)—to replace flawed studies done some 40 years ago.

The researcher (I will not name him here) also informed the local CPC that they could not pay for his project with a grant because such research cannot be so funded under the law—but that they could sidestep this legal impediment by paying him from funds reserved for administrative costs—and the CPC agreed to do this, despite the fact that this involved adding an additional $20,000 to the relevant fund.  The Hist Pres administrative “bucket” was subsequently up-funded from $10,000 to $30,000 for the 2017 fiscal year and re-funded for the same amount for the coming year in order to cover the researcher’s $21,000 annual payments. This maneuver, and the project it is funding, has never, to date, been presented to the tax-paying public for its comments or approval.

I have reached the end of my attempts to get public access to this on-going under-the-radar project and my frustration with what seems to me to be unconscionable secrecy has been greatly increased by getting a copy of the purveyor’s first historic house study which I found to be replete with typos, wrong guesses and factual errors.

Can anyone offer some practical advice about where to go with these serious issues, concerning the source of funding, secrecy of the project and the flaws in the final product?

Ellen St. Sure, Archivist
   Town of Brewster
estsure at comcast.net<mailto:estsure at comcast.net>
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