GREENFIELD — Business Manager Andy Paquette said the Greenfield School Department has been following proper procurement processes, but needs to “tighten up” its documentation, per a legal review of its procedures.
The review came following a June request from School Committee member Ann Childs to conduct a legal compliance review of the bidding process used for the heating, ventilation and air conditioning contract with EMCOR Services New England Mechanical.
“There have been concerns raised in the community regarding the district’s bidding process, documentation and transparency,” Childs wrote in written rationale for her motion. “An audit would address these concerns by checking our process for compliance with applicable laws and policies, as well as providing expert opinions on any changes we can make to improve how we conduct bids. As our HVAC contract is a recent contract identified by the community as one that people would like more information on, it is a logical item for review.”
During the June meeting, resident William Gordon had requested an audit, and said he had submitted a public records request for the bids used in recent landscaping and HVAC contracts and was not given the full scope of information he was seeking.
“I am not accusing anyone of malfeasance. However, there seems to be a pattern of possible procurement or recordkeeping violations,” Gordon said. “I respectfully request that the School Committee order an independent audit of the records for procurements and conduct a bona fide investigation into purchasing practices, including recommendations for improved policies and procedures.”
In June, members debated the merits of an audit or review of the quote solicitation processes versus the legal cost, and voted unanimously to have a legal review conducted.
Attorney Kimberly Roche with Dupere Law Offices told the School Committee last week that under Massachusetts General Laws, for goods or services estimated to cost between $10,000 and $100,000, the district must solicit at least written quotes from three vendors.
Paquette said the district did solicit three quotes, but only received and documented one, as only one vendor responded.
“The outcome of this is just that we needed to tighten up our quote tracking,” Paquette explained. “All of the steps were done, except for the fact that when the quotes were solicited, we only documented the one that we received. We didn’t document the two others that we solicited.”
Committee members said that if all quotes and solicitations were brought to the School Committee and included in the School Committee packet, they would become public record, and would be easier for the public and district to find and reference later, as needed.
“I think if the quotes become part of a School Committee meeting, they are documented through a lot of different ways. I’m just thinking of the fact that we didn’t have documentation to produce when people were looking for it, which was an issue,” member Melodie Goodwin said. “If the quotes would actually come here, become part of our minutes, when people are asking questions, I think it would be well-documented. … It kinda makes us look bad when we don’t have it.”
Paquette said he has created a quote ledger template for the district to use that will better document all bids received and he would be happy to provide that to the committee.
“I would envision that whenever we do a quote solicitation,” Paquette said, “the next month as part of my cover memo … I would include that quote letter template just showing you that we did a quote solicitation.”
