By James R. Miron
ConnPost 12/03/2009
http://ctfire-ems.com/showthread.php?t=13318
From the day I took the oath of office as Stratford's first mayor in 2005, I have worked very hard every day on behalf of the residents of our town. This includes the weeks since the Nov. 3 election, despite the Connecticut Post's recent editorial to the contrary.
In addition to conducting the usual and varied day-to-day management functions of being mayor, since Nov. 3, I have:
There has also been the not-so-small issue of the first mayoral transition in town history that I have been working on with my administration. The professional department heads of my administration are ensuring that their day-to-day activities of excellent service delivery to our townspeople continue at the same time they participate in the transition to a new mayor and administration.
During my four years as mayor I have learned the following unfortunate lesson: some people will never respect you. Regardless of the purity of your motives, no matter the quality of your reasoning, no matter how hard you work, they will seek to tear you down and destroy you. These people do not care about the truth or have an interest in respectful discourse when there is a difference of opinion. All that matters to them is winning their personal and/or political point.
Unfortunately, that is the case with our current Town Council and fire union leadership. Each has demonstrated time and again its unwillingness to listen and respect differences of opinion, reason and facts. Instead, they practice sensationalism and engage in outrageous and empty attacks for their own personal and political gain.
Another example of these people's politics of personal destruction has to do with the recent discussion regarding fire trucks. Much has been made of the recent call for the no-bid purchase of two fire trucks amounting to more than $800,000 in taxpayer money. Who stands to gain from the proposed $805,000 no-bid contract for two new fire trucks for the Stratford Fire department?
Unfortunately, it is not Stratford residents.
Under the town code, any purchase for goods that exceeds $7,500 must be publicly bid. The mayor, in extraordinary circumstances, may make an exception if an emergency is declared. However, circumstances warranting an emergency simply do not exist. The expenditure of almost one million dollars far exceeds the threshold for public bidding. Simply put, these trucks ought to be publicly bid.
There are two justifications that the proponents of the no-bid contract offer in support of circumventing the bidding process. First, they claim there is an "emergency" and that the public will be at risk if the town does not engage in the no-bid purchase. However, just saying there is an emergency does not make it so. The burden is on those seeking the no-bid contract to explain why the exception is necessary, and the proponents of this no-bid contract have not met that threshold. For sure, Stratford needs a new fire truck but it is irresponsible to claim there is an emergency that warrants waiving the bidding process.
Second, proponents of the no-bid purchase claim the town is being offered such a "bargain deal" on the fire trucks and that to allow this opportunity to pass would be financially unwise. Are they really implying that the town should circumvent the law concerning bidding every time there is a sale or if they feel we have been offered a good deal? That would make a mockery of the town code.
In fact, for four years the Fire Department has insisted that a "rescue pumper" be built to "Stratford specifications." Neither of these trucks is a "rescue pumper" and both fall short of those specifications. The "buy it, it's on sale" argument is something that we should not do with our own personal finances at home and the town should not, either. You buy something because it is what you need, not because someone has put it "on sale"; at least that is the fiscally responsible thing to do.
So, all of this begs the question: Why is a no-bid contract being fought for two new, not built-to-specification fire trucks totaling almost $1 million?
There is no doubt that new fire trucks are needed in our town, and I have fought for funding for such trucks since becoming mayor four years ago.
In fact, I helped engineer a bidding process late last year that would have provided a new fire truck with all of the specifications requested by the Fire Department (specifications, interestingly, that the two no-bid fire trucks do not meet). Unfortunately, then-Fire Chief John Cybart derailed this process by demonstrating, at best, a gross lack of judgment when he knowingly appointed a department lieutenant to the committee that was to select the winning bid who at the time also worked for a company owned by a former Republican Town Council chairman that was seeking to be awarded the bid.
Even if that process had not been derailed by the former chief's actions, the town would still be without a new fire truck today due to the substantial time needed to design and build the apparatus requested by the Stratford Fire Department. Interestingly, no one had a problem with the length of time to wait until now. Proponents of the no-bid contract may claim that the recent fire-related tragedies in our town create a new sense of urgency, but there is not one shred of evidence that shows that the outcome of those fires would have been any different if the town had new trucks.
The whole purpose of having legal requirements for bids on contracts over a certain dollar threshold is to protect the public as much as possible from cronyism, bid-rigging and corruption and even the appearance of impropriety.
In this case, there is no "emergency" and our law regarding public bidding ought to be followed. Stratford's public officials, both present and future, must act cautiously here.
For the above-mentioned reasons, I will not sign the "emergency" order to purchase new fire trucks by circumventing the legally required bidding process.
James R. Miron is mayor of Stratford.