Rebid The School Transportation

Contract

To the Editor:

The latest round in the school transportation contract has unfolded with MTM’s letter to the Board of Education regarding the treatment of All-Star’s bid.

There are questions as to the school business manager’s actions with regard to the bids and the fact that All-Star based their bid on a higher quantity of buses used to fulfill the contract than other bidders.

In doing so it seems to me he made a number of assumptions on behalf of All-Star. One being, for example, that their operating expense per bus remains a constant despite fewer buses. It has been my experience in business that cost per unit of anything does not remain a constant as the quantity of units changes. Alternatively, maybe All-Star did in fact feel they needed a larger number of buses to fulfill the contract. After all, they are an out-of-town entity bidding against Newtown-based operators. Either way their bid was their work product and needs to stand as is.

In my business we submit government bids frequently. In all cases of sealed bids a bid is a bid, period. If the bidder neglects to provide certain information, or makes an obvious math error or even a signature is missed the bid stands as is. I have seen (thankfully not my company) bids that were in fact low rejected because of any one of these reasons.

That may seem harsh or impractical, but if one thinks of a bid as an indicator of performance by the bidder then the line of thinking is: sloppy bid means sloppy performance.

The previous Board of Education (aka Board of Idiots) should have taken all bids on face value and made the award accordingly. But then, as we know, they were off the charts on the clueless scale. If I’ve learned anything in the Army and business it is that you can’t fix stupid. The only course of action is to start over.

The current Board of Education can save Newtown taxpayers a boatload of money as we face two potential costly legal battles, i.e., the potential of further action by MTM and the outcome of the State Labor Board hearing in this matter.

The board should stop the process. They can simply vote to have the All-Star award set aside while the contract is rebid. Next step is a public bid opening at a board meeting with the bids read aloud. That is the process used by other towns, the state and federal governments. Simply put, the process is public and transparent.

We don’t have time on our side on this issue; the board needs to step up and act now!

RP Gottmeier

13 Antler Pine Road, Sandy Hook                                 March 9, 2012