ANSWERS: CLARK COUNTY:

Commissioner grills officials on bid process

Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Steve Sisolak

The wrangling over bids for county contracts continues to be an issue for county commissioners — and provided one of them with a “Perry Mason” moment during last week’s meeting.

Commissioner Steve Sisolak was grilling Clark County Water Reclamation District officials over the proposed purchase of two trucks for $658,586 from a California company.

Sisolak’s interest in the agenda item stemmed from the trucks’ cost. But he and other commissioners are also very sensitive to local unemployment and are asking more questions about how and why contracts are being awarded to out-of-state businesses.

In this case, Sisolak also wanted to know how it was, in this economy with companies desperate for sales and work, that only one bid had been submitted.

And is this where the “Perry Mason” moment came in?

It is. District officials explained that another company had bid on the project but submitted its documents five minutes late.

Holding a document in his hand, Sisolak went on.

“If this bid for $658,586 (the one the district wanted approved), if I told you that bid came late, would that surprise you?”

Richard Donahue, collection systems manager, said it would.

Then came the “gotcha.”

Sisolak told him the time stamp said that bid was accepted at 10 seconds after 2 p.m. “Now I’d like to know how that happens,” Sisolak added.

“Sometimes we count late and other times we don’t, and that’s really disturbing to me, Richard,” he said to Richard Mendes, the Water Reclamation District general manager. “I’ve gotten so many complaints about the way this is done ... I need to know what’s going on in the department.”

How did the Water Reclamation guys respond?

Donahue said that after the bid was received at 2 p.m., it was taken into a room and time-stamped. But two days after the meeting, Mendes sent a memo to commissioners that shed a different light on it. Mendes wrote that the bid was actually received via UPS the day before the deadline. The UPS envelope was time-stamped and placed in a safe. He included UPS tracking information showing that a package from Advanced Infrastructure, the bidding company, was received at 9:42 a.m. Sept. 23.

But, uh, the district can’t find the date-stamped UPS envelope.

If it came a day earlier, why was the bid document stamped the next day, and 10 seconds late to boot?

Mendes said that was not standard procedure. He wrote that the form is “not usually date stamped,” adding, “None of our staff knows why the copy in question was stamped. However, the fact that someone stamped it does not bear upon the issue of whether or not the bid was submitted in a timely manner.”

Is that the end of it then?

Hardly. Sisolak said that because of complaints he has received from Water Reclamation District employees and from companies that claim they are locked out of the process by narrow bid specifications, he questions whether the UPS delivery was even the bid document in question.

“What if it was some other thing the company sent? How do I know it was the bid?” he said.

He also wondered about the bid that was five minutes late and how much it was for. Because it was late, a district spokesman said it was never collected.

Were other commissioners concerned?

They were. Commissioner Larry Brown asked for a two-week delay on the matter because he said the district’s ways “go absolutely against” how he has heard other departments do things. Commissioners approved that postponement.

Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani also asked for a staff evaluation of how various departments handle the receipt of bids. “We need to be consistent,” she said.

Sisolak said county staff members are trying to put together a uniform process.

Discussion: 10 comments so far…

By dwms

11/8/09 at 6:19 a.m.

Suggest removal

We are curious why the Sun spends so much press on civil matters, when the litigation, judgments, and settlements from the Commissioners' criminal matters is staggering.
By theone1

11/8/09 at 6:24 a.m.

Suggest removal

Should've played Perry Mason when they voted to pay $4 Million more than the lowest bid to widen the 215.
By wwunlv

11/8/09 at 8:47 a.m.

Suggest removal

This is hillarious. The bid came in a UPS envelopse, it was time stamped, and locked in a safe, the bid itself was never stamped. NOW, the alleged UPS bid envelope is lost, the bid is stamped(late) and people wonder why we don't trust government and what is going on?

There needs to be some kind of an investigation into the practices of these bids to determine what is really happening. Maybe it is just all innocent coincidences but it sure doesn't appear that way on the surface.

This whole deal smells. Glad to see the LV Sun is willing to look into these issues and stand up for us taxpayers.
By pgctg141

11/8/09 at 9:23 a.m.

Suggest removal

Spending over $600.000 for two trucks is worth a longer look at the bidding process and what happened this time. Its quite odd that in this economy only one company bid when apparently two actually did. Maybe the dog ate the paperwork from the second bidder?

Considering the confusion,...or the BS, cancel the bidding completely and start from scratch, and watch the process much closer. One might find these two trucks getting much cheaper the next time around.
By leelee

11/8/09 at 10:56 a.m.

Suggest removal

As a former employee, I can attest to the procedures used by previous administrations. They had consistency, fairness and logic. This new General Manager who came from San Diego was sued, had these similiar problems there and was practically run out of town. We have inherited him along with his cronies and their relatives who also come from CA. We have enough educated, intelligent and talented people in Las Vegas. Why are we hiring people in high salary positions from another state? If they couldn't be honest and loyal where they were, why would we expect them to be different here? As taxpayers we should be concerned about where our money is spent. I would encourage the Commissioners to stay on track and follow through with this investigation.
By DesertLandEntryman

11/8/09 at 10:59 a.m.

Suggest removal

"two trucks for $658,586", for "Clark County Water Reclamation District officials", "from a California company Advanced Infrastructure"???
1. Such "two trucks" pricetag sounds criminal.
2. For "CCWRD officials"???
Bruce Woodbury made sure that no individual could "reclaim" and buy reused water in District A, unless such individual was a member of one of his corporations.
3. "Advanced Infrastructure"???
Is that the same anylist corp that the Laughlin Town Manager contracted $$$ for her $$$ 9,000 acre land development scheme in District A???

Commissioner Sisolak,
You will find many $$$ schemes that Woodbury left you with to unravel in District A!
By DesertLandEntryman

11/8/09 at 2:48 p.m.

Suggest removal

theone1,
"The 215" is know known as the "Bruce Woodbury Beltway".
Should I say more???
By nono

11/8/09 at 4:15 p.m.

Suggest removal

What is not mentioned is the 4 similar trucks currently owned by the District, at public expense. These vehicles sit idle more times than not.

This looks like UMC all over again.

Where is the FBI?
By wwunlv

11/8/09 at 7:49 p.m.

Suggest removal

I agree with nono. Where is the FBI? I think Joe Schoenman should keep digging. Something is just not right here. They cleaned out the commission a few years back, but no staff were ever implicated. So much has come forward, especially about this Richard Mendes. We need to keep digging and get to the bottom of this story.

From the comments posted, it sounds like some staff members know what is going on, but are not yet blowing the whistle. If this starts to crumble, look out Clark County.
By UNLVGrad

11/8/09 at 8:31 p.m.

Suggest removal

I think the FBI ought to be investigating Bruce Woodbury. How is it that he is out of office and his replacement is uncovering all of these suspicious activities.

Woody might have gotten away without being caught, but it is apparent tha the was not acting in the best interest of the taxpayer.