Ludington Schools Ignore Local Low Bid, Pay Double to Muskegon Company

[XLFD]

"Remember those who can, do; those who can’t, teach."  -- George Bernard Shaw

"Remember, those who can't do and can't teach, join the school board."  -- XLFD corollary

In the face of an economy likely to see numbers surpass the worst of the Great Depression of the twentieth century, our local public institutions are showing us that they can still waste your money by violating their own policies on competitive bidding.  

First it was late April when the City of Ludington showed zero fiscal responsibility by selecting the second lowest bidder for their 'fertilization and weed control contract' in order to spend 20-30% more to hire a company owned by local State Senator Curt VanderWall (the 'honorable' senator has refused to comment to the LT on the issue despite numerous attempts to contact him on his official page). 

The one reason they gave to explain their action was to say it was good for the local economy to hire a local contractor.  In a FOIA request for the City's complete procedures for competitive bidding, their only guidance was found to be in the charter, which said unless the Council shall determine that the public interest will be better served by accepting a higher bid, "purchases shall be made from the lowest competent bidder meeting bid specifications".  There is no contingency in policy that gives local preference or promotes 'buying local' as better serving the public interest.

The Ludington Area School District (LASD), not to be outdid in bidding ineptitude and corruption, has gone the other way, selecting a Muskegon company, Soils and Structures, for their 'material testing' contract at a cost of $45,000 over the much lower $24,020 bid made by Ludington's own Nordlund & Associates (West Michigan Testing).  Extra troubling, Grand Rapid's The Christman Company, who recommended S&S over Nordlund did so without any kind of reason, nor did the Ludington school board offer any kind of rationale for wasting over $20,000 when they voted 7-0 to deny Nordlund's the contract.

Inconceivably, LASD who are currently mired in another lawsuit for egregiously violating the competitive bidding process in the past as regards accepting a much higher bid for lawn care services than was offered by a local company, once again puts the generous taxpayers of the school district at risk for defending another lawsuit for doing the exact same thing. 

The facts have all been produced, we thank Superintendent Jason Kennedy for providing these records promptly and completely during this period where the governor has relaxed the FOIA duties a public body must follow.  It should be remembered his part in this was merely as a middleman, he supplied the school board with the information on bids, the records show he did not offer any endorsements.

Christman presented the Material Testing Award Summary.pdf where we find this:

They offer no rationale for not recommending the low bid or for recommending their choice.  When one looks at the proposals from Nordlund and from Soils and Structures it is not immediately evident why one would pay twice as much for the services rendered by the latter, particularly when Christman has stated in their own contract proposal with LASD that they would seek to use local contractors whenever plausible.

 

Being that construction material testing would involve frequent on-site testing, it would be logical to presume that a local company needing to travel just a few city blocks would be preferable, and use a lot less hours up doing their testing when they don't have to travel a couple hours each time they are needed.  That is reflected in the above comparisons made by Christman of the three companies who submitted detailed bids meeting specifications.  It would also allow for quick testing when time may be essential and hold up other projects dependent on the tests.

After the Christman recommendation passed through committee without any discussion it came before the LASD Board on April 20, 2020, the minutes reflect:

The LASD Board had Christman's recommendation letter and the comparison chart showing that Nordlund had the low bid by far, but without questioning the recommendation at all, and even noting that there was a high likelihood of needing up to 40 additional tests (and potentially 40 more trips between Muskegon and Ludington), they affirmed the much higher bid, nearly double (more than double if you add the contingent $3900) than the local engineering firm.

Not only was this irrational and illogical, it went against LASD policy #6320 which says explicitly:   

The LASD Board has a responsibility to award contracts to the lowest responsible bidder, when they do not it is corrupt unless they have a reasonable consideration-- none of which has been produced.  As noted in Nordlund's proposal, they have done material testing in 2019 with the Lofts of Ludington, Whitehall Industries, and Cal-Chlor. 

Why did seven school board members totally disregard this local company and their bid that was half of the high bid, when there was no reason given, and because of that, violative of their own policies (see also 6321)?  Why did they allow Christman to choose the contractor when there was no legitimate reason to deny Nordlund's the contract?  Why are these public officials wasting your money without any consideration at all of the consequences to local businesses, beyond Nordlund & Associates, in a generous community that approved a $101 million bond?

[shinblind]

Looks like a MacGuffin* to take the focus away from construction of buildings that will be deemed obsolete when finished and instead placing the emphasis on wasting a small amount of money.

The hard lifting for the school board would be delaying the construction until the new social distancing education rules are in place, indeed they would be better served if they used the in place neighborhood schools to maintain distancing protocol rather than having one central and isolated campus.

But that would mean starting from ground zero and doing what is best for the students.

Hah!!! They give that only a small consideration. The school board is more concerned with social cronyism. back slapping and resume building. If the students welfare was the prime consideration they would be looking at building a new high school and middle school and keeping the neighborhood schools in place, indeed reopening some of the shuttered schools to maintain social distance. Seems like having the students spaced in smaller regional schools would be safer than having them piled onto one campus.

Older students would be better served by more online education. And they have the means to more readily transport themselves to school. 

How will busing the grade school students to the new campus work to protect them?  Will the schools next be needing a fleet of short buses to transport the children safety?

No this gutless school board will do exactly the wrong thing. And for the wrong reasons.

* A MacGuffin

Some passenger were traveling across Lake Michigan on the carferry and one well dressed gentleman had a rather large wrapped package on his lap. Curiosity got the best of a fellow passenger and she ask him what might be in the parcel that he seemed to be guarding. And he replied, ''It's a MacGuffin.'' 

She ask,''What is that?''

''It is a devise used for hunting elephants in the Upper Peninsula.''

She replied, ''But there are no elephants in the UP.''

Then he said, ''Then it's not a MacGuffin.''

Hitchcock was a master of using a MacGuffin as a plot devise to distract.

 

[XLFD]

I additionally asked the superintendent about integrating anything into the design plans to mitigate fears that may arise from the nation's new germ-phobia amid the virus crisis, he says it's been part of talks already:

"We have discussed many things pertaining to the design and COVID-19's impact with our design team, and I am working to put together a (public) response." Hoping to share that when it arrives.

[Willy]

I think this was a scam bidding process. If there had been only 2 bidders, Soils and Structures $45,000 and Nordlund $24,000 the difference in the bids would have looked to be irrational and extreme but the added third bid by Driesenga, $95,000, is so out of kilter with the first 2 bids that it makes Soils and Structures bid seem almost reasonable even though it is twice as high as Nordlund. This kind of bidding process gives the board the excuse it needs to choose SS as the bid of choice and makes their choice look reasonable because it's so much lower than the highest bid.  Unfortunately for them, Ludington's watchdog, X, looked under the rock and discovered this deception. One other thing, Nordlund did not include the cost for the concrete floor and concrete exterior nor MI cone or floor moisture in their bid. Something is fishy about this bidding process. And the difference in total hours is obviously questionable.

[XLFD]

Lending credence to your 'scam bidding process' theory is that the bidding parameters in the request for proposals (RFP) did not have the specific services noted thereon, allowing S&S's bid to look more rounded because it took into account more things.  It might have you believe that Christman planned on hiring them in the first place, so had them bid just below the budgeted amount and gave them a full list (and not the others) to fill out so it looks like they would do more.  

If you look deeper into the comparisons, you will find where the disparity is the greatest (and in Nordlund's favor):  Structural inspections ($3700), Concrete test cyl: $8100, soil compaction (S&S had 3 types):  $3295.

What's missing is why Christman's RFP, and they are a well-established business in doing such constructions, did not have each specific item delineated to be bid upon.  The answer to me is obvious, they didn't want this 'competitive bid' to be competitive, they wanted their cronies to get the work at maximal cost.  The LASD School Board has shown with their past work that they just don't care about the expense to the taxpayers, they want a nice, new shiny school with a bronze placard in front bearing their name for all of eternity-- or at least for thirty years when it gets torn down and a new batch of brain-dead board zombies look for a billion dollar new elementary further out in the boonies.

[Freedom Seeker]

Good catch on the fishy stuff, Willy.

[AQUAMAN]

Yes, another great catch X, thanks for the update. Old saying is true: when it appears fishy, smells fishy, and acts fishy, you can bet it is dead fish. And the silliness and corrupt actions here by officials in Ludington never ends.

[XLFD]

I have to credit an unknowing assist by shinblind for figuring out these shenanigans.  I was doing some research on one of the topics he brought up about the school, and seeing whether they had went over redesigns in their latest meetings of the new elementary.  

In the course of looking for other things, I noticed the material testing bid looked suspect enough to merit a FOIA request to verify that there wasn't anything discussed or missed to make them choose a much more expensive bid.  There wasn't, and so I drafted this article to let folks know their money is being spent wastefully and unwisely.