A Matter of Magnitude?

The Brevard Times is pursuing why an $8.5 million contract was awarded by the Clerk of Courts in a seven day sham process over another firm, actually experienced in the work, which bid $2.9 million for all of the work BlueGem is to do PLUS handle the redaction, transportation, and destruction now to be paid for by the Clerk.

The Brevard Tea Party author, Matt Nye, continues  on the request for Blueware public records.  In return the Clerk again threatens to lawyer up.  In a few days I’ll write on my dust-up with Mr. Campbell over the Clerk allegedly giving me ‘everything’, with the attached documents of a sample of the ‘everything’ I was never sent on BlueWare.

Meanwhile, the Florida Today continues to knock itself down from patting its own back over finding $4,000 spent to sandblast, refurb, and paint a trash compactor by the School Board.

Millions are walking out the front door while the alleged watchdogs are dumpster diving.

Scott

http://government.brevardtimes.com/2012/07/contract-scandal-taints-florida.html

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Contract Controversy Taints Florida Governor's Jobs Campaign

MELBOURNE, Florida -- A local government contracting controversy with lucrative upfront payments to a Michigan business that Florida Governor Rick Scott took credit for bringing to Florida has drawn greater financial scrutiny on the Florida Governor's mufti-faceted initiatives that he has undertaken to woo out-of-state companies to Florida.

The Michigan business is often referred to as BlueWare - a company that digitizes business records and develops software such as BestBond for the management of those records. However, the business entity is actually comprised of a group of at least ten different affiliated companies with names like Roseware and BlueGem - many of which were incorporated in Florida in recent months ahead of its transition from Michigan to Florida.

This group of companies stands to benefit from various government program payouts such as Florida's State Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund, Quick Action Closing Fund, Brownfield Redevelopment Jobs Bonus Tax Refund Program, and other "workforce incentives" that total at least $1.31 million, plus a local match of somewhere between $250k to $350k from the City of Melbourne and Brevard County. In return for these taxpayer dollars, elected officials touted in widely-circulated press releases that:

"The company expects to hire 190 employees with an average wage of $69,000 over the next four years in a leased facility in downtown Melbourne. The company will invest over $1 million in tangible property and equipment to support operations. At full employment, the company’s total economic impact is estimated to be over $22.4 million."

However, what was not mentioned in the press releases was that, coinciding with the anticipated businesses' move from Michigan to Florida, the Brevard County Clerk of Court coincidentally had an immediate need to image out-dated files that have been stored for decades in a former gymnasium in Titusville, and to upgrade its record management system.

Rather than issue an Request for Proposals or Invitation to Bid for this document imaging and records management need, Brevard County Clerk of Court Mitch Needelman issued an Invitation to Negotiate on May 3 for the digitizing of the Clerk's records, one day before Florida Governor Rick Scott issued his press release announcing BlueWare's move to Florida.

An Invitation to Negotiate is statutorily the least preferred method for governments to solicit contracts from outside vendors. In fact, Florida Statute Section[masked])(c)(1) requires that "Before issuing an invitation to negotiate, the head of an agency must determine and specify in writing the reasons that the procurement by an invitation to bid or request for proposal is not practicable."

But because Needelman did not make readily available to the public the Fla. Stat. Sec. [masked])(c)(1) written justification for the Invitation to Negotiate, a competing vendor who was not awarded the contract submitted a public information request for the document.

Although Needelman had cited a budgetary crisis in the Clerk's office as the reason to outsource Clerk employees last year, Needelman awarded one of BlueWare's affiliated companies, BlueGem, L.L.C., a five-year, $8.52 million digitizing contract on May 23 with a $500k up-front payment which was wired to BlueGem that same day even though a final contract had not been signed until June 29. An additional 90k signing payment was wired from the Clerk to BlueGem on June 29.

It is not clear yet whether this $590k in upfront payments make up the substantial portion of the over $1 million BlueWare is expected "to invest in tangible property and equipment" highlighted in the press release.

Before the May 3 Invitation to Negotiate was issued and a contract later awarded to BlueGem, Needelman had separately contracted on April 6 with yet another BlueWare-affiliated company, RoseWare, L.L.C., to "Review all outside vendor contracts on behalf of the Brevard County Clerk's Office."

Whether RoseWare was quarantined from the digitizing contract formulation and negotiation process that ultimately ended in the award to affiliated BlueGem, or was actually paid for being involved in the process has yet to be revealed. Florida Statute Section[masked])(a) requires that a governmental agency avoid such conflicts of interest while subsection (b) bars a contract award if an unfair competitive advantage has been given to one vendor over another.

Brevard Times asked Needelman's office over 24 hours before publication of this article to explain the issues surrounding these contracts, and to include the Fla. Stat. Sec. [masked])(c)(1) written justification for the Invitation To Negotiate. However, Needelman's office did not respond our inquiry.

The answer to this and several other questions surrounding these contracts will ultimately be revealed in the Clerk's responses to a series of public information requests that Needelman's political opponent, Scott Ellis, has made in recent months. Last week, Brevard Times reported that Ellis sued Needelman to produce the documents related to the contract awards.

Also prior to publication of this article, Brevard Times sent a media request to Rose Harr, who has been involved in the contracting process with the Clerk of Court's office on behalf of both RoseWare and BlueGem, to explain the role of RoseWare and its affiliated companies in the determination of the digitizing contract award to BlueGem.

In response, Ms. Harr stated that, "Because public interest in BlueWare is being generated by contentious remarks in the Brevard County Clerk of Court race, we will be inviting representatives from local media sources to a press conference. At this conference, we will provide information on BlueWare and BlueGEM, discuss details on the recently signed contract with the Brevard County Clerk of Court, and answer questions addressing the aforementioned remarks."

Brevard Times also contacted the Space Coast Economic Development Commission, the organization heavily involved in bringing BlueWare to Florida, to find out whether it was involved in the deal between the BlueWare-affiliated companies and the Brevard County Clerk of Court. Dina A. Reider-Hicks, Senior Director, Marketing & Policy Development for the Space Coast EDC, responded succinctly, "No."

And finally, Brevard Times contacted Florida Governor Rick Scott's office to find out what role his office played in the lucrative Clerk of Court contract given to the BlueWare-affiliated companies. His office did not respond.

JULY 11, 2012 UPDATE:

Brevard Times has acquired another public document which is an invoice dated March 20, 2012 from BlueGem to the Brevard County Clerk of Courts. The description of the work, which was performed in the invoice prior to the issuance of the May 3 Invitation to Negotiate, includes the following:


a. Evaluate and audit scanning capabilities and efficiencies
b. Evaluate and audit redaction and IT hardware and software available to meet digitizing demands
c. Evaluate current scanning and redaction capacities and demands
d. Appraise software and hardware inputting and output to Industry "best practices" standards
e. Assess personnel time and efficiency requirements for current demand
f. Present oral report of audits and activities
i. Outline current staff and technologies abilities compare to industry "best practices"
ii. Analyze software and hardware needs to increase efficiences and reduce costs
iii. Suggest software/hardware/personnel deployment strategies for improved performance.
iv. Suggest improvements for improving current and back compliance with record digitizing "best standards"

Florida Statute Section [masked](17) provides that:

(a)1. Each agency must avoid, neutralize, or mitigate significant potential organizational conflicts of interest before a contract is awarded. If the agency elects to mitigate the significant potential organizational conflict or conflicts of interest, an adequate mitigation plan, including organizational, physical, and electronic barriers, shall be developed.

2. If a conflict cannot be avoided or mitigated, an agency may proceed with the contract award if the agency head certifies that the award is in the best interests of the state. The agency head must specify in writing the basis for the certification.

(b)1. An agency head may not proceed with a contract award under subparagraph (a)2. if a conflict of interest is based upon the vendor gaining an unfair competitive advantage.

2. An unfair competitive advantage exists when the vendor competing for the award of a contract obtained:

a. Access to information that is not available to the public and would assist the vendor in obtaining the contract; or

b. Source selection information that is relevant to the contract but is not available to all competitors and that would assist the vendor in obtaining the contract.

(c) A person who receives a contract that has not been procured pursuant to subsections (1)-(3) to perform a feasibility study of the potential implementation of a subsequent contract, who participates in the drafting of a solicitation or who develops a program for future implementation, is not eligible to contract with the agency for any other contracts dealing with that specific subject matter, and any firm in which such person has any interest is not eligible to receive such contract. However, this prohibition does not prevent a vendor who responds to a request for information from being eligible to contract with an agency.

http://brevardteaparty.com/news/59-county/202-clerk-publicly-acknowledges-failure-to-fulfill-records-request.html

Clerk Strikes Back - Acknowledges Failure To Provide Records

Wednesday, 11 July[masked]:21 | Last Updated on Wednesday, 11 July[masked]:29 | Written by Matt Nye

On July 3rd the Florida Today published a letter I wrote about the Clerk failing to provide documents I requested under Florida Statute 119. You can read the letter here.

On Sunday night I posted the following article about what appears to be a $100K payment on a contingency style cost-savings contract with RoseWare LLC and emailed it to a large group.

Apparently I struck a nerve, because this afternoon I was forwarded a copy of this response Mr. Needelman posted on his FaceBook page:

If you can make your way through the ad hominem attacks, you will notice the Clerk never actually states HOW I have things wrong. He offers no concrete refutation of my assertion, other than to say that I "have gotten everything wrong", and that "it is clear he doesn't even have all of the contracts, much less all of the facts."

This latter statement proves beyond any doubt the Clerk is intentionally stonewalling FS 119 requests related to the BlueWare/RoseWare/BlueGem companies. On May 29th of this year I made the following request of every government office in Brevard County:

"I am requesting a copy of all correspondence, electronic or otherwise, including any ITNs or RFPs that reference any entity by the name of Blueware and/or Roseware and/or Bestbond, from January 1st of this year or after, in the name of Brevard County and/or any of its Charter Officers. Furthermore, I am requesting the record of any and all payments to any entity by the name of Blueware and/or Roseware and/or Bestbond made since January 1st of this year by Brevard County and/or any of its Charter Officers. I would like the amount, fund being used for payment, and the date and purpose of the payment."

Every office except the Clerk responded within 48 hours. To date I have received nothing on this request, except for a quote on June 8 for $1.65 for an 11 page ITN document I was able to procure from another source because it took so long for the Clerk to respond. The ONLY reason I don't have all the (alleged) contracts is because he has FAILED to perform his sworn duty and legal obligation to provide them under Florida Statute 119 (if there are in fact any).

Perhaps Mr. Needelman intends to finally provide the documents I requested so long ago during the discovery phase of his defamation suit against me? Time will tell, but you can bet it won't be after the election on August 14th...

Featured Video  (To view the video out take you need to go to the link above – Scott)

In a May 24th debate, Clerk of Courts Mitch Needelman claimed he was unaware of BlueWare until Florida Today ran Governor's announcement. He also denies his former lobbyist partner Matt Dupree has anything to do with the company.

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20120710/COLUMNISTS0207/307100005/Matt-Reed-Schools-putting-tax-before-trust

Matt Reed: Schools putting tax before trust

Board must first tell voters about contracting reforms

8:22 AM, Jul 10, 2012

The Brevard County School Board has only its dignity to lose in asking voters to raise the sales tax by a half-cent to pay for campus repairs. Taxpayers have slightly more at risk.

The board is scheduled to decide today whether to put the proposed increase on the November ballot.

The tax stands little chance of passing, even if classrooms do need repairs and computers.

And I’m sure I hurt its chances with critical columns in April about padded hours and costs in painting, electrical and maintenance contracts. The information bruised the district’s credibility in the one spending area where it now seeks more public support. Yet school leaders have made no significant effort to win over a skeptical public.

Still, it’s smart for Brevard Public Schools to at least ask for the tax, for fiscal and political reasons.

First, the fiscal: Schools today do lack an apparent source of money to fix broken windows and leaky roofs or to install computers demanded by our new state testing system. During the recession, when property values dropped and school construction halted, the Legislature told school boards to transfer their facilities-tax money to pay operating costs such as salaries, power bills and hurricane insurance.

Classroom buildings didn’t stop aging and breaking down during those years. Now, the district is behind. The sales tax would raise $32 million per year.

Second, the political: School board members can’t credibly demand that the Legislature spend more, if they haven’t attempted the local remedies already available to them under state law. The half-cent sales tax is one of those. Other counties charge it.

But there is more to this issue.

Spending accountability

If the board votes today to propose the tax, its next step should be to tell the world about any reforms enacted since contracting problems surfaced last year.

For taxpayers, that was no small matter.

Superintendent Brian Binggeli fired two popular senior managers and forced an assistant superintendent into retirement after auditors reported evidence of favoritism, overbilling and no-bid contracts in the facilities and maintenance department.

On top of that, my research found a pattern of padded hours and costs that went unquestioned.

Emblematic was a $4,000 paint job for a large, trash-compacting Dumpster at Viera High School. Officials paid the contractor for nearly a month’s worth of labor, including four days to sand blast it, four days to sweep up the sand, and 4½ days to spray-paint it green, copies of the work orders show.

But I also cited other examples. Like 2½ weeks’ worth of labor to paint one classroom at Creel Elementary School in Melbourne. Or three days to install one fire alarm at a campus in Satellite Beach. Or 136 hours to apply four gallons of donated paint to 16 exterior doors at Rockledge High — one door per painter per day.

Digging the hole deeper, the fired managers sued for wrongful termination and, at an administrative trial, claimed to be scapegoats for a districtwide culture of loose purchasing oversight. A judge has not yet ruled in the case.

Instead of stressing reforms and restoring trust, School Board members Andy Ziegler and Michael Krupp have stressed in letters to the editor that that the Dumpster was a big, fancy one (as we have always mentioned) and worth spending a lot to paint.

Trust needed

Meanwhile, I hear from faculty members across Brevard about restrooms that need repairs, old air-conditioning units that drip like water fountains or a lack of computers for state-mandated online exams.

It would be nice to fix those things. That’s why the school board wants the tax.

Could you trust the district to spend the $32 million wisely?

Maybe.

It did order the audit and remove managers the superintendent concluded were a problem.

Binggeli did appoint an ethics officer and empower her to trigger investigations based on anonymous internal complaints, a document showed. A new assistant superintendent in charge of facilities has questioned other spending and has a good reputation for completing school-construction projects under budget, I learned.

If there’s more to know, then school leaders — not me — should be the ones working to restore your trust.