WELL...THAT WAS.......FUN!
How much fun was tonight's meeting. About as fun a Irwin M. Fletcher's experience below.
I got to the meeting a little after 8 since I had another public meeting tonight. I walked in and sat down right as the Board was approving the budget. The last action agenda item dealt with the approval for the insurance broker for the staff and teachers' insurance benefits.
In summary, the Board asked staff to follow a process to select a broker based upon an RFP process which is a process by which firms submit a proposal of what they are going to offer and what they will charge for those services. It isn't a low-bid type contract where all the items are known (ie 3400 #2 pencils, 1200 pink erasers, 7900 jars of hand sanitizer) and all contractors provide a price to provide those items and the bid is evaluated based upon the vendor who will do it the cheapest. The RFP process allows for more flexibility in seeing how much service at a low price the district can squeeze out of all the vendors. The vendors are scored and the vendor that provides the best value is selected to provide the service proposed at the quoted fee.
One of the board members raised a stink about the process and felt that this was too rushed and that there were issues with the selection. What then transpired was 45 minutes or an hour of my life I will never get back. What irritated me and a good number of the other 40 or so folks there was the information was all available and these questions could have been handled before the meeting. It was either unpreparedness or grandstanding or both tonight.
In summary, the staff committee recommended vendor has a long history with the district, had the best value cost proposal. The committee that evaluated the proposals comprised six people who interviewed all five firms.
Board Member Janice Bolin brought her "A" game tonight and reasonably stated the case why the Board should follow staff. Some of the discussion really got into the weeds and, in my opinion, bordered on requiring a closed session since it dealt with under Section 610.021 of the Missouri Sunshine Law which is:
(12) Sealed bids and related documents, until the bids are opened; and sealed proposals and related documents or any documents related to a negotiated contract until a contract is executed, or all proposals are rejected;
Superintendent Dennis Fisher had to step in a couple of times and focus the group on perspective of what actually was being discussed. After that huge excerise in Olympic gold medal quality time-wasting, the staff recommendation of the vendor it passed 4-1 with 1 abstention. The board member that abstained receives benefits as a retired teacher and felt that any action taken would be a potential conflict of interest.
This was the last board meet for Dr. Fisher, Dr. Miles, and Dr. Frost so there was some well-deserved congratulations and reflections upon their tenure from the board members.
Also in the crowd were former Weatherby Lake residents and board members Denise Schnell and Pauli Kendrick and former board candidate Chris Seufert. I didn't notice who else was lurking around eyeing the open board seat which is open for applicants until tomorrow (Friday).
Comments