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City Council wraps up ‘investigation’ into purchasing

Written by Marty Carlson

Tuesday, 10 October 2006

The Bossier City Council’s September 19 meeting was the occasion to wrap up the council’s fairly brief investigation of the city’s purchasing division and purchasing agent.

Interestingly, however, chief council investigation spokesman David Jones didn’t delve into any details about the issue that was cause for the investigation. That issue involved the contract awarded for expansion and renovation of the City Marshal’s Office, and subsequent removal of the contractor from the project. Jones did note that the Marshal’s Office project was an example of poor business practices, but beyond that, did not discuss the subject further.

Instead, Jones focused on a long-standing contract for city landscape services and a public works project to construct a garage for the Fire Department.

On the issue of the landscape services contract (which as a “service” is not subject to competitive bid laws), Jones noted that the six-year term of the contract wasn’t updated or reviewed for comparative pricing, that the landscaper wasn’t licensed, and that the contractor’s insurance wasn’t periodically certified.

What Jones didn’t say was that this contractor’s services had been terminated by Mayor Lo Walker on June 12, 2006. In that this contract was established six years ago, it seems that questions about it might have been more timely and effective had they been asked earlier. In the meantime, however, it appears that the contractor did have insurance when it was necessary - as when water from the flowerbed outside the City Council chamber damaged the chamber’s carpet.

The contractor’s insurance company provided coverage to help with replacing the carpet.

And as for comparative pricing, city records indicate that such comparisons were explored, but because the former mayoral administration favored the reliability and work of the long-standing contractor, the services of this landscaper where maintained.

As it regards the public works project, city administrators identified the short-comings of the procurement process in insuring the existence of an insurance certificate - and in fairly short order. Apparently, the work started on this project on August 17, 2006, and through a series of events, it was determined that the contractor’s insurance certificate wasn’t on file. When the contractor produced what was determined to be a fraudulent certificate, an arrest was made and all work was stopped on the project, on August 31, until all permits and inspections were completed and approved. Clearly, nearly three weeks before Jones’ revelations, the problems had already been identified and rectified by city administration personnel.

This series of events also happened to involve that lack of a city building permit for the project - but obtaining this permit isn’t the responsibility of the city purchasing agent.

The long and short of the “investigation” appears to reveal that a couple of city processes and procedures are in need of strengthening.

But nothing revealed thus far is indicative of some overarching, far reaching breakdown of the systems in place.

Jones proposed, and the council agreed to, appointment of a “Procurement Process Review Committee,” the purpose of which is to review the procurement process, and then perhaps adopt it by ordinance.
Actually, the city already has a Procurement Code within the Code of Ordinances - so this committee will likely be recommending amendment to that existing code. It’s also been suggested by council members that an outside authority review the city’s existing procurement codes.

At the same time, Walker has appointed an administrative “Procurement Directives Upgrade Committee,” which is tasked with much the same purpose as the council’s committee.

Acknowledging that all of these folks are serious about correcting any procedural weaknesses in the procurement system, one is still compelled to wonder if maybe just one combined committee would be as effective as the two tasked with the job.

Jones noted in his closing remarks that he was “ready to bring closure to this matter.”

If the issues he reviewed are the worst problems at city hall, bringing closure to this investigation was probably a good idea.

There are no perfect systems. Every system can be improved upon; processes and procedures need review and oversight; ordinances and regulations need regular updates. A little communication from both sides of city government can direct those improvements and course corrections. But invoking the City Council’s investigatory powers ought to be saved for the big ones - such as the Bossier Medical Center investigation, for which Jones is to be credited. Unfortunately, the most recent investigation didn’t measure up to BMC.

In the meantime, and while the appointed committees are doing their due diligence, perhaps we could have a minor little inquiry into why the city’s on-line version of its Code of Ordinances is out-of-date. If it’s out there for public consumption, maybe it’d be more helpful in an accurate and up-to-date edition.

Marty Carlson is a columnist for the Bossier Press-Tribune. She may be reached via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
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