Millstone bidding process creates new controversy
Kastning says
cleaning contract award was unfair; Wingerter disagrees
By linda denicola
Staff Writer
The Millstone Township Committee has agreed to award a 2002 municipal building cleaning contract, but not without controversy and by a narrow 3-1 margin.
Committeeman William Kastning, questioning the propriety of the bidding process, dissented, and Mayor Evan Maltz abstained. The other three committeemen voted to accept the bid.
Committeeman Charles Abate said he didn’t like the work of the previous contractor. "I don’t think the cleaning was up to par," he said, adding, "It’s unfortunate that there were only two bids."
The contract was awarded to Facility Solutions Inc., Clarks-burg, which is owned by Planning Board Chairman Ken Clancy. The company was the low bidder with a bid of $17,250. Alaska Services of Belmar, who had the contract in 2001, came in with a bid of $17,998.
Kastning said he wasn’t happy with the way it happened. In fact, he said, the whole thing "stinks."
He explained that Alaska Services’ original bid was not accepted because there were some questions about missing items in the municipal annex at the Clarksburg School. "That was about a month ago," he said, and the bids became public knowledge. By the time the contract was re-bid, the problems in Alaska Services’ original bid had been satisfied, and the company came back with the same bid, while Facility Solutions came in with a slightly lower bid, which Kastning questioned.
Facility Solutions underbid by a few dollars, according to Kastning, who "thought that was kind of unfair, even though it is legal."
Besides the fact that the owner of Facility Solutions, Clancy, must have known what the original low bid was, Kastning said there was another problem, a conflict of interest issue, because Clancy is chairman of the Planning Board.
"In good conscience, I could not vote for the contract because he works for the township. For all intents and purposes, he runs with the pack," Kastning said.
Kastning also disagreed with Abate about Alaska’s work not being up to par. "The work of last year’s contractor was fine," he said.
Deputy Mayor Cory Wingerter said that all proper procedures were followed in the bidding process. He thought Kastning’s response about the conflict of interest was disingenuous because Kastning has approved two other contracts that could contain conflict of interest allegations.
"I find it interesting that Committeeman Kastning has a problem with a member of a board who was awarded a contract based on competitive bidding," he said.
"I believe Committeeman Kastning, as liaison to the Watershed Council, concurred with the recommendation of the council to hire IT Corp. for $49,000, without competitive bidding to do our Natural Resource Inventory," Wingerter said, noting that a member of the council works for IT Corp.
He added that Kastning reviewed prospective contractors for township Internet access and "his recommendation to the Township Committee was to hire, without competitive bidding, a company who has an employee who was a member of our Open Space Council," to which Kastning was the liaison.
"I happen to agree with both of the recommendations," Wingerter said, but "I believe Bill is inconsistent in his remarks and making an issue of the cleaning contract because of the politics of the person who won the cleaning contract."
According to Kastning, the situations are different. In the contract award he objected to, the township board member owns the firm; whereas, in the two situations mentioned by Wingerter, the township council member is just an employee.
Abate said he asked the attorney before the meeting whether there was a conflict of interest and was told that there wasn’t. Township Attorney Duane Davison was on vacation and his associate, Peter Addonizio, who was at the meeting, could not be reached for comment by press time.
Kastning said it may not be illegal, but he has often been told by attorneys that "if it creates the perception of conflict, one ought not to do it."