Filter by:

Print this page

$67,000 in extras for van OK'd

By KEVIN LANDRIGAN

Nashua Telegraph (New Hampshire)

December 5, 2008

CONCORD – The state will pay $67,000 for extras for a mobile van to combat drunken driving – including a 42-inch color television and a heat-seeking camera – to settle a bidding dispute that sparked a battle between two state agency heads.

State Liquor Commission Chairman Mark Bodi told the Executive Council that his request for the additions languished for 78 days in the state purchasing office, which probably spent more than the cost of the extras to conduct their investigation.

"In my view, this represents a triumph of bureaucracy over common sense,'' Bodi said. "I might say we probably spent $100,000 reviewing this.''

But Administrative Services Commissioner Linda Hodgdon said she and her staff acted properly. She said they examined the extras because they appeared to have been added just because the bid for the original van was more than $100,000 below a federal grant.

She said the liquor commission also lacked legal authority to add these changes without Executive Council approval, once Nomad Technologies of Kalispell, Mont., won a bidding contest.

"At some point in the time, the general fund is going to have to pay maintenance of (the equipment),'' Hodgdon said. "I was trying to follow the message you give to me every day, that you want the best deal for the state. It shouldn't be a race to spend down the grant when you realize you have this additional money to spend.''

The federal grant was for $450,000. The original bid was $355,000; with the additions, the van will cost $412,000.The Executive Council unanimously approved the request for the additions Wednesday.

The van lets local police who are at sobriety checkpoints immediately test, book and arrest any driver who has blood alcohol above the legal limit.

State officials also will use the van as an educational tool to warn students about the consequences of driving after drinking too much alcohol or abusing illegal drugs.

The time for the state to spend the grant money expired Sept. 30, but federal officials extended that deadline until the end of the year to approve this work, Bodi said.

The extras added to the mobile van included:

• A $5,800, 42-inch television set.

• A $2,624 DirecTV Office package with 17 options including C-Span 1 and 2, CNN Headline News, Discovery Health, the Weather and Travel Channels.

• Six phone lines with 16 extensions.;

• A $2,340, Garmin satellite weather kit including high-resolution Doppler radar.

• A $17,000 zoom camera with heat-sensitivity module.

• A $1,375 evidence locker.

• A $12,700 contract for wireless cell phone and broadband access service.

The additional options were the recommendation of a committee of law enforcement leaders, Bodi explained.

The van will be made available to emergency management or first responder agencies in case of lost power due to a disaster, Bodi said. The van can then become the scene for a videoconference giving officials on the bus instant access to weather updates.

Councilor Raymond Wieczorek, R-Manchester, said the process after the bids was badly flawed.

"It is not a good situation, and I think you are going to have to get to the bottom of it,'' Wieczorek said. "However you got this procedure fouled up, it is not a good thing.''

Councilor Beverly Hollingworth, D-Hampton, said no one disputes that the van offers a public service.

"I don't think it's a case of arguing whether the van is a good thing or not. The issue is, the process of spending $67,000 of additional money that was not in the original bid, and I am greatly concerned by that,'' Hollingworth said.

Bodi acknowledged problems at his agency's end but said Hodgdon's group needs to make clearer the 44,000 words of state purchasing rules that he called "extremely complex'' and "very, very difficult.''

Deputy Attorney General Orville "Bud'' Fitch urged approval of the add-ons contract because otherwise, the van supplier could sue the state.

Fitch said there is a "very small risk'' a competing bidder could claim in court that it could have supplied the van more cheaply than the incumbent had it known these additions would be made to it.

"You have the authority to decline to approve this,'' Fitch said.

Gov. John Lynch tried to downplay the controversy as miscommunication between "two well-intentioned people.''

Kevin Landrigan can be reached at 224-8804 or klandrigan@nashua telegraph.com.