I was elected president of the Wausau School District Board of Education on April 28 and pursuant to board policy, it is the president who speaks on behalf of the board. I’m taking this opportunity to provide a comment in response to a recent Daily Herald Media story stating a contract was awarded to E.O. Johnson without seeking competitive bids.
The article referred to the contract as being in excess of $1 million. A letter to the editor followed with a claim that district policy was violated.
Administration came to the board last summer and explained that the district had hundreds of copy-related devices spread throughout its facilities with varying contracts and varying expected end-of-life dates. This variation placed the district in a weak position to maximize its bargaining power through a competitive bidding process. It was further explained that 90 percent of the devices already were under contract with E.O. Johnson, which is why the reference to $1 million is misleading.
The plan recommended by administration was to consolidate those devices with E.O. Johnson. The district could not simply void agreements already in place, but could allow the 10 percent of agreements with other vendors to expire without renewal. Many short-term advantages were explained to the board, including a reduction in expense.
Additionally, upon conclusion of the process (just over four years from now), the district would no longer be tied to any vendor or service agreement, placing it in a great position to seek competitive bids to hopefully save even more money than what is being realized already with this plan.
Following unanimous board approval of the plan, two local businesses contacted the board and administration asking why a competitive bidding process was not utilized. Offers to meet in person with administration to explain the process and reasoning were rejected. A legal memo was then provided which explained why a competitive bidding process was not required in this instance pursuant to law or district policy. The legal memo also briefly summarized some of the reasoning behind the plan, including noting that the vast majority of the devices were already under contract with the selected vendor anyway, the cost savings, user satisfaction, saving of staff time and so on.
Administration continues to recommend a competitive bidding process once the district is no longer tied to any vendor, agreements or device, which will occur in approximately four years.
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Lance Trollop is president of the Wausau School Board.