Education Matters US

My name is Lennie Jarratt. I have come before you tonight to discuss purchases made by the District that exceeded the State statutes requiring bids. This limit is $10,000 as I’m sure you are aware. I believe this statute can be interpreted 2 ways. The first interpretation is that a single purchase must not exceed the $10,000 limit before bidding must be done. The second interpretation is that purchases made from the same source cannot exceed $10,000 in a school year budget. I believe this is the most accurate interpretation. If it is not, there would be many loopholes and ways to make sure purchases never exceeded the limit. For example, you could conceivably bill $9,999 each month for a total of $119,988 without a contract using the first interpretation. That seems to violate the spirit of the law’s intention.

What I have discovered concerns purchases of cleaning supplies made from Vacuum Mart, Inc. and VMI Supply. It turns out they are the same company located at 134 Peterson Rd in Libertyville. The name of the company was changed on the invoices starting in March of this year. Without seeing the invoices you may not realize this was the same company. Why was the name changed?

I have a lot of information about the purchase totals. You can follow along on your copies to make it easier.

• 2003/2004 school year purchases total of $842.34
• 2004/2005 school year purchases total $14,515.30
• 2005/2006 no purchases that I am aware of

I will now breakdown the 2004/05 purchases further since they exceeded the $10,000 limit:

• $4,297.30 of products were purchased from Vacuum Mart
• $10,218.00 of products were purchased from VMI Supply
• Bob Wasserman was the salesman on all these purchases. I know this because I called Vacuum Mart and when directed to sales, I entered Bob Wasserman’s voice mail. He is also the President of Vacuum Mart. I have attached the Illinois Corporation File Detail Report showing this.
• $7,218.36 were made in June just prior to the old administration leaving
• From looking at the dates of these purchases there appears to be conflicts of interest for the District because Mr. Wasserman’s had the following relationships with the District during these times:
  • Member of the Finance Committee during part of the 2003/04 through December or April of the 2004/2005 school year before it was disbanded.
  • Headed the Information Committee since at least January this year through the beginning of August this year before moving and turning the website over to others in the District.
  • He ran the D46 Information website starting in January this year in which tacit support was given for the spring referendum and certain candidates for the School Board. I included the Who Is data sheet showing the date of registration for the D46.info URL. If you notice the address is also the same as that of Vacuum Mart.
  • $4,589.28 of purchases were made from Vacuum Mart/VMI Supply between the start of the D46.Info website and the referendum vote

I first decided to look into pricing to see if Mr. Wasserman had tried to help the District by selling the products at a reduced rate. I started with the most frequently purchased item. This product, Envirox H2Orange2 Concentrate 117, was 73% of the total dollar amount purchased. I provided Ellen a copy of the invoices to make the verification of this easier and a summary of the purchases to each of you. Vacuum Mart charged the District $32.625 per gallon regardless if the purchase was 4 gallons or 168 gallons. What I discovered was that the District was being charged retail for these purchases. How do I know Vacuum Mart charged the District retail? First, I did some Internet searches and discovered several sites selling the Envirox H2Orange2 product. In a few minutes I found the same product at the retail price of $32.37 per gallon. I included the webpage on which I found this price. I soon found out this product could also be purchased in 5 gallon and 55 gallon drums. I decided to make a few phone inquiries since the District could have purchased this in bulk quantities. I called KSS Enterprises in Michigan and spoke to a salesman. He quoted me just over $33 per gallon if I walked in off the street. I then told him what the District was being charged and the quantities purchased. He immediately told me the District could buy the product much cheaper. He talked to his district manager about getting me a price, but was unable to do so because of the territorial restrictions placed on them by Envirox. I contacted Envirox at this point. They passed me to a Regional Representative, Eric Lambert, who could direct me to a reseller. He gave me the name George Carbray (sp?). I have provided their names and contact information for you in the packets I handed out.

When I spoke with George I informed him I was a parent in the District who was researching prices for the Envirox products and that I would be giving this information to the school board; which I am doing tonight. I asked him for a price and he told me $120 and change per case. This is approximately $30 per gallon. I told him what Vacuum Mart had been charging the District per gallon and the quantities purchased. He also told me we could buy it much cheaper and in 55 gallon drums. He told me RW Home Products handled the sales in the Grayslake area. I discovered that Robert Wasserman was the President of this company and have included the Illinois Corporation File Detail Report for verification. I also attached the Who Is document regarding the company website. I contacted George again and asked for a different reseller because RW Home Products was the same as Vacuum Mart. He said he would call me the next day with the contact information.

George did not call the next day, so I called him the following day asking for the information. He said to me, “You are not with the School District are you?”. I said, “No.” and told him again I was a parent doing research to give to the board. He told me he did not want to discuss anything further with me. I asked had he spoken to Mr. Wasserman. Again he refused to discuss this with me. I have since tried contacting Eric Lambert. He also has not answered my calls nor returned the several voice messages I have left for him. I am at a dead end and I feel it is time for the District to contact Envirox and get the name of a new reseller to bid on these cleaning supplies.

Additionally, I have spoken with the maintenance staff about the product. I was told the following:

• Envirox tested because a worker was burned on the leg because they did not wash off a spill soon enough after it occurred with the previous cleaning product.
• The product is safe for both the staff and the children.
• It is good for keeping floors clean once they have been cleaned initially.
• Not great for cleaning whiteboards.
• Use approximately 1 gallon per week in the smaller schools and 1 ½ to 2 in the larger schools.

In closing, I want to reiterate that the product appears to be a good product and appears to have been brought into the district for safety reasons. I would like to ask the board the following questions:

• Were there any prior regulations in place to prevent these apparent conflict of interest purchases between a member of the Finance and Information Committee and the District?
• Were there ethic violations by previous administration staff or School Board members by giving the appearance of payoffs via large quantity product purchases at non-discounted rates, to people in a position to promote their agenda through websites and committee memberships?
• How can you as the School Board eliminate the financial incentives for people or companies supporting referendums and/or candidates for School Board in the future?
• What other purchases have been made under similar circumstances?
• What other no-bid contracts need to be examined and rectified? I have included a list of the no-bid contracts that I am aware of at this time.

I would also like to thank the current board for your all your hard work. I know you have a tough job. Thank you.