D46 and D127 No-Bid Energy Contracts
- on 03.28.07
- CCSD #46, D-127, General, Illinois Energy Consortium
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I have finally scanned in the documentation for the Energy contracts/agreements from both D127 and D46. I did not receive any bid documents for any other bids, meaning they no-bid the contracts and awarded them directly to the Energy Consortium. You can read the documents at the following links:
- D46 Communication with IEC
- IEC True Up Documents (Where I got the members list)
- D46 Waste Management Agreement (Again, no-bid)
- D127 Intergovernmental Agreement with the IEC
This is not the first no-bid contract discoved in D46. The last one was for cleaning supplies.
The long time readers of mine know that I believe school districts operate like mini-Enrons. If you don’t remember that story, refer back to August 2005 for The Enronification Of Big Ed.
The story that started it all (lawsuit in D211) is causing waves within the district and with the school board. A D211 residents blog is tracking the events well. They have posted the Superintendent trying to justisfy the IEC agreement, a school board member who contradicts the Superintendent’s story, how a reporter failed to ask the right questions, and how D211 employees are lobbying in Springfield on paid time to get legislators to make these no-bid contracts legal.
The bill to try and legalize no-bid contracts for utilities and to raise the forced bidding limit from $10,000 to $25,000 are House Bill 261 and Senate Bill 48. In an update, the D211 House Rep. Suzanne Bassi has withdrawn her name as chief cosponsor.
D211 School Board member, Bill Lloyd, has started a blog of his own. I wish more board members would do the same. We need more courageous board members who provide the public with an open insight into the districts. They are our representatives and not the flunkies for the school administration. Bill made some very good comments about the IEC contract. [Emphasis Mine]
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I see 3 questions in this whole matter. First is the legal question. This question will be settled through the legal system. Second is the ethical question. Regardless of the law, isn’t a governmental body, that exists to serve the community, ethically bound to make sure that it is fully exercising its fiduciary responsibility? In this case that would mean taking care not to award business without bid to an entity that serves to enrich the governmental establishment over the best interests of the taxpayers and community. Third is the question of fiscal responsibility. We hear a lot from the district, especially since the passage of the referendum, about how fiscally responsible we are. How fiscally responsible is it to enter a no-bid contract with no price guarantees, especially a contract for energy which represents one of the district’s largest expenditures outside of labor costs? This is the story in District 211. But the story is continuing in our state government. You should know that this very moment bills are moving in the state legislature that would raise the limit for which goods and services need to be bid to $25,000 and which also will exempt major items that school districts purchase from having to be bid including energy, professional services and food services. House Bill 261 and Senate Bill 48 are twins that contain these provisions. Our own local state representative Suzie Bassi introduced a bill that would have specifically required schools to have to bid on energy. After she introduced this bill, she was called to the district offices of D211 and met with the superintendent among others. After this meeting she promptly tabled her bill and signed on as a co-sponsor of House Bill 261. You see, District 211 is actively supporting HB 261, the bill that removes bidding requirements. Without explicit board approval, district personnel have been working to get this bill passed in the legislature even including testifying in front of the committee working on this bill. If this bill is passed, the cost of education rises in this state which means that your tax bills will also rise. |
As you can see, Bill has it right. He is trying to hold the line for the taxpayers while exposing the administators for they what they are, self serving bureaucrats. They wield a lot of influence, even over State Legislators.
Stand up people and be heard. Contact your school district to see if they have a no-bid contract with the IEC. Contact your legislator and tell them to oppose both House Bill 261 and Senate Bill 48. You can find your legislators contact information here and click the Legislator Lookup link near the bottom of the second column.
This story was also picked up by a national website today. The Sam Adams Alliance has the story up here .
[...] Posted in Illinois energy consortium, Lawsuit at 12:27 pm by district211 Lennie at Education Matters has posted a great update on District 211 and the alleged no-bid electricity contract. [...]
[...] Posted in Illinois energy consortium, news coverage at 11:19 am by district211 Lennie of Education Matters sent an open records request to his school districts 46 and 127 and learned that, like District 211, his school districts also did not go through a competitive bid process before signing contracts with the Illinois Energy Consortium. [...]