Education Matters US

I just returned from the summary judgment hearing in the Tarsitano case. The Court denied Tarsitano’s motion for summary judgment and granted D211’s motion for summary judgment and held that the Illinois School Code, specifically 105 ILCS 5/10-20.21(a)(xiii) [“contracts for goods or services which are economically procurable from only one source, such as for the purchase of magazines, book, periodicals, pamphlets and reports, and for utility services such as water, light, heat, telephone or telegraph;” exempts from public bidding electricity and natural gas contracts. The Court had previously interpreted this section as Tarsitano argued, that if a material could be obtained from more than one source, it was not exempt from public competitive bidding, when it denied the District’s motion to dismiss Tarsitano’s complaint. Today, the Court made its ruling and the case is complete. Tarsitano could appeal within 30 days.

The Litigation Team at my firm is deeply grateful for the interest and support you have shown throughout this case. We are very proud that because of this case, it has been established that when school district’s publicly bid their energy purchases through written RFPs and responses to those RFPs, they save taxpayer dollars. Significant taxpayer dollars. That D211 refuses to do so remains puzzling. But, today, the Court ruled that the law does not require them to do so. We are reminded of the adage that simply because you can do something, doesn’t mean you ought to do something. This case has contributed to raising public awareness of the critical importance of overseeing school boards and their financial decisions. There is legislation pending in Springfield now which would tighten bidding requirements and force schools to publicly bid these types of lucrative contracts. We hope that legislation is acted upon.