Local Surveyor's Invoice Shocks Board, So Why Did the County Pick This No-Bid Contractor?

Note: Peter D. Allen is the Josephine County Surveyor. He also runs Peter D. Allen Land Surveying, which benefited from a no-bid contract assigned by the County. As the Chief Financial Officer puts it, he was "next in line" for a lucrative contract. County Administration Meeting, October 24, 2013 Rosemary Padgett: "The only, umm, other, uhh, request, umm, I wanted to bring forward to you, umm...with the sign- ing of the plat [Oct 17 Approval of Replat Map of Addition to Third Addition to Granite Hill Cemetery off of Pinecrest Drive], we finalized, uhh, the Granite Hill Cemetery." Keith Heck: "Um-hmm." Padgett: "We received, umm, a second billing from Peter Allen, uhh, his surveying, not County Surveyor, but his sur- veying group." Heck: "Um-hmm." Padgett: "Uhh, for 7,140 dollars (long pause). Traditionally, this would have came out of the Parks Operational [Budget], ahh, but because of the cost of the of this, and it is really a benefit to the property, I'd recommend that we pay this out of Property Reserve." "Ahh, uht, we did not anticipate this large a bill, umm, and, uhh, the length of time it took for this to be completed. "So...uhh." Heck: "And you say 'the length of time,' you're talking about four years or whatever it has been?" Padgett: "Exactly." Heck: "Yeah...is it, was, was the con, I mean, and I'm ask- ing you this out of ignorance, was the contract to do that, was that put out to bid? Or how was that done?" Padgett: "We have a 'revolving' list of surveyors. So, when this came up, umm, I couldn't tell you for sure how Peter Allen was, uhh, chosen, but I'm thinking it probably was because of the...the list. Ummm..." "I said we, we were, uhh, surprised at the cost." Heck: "So, I mean, the, the...surveyor that was chosen, that is a 'defensible' for something you said is a, is a..." Padgett: "Yeah." Heck: "...in-house kind of a..." Padgett: "Yeah. It was, it was deemed that it wasn't under the responsibility of the County Surveyor [who is Peter Allen]..." Heck: "Um-hmm." Padgett: "As part of his duties for the County, uhh, so the assumption is that they went to the next on the list, which was...Peter Allen." "And I think we've got, I dunno, five or six different surveyors..." Heck: (Grunts) Padgett: "...that they go through the list..." Heck: "Um-hmm." Padgett: "...uhh, when we have projects." (Five minutes later) Simon Hare: (Extremely low volume) "Yeah, I, I agree. Parks can't afford seven thousand. What I don't like is that we've got two examples of surveying contracts that come in WAY more than they, in my mind, should." Padgett: "Uht." Hare: "We've had stuff surveyed out at the ranch that, it doesn't take that much, the worst." (One minute later) Heck: "Well! I mean, as is, that's that's, I mean, that's the reason I asked the question. Is that, is that defensible?" "Because there's always that, you know, good ol' boy idea." Hare: "I wasn't here when they did that determination [unin- telligible due to low volume]." Heck: "Oh, it's defensible in saying 'they were in next in line.' I mean, that, that's being demonstrated..." Hare: (Now audible) "There is, the last I've seen it, there's a number of different surveyors." Heck: "Yeah." Padgett: "That's a process. How, uhh, Peter was chosen, I..." Heck: "Yeah." Padgett: "...can't tell you." Heck: "Yeah." Padgett: "I wasn't part of that process." Editorial Notes: Despite what Padgett claims, the contract did go through her office and, as Chief Financial Officer, she is responsible for contract management. Especially important is that an elected County official said that he would not survey this piece of County property, but was willing to do the same job as a vendor...for a higher price. In fact, the bill was so high that it surprised the Finance Office. All this was accomplished without soliciting for bids.

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Local Surveyor's Invoice Shocks Board, So Why Did the County Pick This No-Bid Contractor?

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