Frank Pintabone (D), Region II candidate for EASD School Board
I've got to say, Frank Pintabone has been doing his homework, knocking on doors, filing Right-to-Know requests with the district, attending school board meetings, speaking up for resident concerns and taking his run seriously. The Region II candidate has issued a press release in response to residents' concerns expressed at the last school board meeting during which the vote on whether or not to re-select D'Huy Engineering over two other bidders was tabled for a second time, over the public's concern that another bidder may have offered a better value. At last Thursday’s Easton Area School Board meeting, Pintabone called on the school board to bring transparency to
the contract review process.
I spoke to him on the phone today, and his concern seems both sincere, and tenacious.
“It is vitally important that contracts for the Easton Area School District be reviewed by independent administrators without ties to the firms in the running for the contracts, to ensure the district gets the best deal, and so tax payers can be confident in the integrity of the decision.”
"That is, after all, the purpose of a bidding process--to get the best value for the community," he added.
Frank Pintabone is an insurance broker and father of a 12 year-old son in the Easton Area School District. This is his first run for office. If you would like to contact Frank Pintabone directly, you can reach him via email pintaboneforschoolboard@gmail.com.
Posts
92 comments:
I met Frank while working on the Panto campaign. He will be an excellent addition to the EASB. His only agenda is a better educational system at the best the residents can afford. He is out there earning votes. Talking to people, listening to their concerns and preparing himself on ths issues. He has my vote.
He is dead on with his points. He is being coached by someone intelligent.
honestly, i don't get the sense that he's being coached much--he's a bit of a bulldog and out there on his own, calling and meeting with board members and asking questions, filing Right-to-Know requests, etc. the guy is very social and he is talking with a LOT of people on a daily basis. i'm not saying this just because HE told me, but because i've been hearing it from other people. this guy is seriously rolling up his sleeves, attending meetings and speaking up, filing for information to study, and asking around big time.
honestly, anyone who goes to these school board meetings semi-regularly will come up with the same questions--it doesn't require coaching, it requires caring enough about what's going on in our educational system, in our community and with our tax dollars to show up once in a while and observe.
it's nice to see a candidate that is hungry enough to dig in. from what i've been hearing, Pintabone has not stopped running since he started, like some who take a long break after the primaries and pop back on the scene a month before the election. the dude has been seriously educating himself on the goings on in the district, and talking with people about it nonstop.
he's doing his homework.
We will need a bulldog with Fehnel on the board. He cares only about himself and will bully other members into his thinking. Fehnel is in love with D'huy.
uh, oh. if true, not good! i did see him speak up in their defense at the last school board meeting...
i YUV u noel......tunsie
backatcha tunsie.
I am not fooled. He will try to run the district once he is on the Board just like everyone else does. This guy isn't qualified to wipe his own ass never mind understand what an engineering contact should or should not contain!
Martin--why do you think so? He's an insurance broker and therefore familiar with reading contracts, no?
An insurance broker doesn't qualify someone to understand engineering contracts. That is why school boards have a legal department headed by a solicitor. For Pintabone to state that there needs to be a "more rigorous and transparent review process" shows that he knows nothing about the job he wants so badly.
Martin is obviously an idiot. The school district recieved proposals from firms but let the D'huy cronies one who's son works for D'huy review the proposals. You don't see a problem with that? Then you have Fehnel get up and speak up on their behalf....why would a future board member go out of his way to help one firm. He just slapped the other firms in the face without even knowing them or reviewing the process. What a guy. Thats how the district thanks the other firms for spending time writing a proposal and interviewing. Then you have Myers, Reilly and Vulcano playing politics with it. Mr. Pintabone may be a bull dog but he hit this one on the head. This is the best option for the tax payers. No one can argue with that unless you are hopeful that D'huy will lace your campaign coffers in the future.
Martin, you are absolutely correct in your statement that my Insurance License doesn't help in engineering contracts. The Department of General Services (DGS) for the state of PA handles a lot of contracting for the state system of higher education. (State schools). Schools themselves use 3yr contracts for emergency services ONLY. However, the DGS does pre qualifications in a PUBLIC setting to interview engineering firms wishing to bid on future capital improvement jobs. That list is then used by the schools when its time to bid for jobs 1 at a time ! And I'm licensed in Property & Casualty Insurance specializing in Workers Compensation for companies. I feel this will be useful on the EASB considering we had 32 workers comp claims in March alone. And for your statement that me calling for a "rigorous & transparent review process, shows that I know nothing about the job I'm seeking", shows that you have NO idea about the feelings of the Easton Area community. The community has absolutely NO trust for the board and more transparency will start to build that trust again. Should you have other questions please email me. It would be my pleasure to meet you for breakfast, lunch or dinner. My treat. Frank Pintabone.
Anon 10:07 > You are the idiot. Do you have any first hand knowledge on the job that DuY has done for the district other than the bullshit that gets published in the Express-Times and blogs?
Other than the March School sidewalk curbcuts, which was political payback by the Panto administration for not approving the KOZ zones, what exactly has DuY done that has not been in the district's best interests?
SInce you are so linked in and knowledgable on the topic, please enlighten us as to why DuY should not be hired?
Myers will run against Sandi Vulcano for city council again and D'huy will lace his coffers as they did with Callahan. Maybe Pat Vulcano is looking to block this. At the meeting they only called Vulcano for the D'huy vote - I believe- not the appointment of a new board member. Am I correct? Politics as usual. It leads one to also believe that the other competing firms probably are no longer taking this process seriously. Fehnel is going to be trouble on that board. He speaks BS about all this experience with construction projects but look at his record.....law suits, law suits and his latest claim to fame......the middle school project for Wilson. They couldn't even keep the shingles on the roof of that place because D'huy let them install the shingles in the winter when the weather was below freezing. Anyone remember that?????????? How about all of the site issues because D'huy owned the civil engineering firm who did the design work.
Martin. Yes I do.
First and foremost....ever engineer knows about the new H/C curbing designs by penn dot. This was not pay back but rather a oversite by the civil engineering firm. Ask any engineer around and they will tell you that. It was widely published when they implimented the standard which first began in Bethlehem. The problem was that Arif owned the civil engineering firm, Terraform that made that mistake. Do you homework and you will find that out. All of the sidewalk projects in the city and the school district is the only one to make that mistake.....seriously? You call that political payback. It was a oversite by D'huy and the civil engineering firms that did the work whom Arif owned. So you are the idiot. Plus every engineer knows that the first thing you do when working in a city is apply for the sidewalk permits - this allows the city engineer time to review the design and pick these up before they are constructed which D'huy did not do! They ignored the process!
If you look at what other districts are paying engineers for services you will find D'huy is twice as high. Look at the roof projects....Typical design fees for roofs are 3% but D'huy charges 6% of construction cost. When thier fee is $200,000.00 the school district is paying $100,000.00 more. This is all lost because everyone focuses onthe construction cost.
I can't think one school district who hires an exclusive engineer for three years and dishes out every conract to them.
Also, I just want to be clear! I have No issues with D'Huy or the other firms, as I publicly stated at the last school board meeting. I just want to ensure that we follow a process of integrity for the benefit of the board,the community and most importantly the children.
Frank Pintabone
I think everyone has a lack of knowledge about engineering contracts and public entities. First you have to understand the process. For Large Projects -
There are many different types of engineers. There are Mechanical Engineers, who design HVAC systems and Plumbing. There are Electrical Engineers, who design electrical equipment such as switch gears lighting all basic power requirements. There are Civil Engineers, who design the site work such as retention ponds, parking lots, sidewalks etc. Civil Engineers also take care of all zoning and planning items and the take the projects thru the regulatory approval process. There are structural engineers that design the footings, structure and just about everything load bearing. Then there are project management firms who are typically engineers who manage all of the trades noted above and the architect. Lets not forget that the architect designs the building and the architect is responsible for hiring all of the firms above with the exception of the project management firm. So for a typical project, like say March Elementary School. The school district held two contracts with proffessionals. One with D'huy for project management services and one with Architecture Furst who did the design work and hired the Civil, Mechanical, Electrical and Structural Engineer. They also held contracts with the prime contractors - The general contractor, mechanical constractor, electrical contractor and the plumbing contractor. Despite popular belief D'huy does not build anything for the district or any other district. They simply manage the process and provide budgeting options. As you can tell - It's confussing. So for proffessionals, those who are not building the building, the district hires 2 people....the project management firm and the architect. Does everyone understand that? Good
Now - in order for the state to reimburse school districts for a capitol improvement project the school district must have an updated facilities study that is no more than 2 years old. This is what D'huy does for Easton. They provide them this plan and update it every two years. Hence the reason for the 3 year contract. The third year is always spent updating the study and districts feel as if they can't change firms or they will have to pay all that money for another firm to do the work again. This is B.S. because once a study is done it is done. The district should structure the contract with the facilities study that allows them to use other firms to implement it. So thats the hook.....the facilites study.
The facilities study has everything in it from large projects to small projects (D'huy refers to these smalll projects as summer projects). Small projects include roofs, boilers air handlers, side walks etc. There is no reason why the school district has to make these projects exclusive to any firm. Pintabone is right on the money with his accessment. Even the Emergency repairs, which the school district will need is correct. Lock a firm in with hourly rates for emergency needs and bid the other small and large projects out to other firms. He is dead on with this and I'm surprised he has been the only one smart enough to figure that out.
Frank - you get it.
Thank god someone gets it.
Hopefully the board reads this blog. It's not about pick on D'huy as much as it is about saving the taxpayers money.
DGS reference is a perfect example, I should have thought of that.
Just to be clear - A facilities study and capitol improvement plan are both the same thing!
What engineer gets a three year exclusive to every project in a district? Sounds fishy, looks fishy and smells fishy. We need to cut this B.S. out.
Martin????Why you so quiet?
I must continue to show Martin my first hand knowledge about D'huy. Does anyone remember when we first hired them? It started off bad because D'huy wrote their contract to allow them to pick their own architect but the school board wanted to pick their own architect. Does anyone remember this? It was published in the newspaper. Did D'huy give in? No. Why? Because at that time Arif owned Architecture Furst P.C.. The firm he hand selected as the architect. He later had to sale his interest in that firm because residents in the Bethlehem School District were upset about it and it became a distraction when the school board was choosing an Architect for Brochal School. To this date who know if he did sell his shares but we do know that they share offices together along with Terraform Engineering another firm owned by Arif.
So thats how our relationship started with D'huy. Remember that I just told that the project management firm is the watch dog for the school district to make sure every other proffessional is doing their jobs correctly and to make sure that they are acting in the best interest of the taxpayers. Why should one own the other?
We can continue with the issues at with the March and Paxinosa elementary school. How far over budget were these schools???????Several Million Dollars? Yes I believe it was several million. One of the reasons why the district put the pool project on hold. Do we have short memories in EASD. Those projects came so far over budget and no one said a peep. Am I not correct? Does anyone realize that we spend more money on Engineering Services then we do our solicitor?
Anon 11:04. To your statement "hopefully the board reads this blog" I sent the press release to all blogs and the Express and Mcall. I also sent an email to every board member, Mrs. Mcguinley, Mr. Simonetta and Mr Fruend. So they are all aware this ! Thanks for reading.
Frank Pintabone
Anons--I love all of these informed posts! Please for the love A/C on a hot day, please take monikers, so that it's easier to follow the conversation--make up a name for yourself, you know like...
watchdog7, or
iworkedfordhuy, or
therealdeal, or
angrytaxpayer, or
followthemoney, or
truthtothepublic, or
behindthescenes, or
yomama
etc.
etc.
Martin--you said:
"An insurance broker doesn't qualify someone to understand engineering contracts. That is why school boards have a legal department headed by a solicitor. For Pintabone to state that there needs to be a "more rigorous and transparent review process" shows that he knows nothing about the job he wants so badly."
I'm sorry, but that makes no sense. A school board member is not an administrator, so when we put a call out to the community for residents to step up and be elected to be our unpaid watchdogs over the administration, we don't assume that they will have all the qualifications of an administrator.
While insurance contracts are obviously not construction contracts, experience reading and understanding legalese is definitely a helpful skill for the average resident running for the school board to have.
But for you to say '"more rigorous and transparent review process" shows that he knows nothing about the job' is scary indeed. You must be an administrator or related to one. A rigorous and transparent process is what we all should want from our elected officials, regardless what the topic is.
And when I referred to Pintabone as a bulldog, I meant it as a compliment--he barrels through, asking questions, digging up answers, doesn't seem to be intimidated by anybody, and has no problem (obviously) speaking up. After having Jodi Hess, Millie Mandarino, Pat Fisher and Tim Reilly on the board, sitting their like church mice most of the time and barely speaking up for the people, and saying things like "it's the Board's job to SUPPORT the Administration," it's nice to see someone running for office that doesn't take no for an answer, does his research and won't be quiet or easily intimidated.
This is not an endorsement of Pintabone, however, as his opponent, Ronnie DelBacco is also a bit of a bulldog. No church mice running for Region II--that's nice to see a real race happening...
Let's also mention that D'huy dropped the ball on having an updated facility study/capital improvement Plan which led to the delay of the renovations of Easton Middle school now Paxinosa. The request for proposals asked firms for pricing for a facility study but the board awarded this work to D'huy prior to the Admin reviewing the responses to the proposals. I will continue to post as time allows. i would love to hear from Martin. He help spark my memory.
Lets look at the wasted money on Shawnee Elementary School. We spent $75,000 - $100,000 on a an entry canopy and then the window shades. And I can't verify these because I do not remember where I heard this information but D'huy allowed the contractor to use standard gypsum board on the Middle school in lieu of exterior gypsum which lead to mold growing on the inside of the building prior to being occupied. i wonder who paid to remediate the mold. I wish I could remember who I heard this from.
People don't realize this but D'huy Engineering are Structural Engineers and Project Managers. They do not have all in house services like they claim. They do have an architect on staff but they are not listed on the states list of licensed firms to practice architecture. The do not provide, in house, mechanical, electrical, plumbing or cive (site) engineering. Unless you take into account that Arif owns Terraform then you could argue that they provide in-house civil engineering services.
So with that I think one can argue that they are simply a broker for all services other than structural engineering and project management. Project Management is a broker service within itself do to the fact they act as a broker between the owner (school district) and the other proffesionals and contractors(those who actually build the building or the work that is specified.) Thats the big misconception here. Everyone thinks that D'huy is actually the constructor. They are not. They do not build anything. The kicker here is that they actually have no risk! All of the risk is on the contractors, the school district, and the architect. Broker services at their best......collect a fee without the risk. It's sad actually. We should also note that School Districts have resorted back to hiring their architects to manage everything because it saves them hundreds of thousands of dollars while cutting out the middle man. Reference Northern Lehigh School District, East Stroudsburg School District, Bangor School District and Panther Valley.
The role of the project manager/broker is to provide advice to the owner on what decisions are best, to put a cost to the work proposed, provide specifications for projects (this is for small projects), review documents and specifications other proffessionals write (this is for large projects) for projects so the district has a seperate set of eyes making sure nothing is missed and that everything is correct.(This is where Bob Fehnel showed the taxpayers that they made a huge mistake electing him because he obviously is misinformed). They also oversee the reimbursement documents to the state and help admister the contract with the cotractors during construction.
Fees. This is hard to explain and understand. There are several types of fee structures for engineering companies. First there are time&expense fees which allow the engineer to bill you their hourly rate and expenses, most clients ask that you put a not-to-exceed number on T&E work. (This is really the only time that hourly rates matter!) Next you have fixed fees which pay the engineer the fee which he asked for - say his contract is $12,000 then he gets $12,000 no matter what his hourly rates are. Then there are percentage fees which pay the engineer a percentage of the value of work or the construction costs (again hourly rates don't matter.) The engineer get the percentage and thats that.
The wilson school distict led by Bob Fehnel made fee mistakes in the past. The agreed to pay their architects a fixed fee based on D'huys budget rather than a percentage fee. If memory serves me correct the project came in a ridiculous $8Milion under budget (now thats bad budgeting) and the school district ended up paying their architects a ridiculous fixed fee because they originally thought the project would cost more. I'd have to check on the particulars or Bob can defend himself on this blog. Everyone should remember that the common fee D'huy charges for percentage work is 6% because that is the maximum fee amount that PDE will provide reimbursement for.
Mr. Moniker--love the moniker!
Wilson school was budgeted at somewhere around $35 million and bids came in at $25 million (who the hell is that far off of a budget is beyond my imagination). The district paid their architect $2.4 million or somewhere in that range. Do the math instead of paying the PDE 6% which would be around 1.5 million they paid almost an extra million dollars because of bad front end budgeting. Now D'huy was also paid 1.2 million so they spent over 10% for proffessional services. (I must qualify this post by noting that I do not have hard copies of the exact numbers and I am striclty going by memory.)
"At the meeting they only called Vulcano for the D'huy vote - I believe- not the appointment of a new board member. Am I correct?"
Anyone know if this is correct??????????????????????????
I just want to say that it was horrible that Joe Kish did not return our calls with questions during the process.
I have a question. While looking thru D'huy's contract which was tabled by the board. Why do I not find hourly rates? They requested that firms give them hourly rates. Am I missing something? I will be disecting this contract compared to the proposal in the coming days and I can tell you that I will be raising some serious questions about the integrity of this process!
Anon 3:10, Are the proposed contracts available to the public? Where can we see them?
Kate R. At on point D'huys was posted on the school site. Don't know if its still there. It is a Right To Know piece. And to Anon's comment my understanding was that the only Fixed amount was the hourly rate, so why its not there is beyond me. I encourage ALL to review and compare all 3 bids you will see a lot of discrepancies. Frank Pintabone
Myers won't be able to run for dog catcher when the dust settles on this.
Anon 2:00 pm--you are correct. I noticed this too when I was at the meeting. Kerry Myers did not call Vulcano when it was time to vote on whether or not to appoint HR Director John Castrovinci's brother, Frank Castrovinci, and considering the vote was unanimous, he probably felt confident enough that he would get what he wanted. But on the D'Huy vote he must have been more concerned, because that's when he dialed up Vulcano to get his vote in favor of approving D'Huy.
One has to wonder, with Myers running against Sandra Vulcano for City Council, if Pat Vulcano didn't vote for D'Huy to keep them from supporting Myers in his campaig,n as a reward for selecting them for this contract--it would serve to neutralize D'Huy in terms of campaign contributions...
Also, re: the vote on D'Huy at the last meeting--
Luckily, and to his credit, even though I opposed his appointment on principal, Frank Castrovinci used his first ever vote on the board to vote to TABLE the vote, and it was the deciding vote. I think that Myers probably thought he's be so grateful for being appointed that he would fall in line. But to his credit, Castrovinci seemed to listen with concern to the members of the public speaking up, and seemed to want to establish right away that he has a mind of his own and wasn't about to vote to approve a contract he hadn't read.
I say "to his credit" because he could have simply recused himself, but he used his first moment of power to actually DO something, and then announced that he would recuse himself from the rest of the voting for the night since he was new. I appreciated that, went up and shook his hand afterward and told him so, even though I had spoken against his appointment over concerns of nepotism in the community. I believe in credit where credit is due.
I still want Ellison to win, because she and Holzberger have been the lone members of the board actually trying to get to the bottom of the D'Huy issue, and they have taken A LOT of heat for it for the community that elected them. Now Holzberger is moving to London, so her spot is up for grabs.
If Castrovinci would run for the 2 year remainder of Bilotti's vacated spot instead of against Ellison for the 4 year, I would consider supporting him if he continues to vote on the right side of things. Don't know if it's possible to change his spot on the ballot though...
A vote against dhuy will earn more campaign contributions than a vote for them. Even though it may not seem that way. There are a lot of honest engineers who are fed up with them. Just saying. Even firms who are not being considered will help out anyone who ends this engineering mess. And by the way....the rfp states that this is a 8 year contract. Read it.
I this post shined some light on why this school board needs to move on to another firm.
This is a blog record--the first post to ever get 50 comments!
Who reviewed this engineering contract? This thing has more holes than swiss cheese. I'm having a field day with. I will conclude at approx. 6pm the day of the meeting.
Dear Noel,
I'm reviewing this contract and I cannot possible give my observation within a comment box. Will you consider doing a post? Again, I will give my observation the day of the meeting.
MR Moniker, will you please reach out to me. I as well have some issues that I am finding. Although, you seem more versed. Pintaboneforschoolboard@gmail.com.
Thanks Frank Pintabone
Mr. Pintabone,
I will once I get through the meat of it. The district is going to embarrassed after this. I apologize for that. Its pretty bad.
Mr Moniker
Please don't apologize ! This is why I issued this press release. I wanted people to finally realize that we have some serious issues. If I get elected in November, I will fight to keep EVERYTHING transparent and HONEST. I'm also going through the meat, for the past 4 weeks (lol) (engineering contracts are new to me) so when your ready shoot me an email so that we can compare info. And thank you for taking this issue as serious as I am. And again don't apologize for doing what's right !!
Frank Pintabone
Mr. Moniker, don't feel bad at all about a long post in comments. I often do it myself, as do other readers. I only recommend that you please draft it in Word first and save it, so that if blogspot happens to get glitchy, you don't look all that work!
If your comment exceeds the number of characters allow, just split it into two comments with (cont.) at the end of the first, and (cont.) at the beginning of the second.
Looking forward to what you find!
And if you would like to contact me backchannel, my email address is neighborsofeaston@gmail.com--If we email each other, I will keep your name confidential until you tell me you're comfortable otherwise.
Frank, thanks for reaching out to concerned voters on this blog and inviting them to contact your directly, as well as the exchanges made here.
Noel-
Thanks for helping as well
Frank Pintabone
Problem Number 1.
Just to keep everyone excited.
In December 2010 the school district issued an RFP for District Engineering Retainer Services. The D'huy contract proposed includes these retainer services and RESIDENT PROJECT ENGINEER SERVICES FOR MAJOR CAPITOL PROJECTS. This basically gives D'huy exclusive rights to every small and large project the district will have in the next three years. The problem with this is that the RFP issued by the school district to every Engineering firm does not include this as a service and therefore does not request a fee for such services.
This is one of many issues with the D'huy Contract. This was slipped into the contract without being a requirement from other firms. I'm not sure what other firms fees were but they were probably much higher, on the retainer services, because they were not given these exclusive rights. Lets not forget that the district has several major capitol projects in the pipeline. If you include Palmer Elementary to these projects the construction value is in the neighborhood of $30 million +. D'huy is getting a 3.5% fee on these projects. That gives D'huy at least an additional $1,050,000.00 in fees over the next three years assuming the board agrees to do the projects. Let's call it an even million dollars in fees that the other firms were not even asked to bid on. This is a major oversight by someone or simply a way to give D'huy an advantage in an competitive environment. The district knew at the time of requesting proposals that these services were needed.....why else did they not include these services?
This gives new meaning to the term "smok'n mirrors".
Stay tuned!
So Let's open a dialogue up about the above issue. Maybe we can have a daily issue session. When we are done I hope everyone has a better understanding for engineering contracts as they relate to your tax dollars. Does anyone remember the county fiasco with Alvin H. Butz several years ago? Reibman signed a contract with them giving them exclusive rights to all county projects prior to leaving office which led to all of the nightmares.
What are retainer services? What do you pay for?
The best way to answer this is to put it into terms that everyone can understand.
When your car breaks down and you take it to the dealership you are charged a diagnostic fee. This fee is for the dealerships time to examine the problem and tell you what you have to do to fix it. It doesn't include the actual fix. You can take your car somewhere else but you still have to pay the fee.
The diagnostic fee is the same as the retainer fee in terms of service. You don't get anything fixed for the retainer fee but they will tell you whats wrong and how to go about getting it resolved. The retainer fee only covers preliminary evaluations.
Dear Martin,
Please join in. I would love to debate this issue with you.
keep it coming, Mr. Moniker! provide links where you can, please, so that readers can verify what you're saying themselves, i.e., if the docs you reference are located publicly on line, etc.
http://www.boarddocs.com/pa/easdpa/Board.nsf/files/8JVN4T5E2744/$file/D'Huy%20Contract.pdf
Attached is D'huy's proposed contract. PAGE 5 IS THE LANGUAGE FOR THE MAJOR CAPITOL PROJECTS. THIS NEEDS ENTIRE CONTRACT NEEDS TO GO.
The RFP is not on the web.
G. SCOPE OF WORK FOR SUMMER PROJECTS
Summer projects are essentially building capital improvement projects that are nonreimbursable
and are typically performed during the summer. The majority of these projects
would be identified by the Capital Improvement Plan. The firm would provide design and
construction administration services for these projects.
The Scope of Work for summer projects will be as follows:
1. Complete the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) Self Certification Form 731,
which requires compliance with state requirements for all projects.
2. Perform field survey, engineering, investigation, and research for the preparation of bid
packages.
3. Apply and obtain necessary municipal agency approvals, including code conformance,
Labor and Industry approval, etc.
4. Prepare bid packages, advertisement for bid and assist with soliciting bids from
contractors.
5. Conduct pre-bid conference, respond to contractor questions, and issue necessary
addenda.
6. Review bids, prepare contracts, including review of bonds and insurance for
conformance with contract requirements.
7. File for prevailing wages and incorporate wage requirements into contract.
8. Prepare project schedule.
9. Provide construction administration services, including conducting pre-construction
conference and attendance at job conference meetings through completion of the
project.
10. Review and approve contractor’s submittals, including shop drawings, applications for
payment, etc.
11. Process any necessary change orders.
12. Provide daily construction observation when work is being performed by contractor(s).
13. Prepare punch list and final project close-out.
I got my hands on the word document! So I c/p'd the language from the RFP.
My report is 8 pages and counting. Gonna raise some eyebrows.
Someones got some explain'n to do!
RRRRRUTTT Oh!
Does anyone have a copy of every engineers proposals???? Would love a copy.
Mr. Moniker--will you be presenting your report at the next school board meeting? That would terrific.
Thanks for posting the link!
Noel,
I'm not sure how I will proceed. It's too much to present at a school board meeting so I'm thinking about daily updates here and then leave the big stuff for the night of the meeting. These contracts are confusing and I'm not sure anyone can get it all in a 3 minutes. To sum it up....this is probably the worst process ever. I actually started to do the research because my corporate office wanted an explantion as to why I declined to submit a proposal for this job. So I'm actually trying to explain it to them. Times are tough for engineers, as you may know so they thought it was no-brainer given that I live in the district. Sometimes they just don't get it. What burns me more is that my future representative stood up and defended D'huy while knowing nothing at all about the contract or the process. I'm saving the best for last trying to build credibility everyday hoping the press will pick up on it. I've given two little clues about the contract. First, the hourly rates. The district bid hourly rates but does not attach these to the contract. That tells me that they never mattered but if you look at the contract D'huy has plenty of opportunities to bill hourly. Why did they waste everyones time....again I knew this was going to happen so I didn't waste mine. Then you add what could end up being millions of dollars to that contract, and it most likely will be, without anyone knowing. I know what excuses they will use so I will be posting additional information with my final report. I'm just extremly fed up with the school district being niave. I am doing my homework. Just take a look at Mr. Reilly.....he is Mr. Republican who was the only yay vote to pay a d'huy employee to attend a seminar. Seriously? What is wrong with this picture. I can only promise good stuff is in the future. Have a nice day. Mr. M
And I must add that Mr. Fehnel stood up and not only spoke about something he knows nothing about but he insulted some very good firms in the process. He even insulted CC inc who is a general contractor not even an engineer. Talk about a lack of knowledge. CC inc did construction oversight for probably two of the best projects that Wilson has ever done. Avona Elementary and Wilson Elementary. No Problem, No Law Suits. Good solid schools. Like I said before, they can't even keep shingles on the new school because they installed the shingles in bad weather. I'm tired of holding it in. I'm letting it all out now. It may fall on deaf ears....it may not. I just gotta get this out of me.
Mr. Moniker, I assure you it is not falling on deaf ears...according to Google Analytics this post is already in the top five of monthly readership, and it's only been up a few days.
I have an idea that may interest you. If you would like to contact me anonymously before the meeting, my email address is neighborsofeaston@gmail.com.
I never divulge my sources until/unless they tell me it's ok.
Thanks for doing this research!
I would love to hear from Ronnie DelBacco on this as well--I know he has spoken up about concerns with D'Huy in the past, and is intent on cutting waste if elected.
Ronnie, are you out there?
why do you need to hear from Ronnie DelBacco, He doesn't have a prayer in winning against Pintabone. He admits he works out of town and can't get to most meetings. He has zero campaigning and is almost as non-existent as the guy running against Panto.
Noel - I will contact you when I'm all complete.
Problem #2
I've already told you about this twice now. It's hourly rates. The D'huy contract does not lock them into a set hourly rate. Why is this important? Well...hourly rates are how firms draw down on their fees. This means that if they have fixed fee of say $20,000 they bill you monthly based on the number of hours x's the hourly rate. Don't you want to know exactly how much time is being spent on your project by your professional? I stated earlier that bidding hourly rates means nothing in terms of bidding and it's true....you can't pick a firm based on hourly rates but when you have a fast need for service..i.e. sinkholes you need to know what those hourly rates are going to be. They could charge the school district $500 per hour if they wanted to. Someone should have caught this. I'm guessing this was done on purpose. Probably because D'huy lowered their hourly below standard to look good on their proposal knowing that they wouldn't get included in the actual contract so it didn't matter. D'huy obviosly wrote this contract since Arif's name is the only one typed in and they obviously wrote the RFP because it is organize in a similar manner. So far we have two questions.....
1. Why did the school district neglect to lock in hourly rates in the contract when they were clearly one of the most important fee items in the RFP?
2. Why in the world would they add those Resident Project Engineering services in the contract when they were not included in the RFP to other firms? These services equate to the largest amount of money in the entire contract.
I will answer these questions at a later date.....
Have a great day!
Below you will find Section 8 of the D'huy contract which basically says - This contract superdedes our original proposal in its entirety. So all hourly rates or fees proposed in their Response to the RFP are VOID. Also note that their are no exhibits or attachments to this contract. In one case hourly rate schedules are noted as an attachement but the attachment is not part of the contract. ALL EXHIBITS AND ATTACHMENTS MUST BE LABELED AND SIGNED BY BOTH PARTIES IN EVERY CONTRACT TO BE RELAVENT. WE LEARN THIS IN CONTRACTS 101. I'm guessing the school district will try to add this one in now that we caught it. I'm not sure why this was kept from the public or why this was kept from the entire board. I got the D'huy contract from the web page which includes the entire board package.
SECTION 8 - MISCELLANEOUS
This Agreement together with the Exhibits and schedules identified herein constitute the
entire agreement between OWNER and ENGINEER and supersede all prior written or oral
understandings. This Agreement and said Exhibits and schedules may only be amended,
supplemented, modified, or canceled by a duly executed written instrument.
i was wondering this about hourly rates myself--how the district can compare two sets of hourly rates from two different firms if they have no guarantee as to how long the job will take...
for the sake of argument, if one firm's hourly rates are $150/hour and another's is $125/hr, the second firm sounds better at first, but if the first firm takes only 20 hours to finish the job and the second firm takes 30 hours, the firm with the higher hourly rate is actually a savings of $750 on the job...and that's not taking the cost of retainer fees into account...
Noel,
You are correct. Thats a problem with the process, if they chose the firm based on a lower hourly rate.
The problem with the contract is that the hourly rate schedules are not attached nor are any attachements or exhibits. The contract references an hourly rate schedule but there is nothing attached or labeled back to them. The contract should read ....per attached hourly rate schedule (Exhibit X) signed and dated X-X-XXXX. That is the only way the exhibit is valid.
Mr. Moniker, residents are giving me ideas for you, backchannel via email...please email me at:
neighborsofeaston@gmail.com
I will keep your name confidential until you are ready.
Mr. Moniker, You clearly are spending time with this contract, which I can tell you that the public appreciates. You may have too much for 3 minutes at the School Board meeting but what if residents who are willing to speak up come together. Ten residents = 30 minutes of time (if they don't just repeat each other). Could we organize and bring up each issue with this contract separately?
Wow... This is the first chance I've had to check in on this subject since the weekend. Great information here.
Just want to make sure I have this right.... Mr. Moniker, you are an engineering professional, employed by a regional engineering firm that did not bid on the District's December RFP. Therefore, you are able to provide an unbiased, professional evaluation of the RFP, the selection process that followed, and the resulting proposed engineering contract with D'Huy Engineering. You reside in the district and, as a taxpayer, have an additonal vested, personal interest in this subject. You are obviously very knowledgeable, not only in engineering contracting but, also, in our District's history with D'Huy Engineering, and in their history with other Districts in the region, as well.
After reviewing the documents and the process involved, you have found numerous issues of concern. There are problems at every level of the process. Many of the issues point to various areas of potential advantage being given to D'Huy Engineering. Advantages that perhaps led to D'Huy being recommended to the School Board by the Building and Grounds Department staff and the Building and Grounds Committee of the School Board. Thank you for taking the time, and making the effort, to bring such important information to the bright light of day.
I want to know who is responsible for this mess. Was it ineptitude or purposeful? What role did Joe Kish have to play in all of this? What about our former and present School District solicitors? Shouldn't they have protected the Board, and our interests as concerned citizens and taxpayers, by providing proper contractual guidance and by drafting proper and complete documents? And let's not forget the highest paid of them all, that person ultimately responsible for all things administrative in our District, our District Superintendent. What level of responsibility and accountability rests squarely on her shoulders?
Most importantly, what can be done about this now, before it is too late?
CAT--you asked:
"Most importantly, what can be done about this now, before it is too late?"
1. Everyone who cares about this can make it a PRIORITY to show up at the next school board meeting to either be counted as a concerned in attendance, or to stand up and speak up to urge the school board NOT to approve the D'Huy contract until it has been determined, in a transparent manner, will the three top contracts from D'Huy, Barry Islett , and Maser, side-by-side, which contract will actually offer the best value to the district and its taxpayers who are paying the bill.
2. Everyone can spread the word that the Democratic and Republican parties EACH still need to find TWO candidates from the Forks/College Hill area to run for the remaining two years of the seats vacated by Bilotti and Holzberger. That's FOUR brave souls who have to be found BEFORE AUGUST 25TH. If you know of anyone who you think would be a good school board member from those areas PLEASE reach out to them and encourage them to run. Anyone interested from EITHER party can contact me at:
neighborsofeaston@gmail.com
and I will put you in touch with the committee members of your party if you don't already know them.
This is important folks! FORKS/COLLEGE HILL--who do you know?
Noel, I just received an email that Frank Castrovincci (don't know how to spell it) decided to run for the 2yr vacant seat instead of against Ellison for the 4yr seat.
Frank Pintabone
If it's true about Castrovinci, it's good news! Has anyone heard about Cathy McIntyre since the last SB meeting when she said that she was going to run for the two year seat?
Cat you are correct about everything stated. The field was slanted in D'huys favor from the beginning. It was an unfair process which is why I did not waste my time. When the father of a D'huy employee is reviewing the proposals you should stay away. What I found is amazing. Even the solicitor will admit that.
Frank--that's great news. I'm finding myself liking the man, despite my reservations about his being Castrovinci's brother. He used his first vote to vote to table the decision on the D'Huy contract, recused himself from the rest because he had just been appointed, and now, if it's true that he has chosen to run for the two year seat and not oppose the only really great school board member we have working hard for the PUBLIC (Kerri Leonard-Ellison), I may just have to support him. The fact that he is a controller by profession is attractive in a scenario like that our district's budget woes...
Kate R--I haven't heard confirmation that Cathy McIntyre has filed for November, but she did seem very keen on running at the last meeting. I guess it will depend on whether her party ( I don't know if she is usually a D or an R or an I--does anyone know?) decides to nominate her.
If anyone reads confirmation in the press about Castrovinci switching, please post the link.
MARTIN TO MONIKER "SOUR GRAPES!!! > YOU LOSE!!!!!!
6-0 vote tonight to retain DU'Y!!!!!!!!
Post a Comment