Alna residents concerned about the possibility of a conflict of interest in town roadwork offered suggestions as selectmen worked to resolve the issue during their meeting last Thursday night.
Crowding into the small town office meeting room at the April 29 meeting, some bidding contractors also gave selectmen suggestions for town property lawn mowing and clean up projects.
Selectmen heard back from Kristin Collins of the Maine Municipal Association regarding an inquiry over the risk of a conflict of interest with the road commissioner and his work with the town. After discussing the issue at length with residents, selectmen decided they would work on a policy to guide municipal work contracts and would ask road commissioner Michael Trask to inventory road projects.
Some residents and selectmen have been discussing the work Trask and his company, Quality Services, has provided for the town. At issue is an approximate $30,000 for cold patching of damaged roads last year and about $20,000 for brush cutting earlier this year. Alna Selectman Tom Smith and others have suggested the work might otherwise have gone out to bid.
Collins said the road commissioner has no authority to enter or approve contracts unless the town has an ordinance that states otherwise. She added the town’s road commissioner should not be in the position to approve himself for roadwork. Only selectmen have the authority to approve the work and to authorize payments made to the road commissioner.
“If the selectmen have been authorizing the road commissioner to approve the work, and have been signing the disbursement warrants to pay for the work, then I perceive no illegality in that arrangement,” Collins said.
“In certain situations, the selectmen might delegate their authority to approve contracts to the road commissioner. If this were done, then it would be a conflict of interest for the road commissioner to approve himself as the contractor and/or supervise his own work. This is because the road commissioner would stand to benefit financially from the decision. The only way under state law to avoid this would be to use a bid process.”
Trask charged the town weekly amounts of roughly $3000 for work, which, according to town officials added up to a larger sum after the job had been completed. In agreement with others at the meeting, Smith suggested some of this work could be pooled together in advance.
Resident John Villeneuve said Smith was in the right for raising the issue. Villeneuve asked selectmen chair David Abbott about the hourly rates Trask charged.
Abbott said he was aware of how the brush cutting work was billed out, but, referring to the cold patching work, added, “To pay his company a lump sum of money and he pays them (employees) (for) we don’t know how many hours, I don’t like that arrangement at all.”
Selectmen fielded questions and comments from residents whose opinions mirrored Smith’s.
“There’s no reason we can’t put together a general maintenance contract and put that out to bid,” Smith said, adding the problem with last year’s work was that the small, incremental charges for work suddenly added up at the end of the year.
Abbott was not confident general contractors would bid on a package of small, diverse projects around town, like filling potholes and cutting brush. Town clerk Amy Warner agreed with Abbott, however, in that some smaller companies like Quality Services might be interested in bidding on individual projects.
Residents expressed concern about the town being charged for additional work on singular projects and the process by which contractors were chosen for jobs. A culvert near the train station repaired last fall by Hanley Construction was mentioned as was some work done on Pond Brook. The asphalt had been compromised by water bubbling over the culvert and was then repaired again, according to a resident.
Their concern was over whether or not Hanley, who Warner said had a contract for work on several culverts in town, was responsible for the cost of the additional repair. Warner said the selectmen authorized the road commissioner to have the work done and did not think the work had been put out to bid.
A resident suggested this sort of large-scale work could be evaluated by a civil engineer to establish a specific plan so the town does not end up paying twice.
“I think everybody understands that Mike’s an honorable man and he’s an honest person and he’s certainly not getting rich working for the town,” Fred Bowers said, adding the general bidding process needs to be revamped.
Selectmen agreed with Bowers, where projects exceeding a certain cost ought to go out to bid. Smith suggested the town ought to set aside a certain amount of funds for emergency repairs and lump any other projects together for competitive bidding.
Subject to recommendations from bidding contractors and other residents, selectmen agreed to accept the $2300 lawn mowing bid from Quality Services. Board members will send their acceptance of the bid by letter with the stipulation the work would be held to a certain standard. As selectmen understand the criteria for town mowing, it is based on a 25 mow, five month season.
Other contractors submitting bids were Terry Ross ($4400), Abel Property Management ($5250) and F and S Property Management ($4043).
Selectmen awarded a contract for clean up work to Abel Property Management for $450, covering work for the town office, fire department and the Puddle Dock property. While this amount was more than the other contractor prices bidding on clean up ($355 for Ross and $100 on each property for F and S), selectmen said Abel Property Management stipulated additional work involving loam and grass seed.
