New Mexico Central

Support Your Local Mayor

By Bob Steiner

   It has now been more than six months since Bob Stearley took over the reins  of local government in Edgewood. Under his leadership the town continues to move  forward and prosper.  The Mayor is devoted to our community and  handles his duties in a positive manner.  Unfortunately, the town has been without a town administrator since a few days after he began his term of office. While the  mayor has tried to hire a person to fill that position,  he has thus far been unable to find an applicant who is qualified and could gain the approval of the town council .  Consequently, while passing off some of the “administrator”duties to other members of the town staff,  he  has taken on most of the work, himself.  In all fairness, while he doesn’t complain, he is faced with a very heavy workload and still tries to maintain a “can do”attitude.  With other members of the community, as well as staff, trying to assist him, there may, at times, be some duplication of effort in getting the business of the town done.  Regrettably, this  results in confusion for all parties involved. An example of such disorder came to light last Wednesday night during the most recent town council  meeting.

Apparently, the town of Edgewood has few, if any, guidelines governing the purchase of goods and services for the community.  There also seems to be no designated employee charged with the responsibility of performing the duties of “purchasing agent”. This is evidenced by the fact that several “well-meaning persons “associated with the town have contacted “East Mountain Flooring” at different times regarding carpet for the new Library location. While it appears that these parties were only seeking information and did not enter into any sales contract, the fact that multiple persons were making contact with the merchant has created some confusion regarding this matter. It would seem that no promises of purchase were made to the firm but they were left with the impression that they would at least be allowed to bid on the project. In view of this, “East Mountain Flooring”,   an Edgewood Business,  did expend several hours of effort taking measurements of the location and answering many questions presented by these”well-meaning” persons.  It is further noted that Mr.Giovenco, the owner, even brought  rug samples to  the council meeting to address any additional questions town staff or councilors might have had.

Following some discussion of this matter by members of the council, apparently due to the way the entire matter had been handled by the various parties (By the way this writer is not speaking for the Mayor, nor does he purport to know the Mayor’s rationale on making any decision) he took some decisive action.  He informed those present he was going to give the sales contract to a dealer who dealt with UNM and would guarantee  a G.S.A. approved price.  In view of the effort expended by East Mountain Flooring, and the fact they were not given a chance to bid on the carpet, the mayor’s  decision to take ‘extreme” action and exercise his “authority”(?) as community leader  may sound illogical. I guess he felt that the situation had deteriorated too far and he needed to restore some semblance of order to this matter. Still  his action without any  apparent justification makes it appear that he is biased against a local firm. If this were the case, failing to provide reasons for his decision, perhaps the only ethical way to resolve this  matter would be for him to recluse himself and let the Council handle this purchase.  Should the  mayor change his mind , I hope that “East Mountain Flooring”, an Edgewood business, will at least get a chance to submit a competitive bid. In a recent conversation with Mr. Giovenco, he advised me that he had access to any quality carpet that any other merchant could provide and he could do so at a competitive price. He further reminded me that  if carpet repairs were ever needed, he is local, not thirty miles disant. We all live in the “East Mountains”!  Let’s support our neighbors, be they merchants or politicians!

Having functioned as a purchasing agent for the federal government, as well as a major national retail chain, I would like to offer some advice to our town staff who engage in purchasing activities:

1: Never let a vendor know how much money you have been authorized to spend. Always try and negotiate. You may end up making your purchase for less than you thought might be possible.

2. Always get at least three bids. This protects the integrity of the purchasing agent.

Sunday, November 9th, 2008, by Bob Steiner and is filed under "Uncategorized ". You can leave a response here, or send a Trackback from your own site.