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Posted by Steven Glazer-Urban Times News on August 21, 2003 at 17:37:26:
Urban Times News
Steven Glazer, email: sglazer@urbantimesnews.com
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“IT’S CHEAPER, IT’S BETTER, WE DON’T WANT IT,” FREEHOLDERS TELL OUT OF FAVOR VENDOR, AND CHOOSE TO PAY UP. |
Jersey City—You hadda be there. There’s no way nine rational grown ups could explain awarding a $ 4,153,450.00 contract to Hindsight Inc., for the exact same computer services as could be had from another vendor for $3,300,000. The other vendor, Desktop Services, owned by Albert Poreda, was not only $850 M cheaper, but on a scoring system considering other factors besides just price, rated better. (See official explanation reproduced elsewhere in this edition)
Other than price and rating score, there are differences between the two companies are that not financial. The first is that Hindsight is allegedly owned by Jeff Persilay, formerly chief of staff to ex-County Executive Bob Janizewski, who is now cooperating with a federal investigation of corruption. Hindsight has been a frequent and long-time contributor to various Hudson County Democratic Organization campaign funds and Political Action Committees.
Perhaps the most telling difference between the two companies was a letter that was included in the bid package that went to prospective vendors interested in preparing bids for the proposal. The letter was a cover letter written on Congressional Stationary by Representative Robert Menendez, D-13, lavishly praising Hindsight for work previously done for various governmental entities in and around Hudson. (We have also reproduced that letter in this edition.)
Poreda was born and raised in Jersey City and told freeholders that if he were awarded the contract, he would hire as many Hudson residents as it took to adequately meet staffing requirements. “I have more than 300 resumes from computer professionals and I will put them to work.” Poreda told Freeholders. “It has been a terrible job market in the computer field and I will provide employment to Hudson residents, as many as needed to handle the task. I have lines of credit with Provident bank more than enough to cover this and carry receivables from the County. In other words, I can easily afford to meet payroll, thanks to the credit lines with Provident, until I get paid by the County.”
Freeholders voted overwhelmingly, 8-1, to ignore the logic and reason pay up for Hindsight. Freeholder Bill O’Dea was the lone Freeholder vote against the award of the contract to Hindsight, in the face of reason.
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April 2, 2003
Mr. Wade Frazee
County of Hudson
Dept. of Finance and Administration
567 Pavonia Avenue
Jersey City, NJ 07306
Evaluation Criteria – Operation, Management and Administration of the County’s Management Information Systems and Related Telecommunications Service
Dear Mr. Frazee,
I am writing you in regards to the Evaluation Criteria that the County plans to use to evaluate the proposals received for the above referenced contract.
Upon review of the detailed criteria and the assigned point values I believe that the criteria clearly favors the incumbent. In particular I want to bring to your attention the following items:
Section I – A. Demonstration of a clear understanding of the scope of work
A total of 8 points can be awarded for this item. The incumbent clearly has an intimate knowledge of the scope of work, having provided services to the County for the past ten years. It appears that based upon past service to the county the incumbent would receive the highest score because of their position.
Section I – C. Familiarity of technical requirements for projects/methods
A total of 8 points can be awarded for this item. The incumbent is intimately familiar with the technology, methods and procedures used, having provided services to the County for the past ten years. In addition, familiarity is no indication of the ability of a bidder to satisfactorily perform the services requested by the county.
This item also appears to be redundant with section I –A.
Section I I – E Prior government-related experience in municipal and/or county accounting and tax systems
A total of 8 points can be awarded for this item. The RFP issued by the county required bidders to complete a ‘Declaration of Expertise Matrix’. This matrix contained 25 specific requirements that a vendor needed to provide information about their experience. I question why only one of the 25 items would be singled out and assigned a value of up to eight points. This item clearly favors the incumbent, having provided services to support the county’s tax and accounting systems over the past ten years.
Section I I – F Proven Record of Experience in providing the requested services
It appears that this item refers to the ‘Declaration of Expertise Matrix’. With respect to my comments regarding section II – E above, I question why the totality of expertise that the county requires (25 items contained in the Declaration of Expertise Matrix) would only be given a total point value of 4 while only one of those items (Section II –E above) has an assigned value of up to 8 points.
Section II –E is also redundant with Section II-F. I believe that assigning a higher point value to Section II-F and that Section II-E be eliminated from the evaluation criteria.
In summary, items I-A, I-C and II-E clearly favor the incumbent with up to 24 out of 100 points. I trust that the vendor recommended by the selection committee will be based solely upon the ability of the vendor to perform the required services and the amount of their bid.
Respectfully,
Al Poreda
President
Desktop Computer Services
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News Release – Desktop Computer Services –8/15/03
Re: Operation, Management and Administration of the County’s IT and Telecom Services
Yesterday’s vote by the Hudson County Board of Freeholders to award a contract to Hindsight Inc., is a serve blow to taxpayers and job seekers in Hudson County.
The Board voted 8-1 in favor of Hindsight in spite of the serious concerns raised by the Freeholders at the caucus last Tuesday, August 12th.
- Hindsight’s bid was almost $1million dollars more than any of the other bids
- The selection committee did not possess the required technical expertise or objectivity to fairly evaluate the proposals submitted
It is clear that the administration acted in a capricious and arbitrary manner by awarding more points to Hindsight for their bid that was $830,000 higher than the bid of Desktop Computers. The administration’s point scoring criteria indicates that bid’s that are substantially higher are to receive zero points. Is it any wonder that the administration refuses to make public the selection committee members scoring sheets?
Besides the additional taxes residents of Hudson County will have to pay, they will also lose employment opportunities. I promised to hire Hudson County residents to fill the required jobs if my company was awarded this contract.
I will instruct my counsel to file suit before the assignment judge in order to remedy this injustice.
Respectfully,
Al Poreda
President
Desktop Computer Services
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