Purchases Exceed Tontitown Spending Limits
Last updated Friday, July 25, 2008 9:10 PM CDT in News
By Bob Caudle
The Morning News
TONTITOWN - Local taxpayers in Tontitown have purchased about $7,000 in equipment for City Hall since 2006, according to a trail of e-mail kept in the city's public reading file.
Aldermen approved a $5,600 electronic keypad system to lock the building in 2006. From March 11 through July 11, taxpayers paid $666.30 for a series of lock changes at City Hall.
The mayor's spending limit, per Tontitown ordinance, is limited to purchases of $500 or less without soliciting bids, according to Mark Dossett, Tontitown's city attorney.
For items more than $500, the mayor must solicit three bids in writing by posting the job specifications on the city's Web site, Dossett said.
The bill from the lock company includes $135 for duplicate keys after Mayor Joseph Edgmon decided to replace the electronic locking system with keyed locks - rendering the $5,600 electronic system useless.
Dossett said he's aware of the situation, but only by word of mouth.
"I wasn't consulted about the locks," Dossett said. " I've heard about them, but I wasn't involved in the process. Nobody asked for my advice."
Records show the mayor paid C & E Lock and Safe of Fayetteville $429.98 to change the locks, according to a July 11 invoice.
However, adding the itemized costs of the work performed, the actual total for the bill is $508.98. A March 11 invoice from the same company details work to the door of the mayor's office totaling another $157.32, meaning the expenses were broken into two billing cycles, staying under less than the $500 bid requirement.
"They were the ones that put the locks in," Edgmon said. "I wasn't sure how much they were going to charge because they charge by the hour. I didn't ask them how much it would be before they started."
Locks aren't the only spending that violated the $500 limit. Last November, Alderwoman Sunny Hinshaw directed Edgmon to purchase a new microphone for the public-speaking lecturn.
Hinshaw wrote to Edgmon, "I remind you that while the speaker system is much improved in City Hall it can be much better with a new microphone on the podium. I am re-sending to you the estimate from David Sheppard for this new microphone and I am urging you to call the man and have him install this improvement."
The microphone cost the city $705. Again, the purchase was not put out to bid.
"It wasn't anything sinister," Edgmon said. "We just needed something done. I guess if we'd have stopped and thought about it, we'd have bid it out."
Hinshaw said Sheppard is not a friend, but she was referred to him by Sigler's Music, a company she does business with.
"He'd shown me how to run the system at City Hall at no expense to the city," Hinshaw said. "Then, when things broke, I gave his name to Joe and he took it from there."
Dossett said Tontitown recently strengthened its ordinance on bidding for goods or services.
"The old procedure just required telephone bids," Dossett said. "The updated procedure requires bids in writing."
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bobblehead wrote on Jul 27, 2008 2:01 AM: