Published by
Dick Schaefer, Contributing Writer and Part-time Investigative Reporter
There are lots of people bopping their gums and writing all kinds of distortions in their online "news" sites and newspaper about Gasconade County's tire and tire services usage and purchasing procedures. I wish more of the county officials, managing editors and "news" publishers who are misrepresenting and distorting the facts would actually have the slightest inkling about what they are talking about. Maybe they do know what is going on or maybe they simply find it in their own best self-interest to protect the status quo.
There is ONE county official, however, who actually does know what he is talking about when it comes to the subject of the county's tire and tire services usage and purchasing procedures. That county official is Northern District Associate Commissioner
Matt Penning.
Matt Penning has no interest in any retail tire and tire services shop anywhere within the county or without.
Matt Penning has no brother, father, son, nephew or relative of any kind in the local tire and tire services business.
Matt Penning has absolutely NO conflict of interest insofar as the matter of county tire and tire services purchasing is concerned. His ONLY interest is in doing the best possible job he can for the county's taxpayers. His ONLY interest is in seeing to it that the county receives the BEST VALUE (price and quality) when purchasing tires and tire services.
I personally know that
Penning regrets the need to withhold pay raises and employee benefits from county employees due to budget difficulties. That is why he challenges the county's expenditures for materials, supplies, equipment and services every chance he gets. That is why he challenges the inefficient tire and tire services purchasing procedures of the past which the "good old boys" endeavor to protect!
Presiding Commissioner
Ron Jost and Southern District Associate Commissioner
Jerry Lairmore claim that
Matt Penning is just playing politics. Lazy reporters/publishers like
Dave Marner of the
Gasconade Couny Republican and
Jeff Noedel of
CNL lap it right up as they rush to their keyboards and file baseless reports. And then there are those who are too lazy to examine the true facts of the matter themselves. They just buy into the BIG LIE that friends of
Jost and
Lairmore publish! Let me set the record clear!
Penning has raised these tire and tire services purchasing issues during the past several weeks, because the annual tire contract was due to be let on 7/1 and because his previous attempts to reform the tire and tire services bidding procedures have been rejected. (2 to 1 vote.)
I'm tired of all the fogging, all the spinning, all the posturing and all the misrepresentations and misreporting! Let's talk about the facts for a change! Let's talk about some factual information that
Jost and
Lairmore don't want to talk about .... information they don't want you to know about! Let's talk about some stuff that our local media representatives who delight in publishing stories which slam Commissioner
Penning have been either too lazy, too intimidated or too "bought off" to investigate and report on themselves.
Here we go!
What follows hereinbelow is a breakdown by category for Gasconade County's tire and tire service expenditures for the period from 4/18/2005 thru 7/25/2009 based upon copies of invoices provided to me back in 2009. I provided my analysis to Commissioner
Penning last year. Since that time he has been trying to persuade the other two Commissioners that reforms are needed in the way the county purchases tires and tire services.
Matt Penning has been unsuccessful, but not because he hasn't tried very hard. You see, he is out-voted 2 to 1 everytime he attempts to change the "good old boy tire purchasing" system.
2005 (starting with 4/18/2005 invoice)*
- Tires/Tubes (included in county bid spec): $6,366.96 (34.4%)
- Tires/Tubes (NOT included in bid spec): $7,119.10 (38.5%)
- Tire Casing Credits (NOT included in bid spec): $0.00 (0.0%)
- Service Calls (included in bid spec): $618.00 (3.3%
- Change/Repair/Balance Labor (NOT included in spec): $2,329.00 (12.6%)
- Other Labor (NOT included in bid spec): $410.00 (2.2%)
- Batteries (NOT included in bid spec): $291.80 (1.6%)
- Parts & Miscellaneous (NOT included in bid spec): $1,353.53 (7.3%)
- Tire & Battery Disposal Fees (NOT included in bid spec): $3.50 (nil)
Sub-Total Items Included In Bid Spec:
$6,984.96 (37.8%)
Sub-Total Items NOT Included In Bid Spec:
$11,506.93 (62.2%)
Total of All Expenditures for Tires and Tire Services:
$18,491.89
* This represents an analysis of invoices provided to me. Note, however, that invoices dated 1/1/2005 thru 4/17/2005 were not made available for this analysis.
2006
- Tires/Tubes (included in county bid spec): $13,422.50 (53.3%)
- Tires/Tubes (NOT included in bid spec): $7,600.22 (30.2%)
- Tire Casing Credits (NOT included in bid spec): $0.00 (0.0%)
- Service Calls (included in bid spec): $417.00 (1.7%)
- Change/Repair/Balance Labor (NOT included in spec): $3,023.00 (12.0%)
- Other Labor (NOT included in bid spec): $0.00 (0.0%)
- Batteries (NOT included in county bid spec): $147.90 (0.6%)
- Parts & Miscellaneous (NOT included in bid spec): $541.06 (2.1%)
- Tire & Battery Disposal Fees (NOT included in bid spec): $42.00 (0.2%)
Sub-Total Items Included In Bid Spec:
$13,839.50 (54.9%)
Sub-Total Items NOT Included In Bid Spec:
$11,354.18 (45.1%)
Total of All Expenditures for Tires and Tire Services:
$25,193.68
2007
- Tires/Tubes (included in county bid spec): $14,390.88 (66.7%)
- Tires/Tubes (NOT included in bid spec): $3,244.93 (15.0%)
- Tire Casing Credits (NOT included in bid spec): $0.00 (0.0%)
- Service Calls (included in bid spec): $714.00 (3.3%)
- Change/Repair/Balance Labor (NOT included in spec): $2,327.25 (10.8%)
- Other Labor (NOT included in bid spec): $211.25 (1.0%)
- Batteries (NOT included in bid spec): $111.90 (0.5%)
- Parts & Miscellaneous (NOT included in bid spec): $555.12 (2.6%)
- Tire & Battery Disposal Fees (NOT included in bid spec): $25.00 (0.1%)
Sub-Total for Items Included In Bid Spec:
$15,104.88 (70.0%)
Sub-Total for Items NOT Included In Bid Spec:
$6,475.45 (30.0%)
Total of All Expenditures for Tires and Tire Services:
$21,580.33
2008
- Tires/Tubes (included in county bid spec): $19,313.42 (66.1%)
- Tires/Tubes (NOT included in bid spec): $4,530.20 (15.5%)
- Tire Casing Credits (NOT included in bid spec): $70.00 (0.2%)
- Service Calls (included in bid spec): $1,142.75 (3.9%)
- Change/Repair/Balance Labor (NOT included in spec): $3,417.0 (11.7%)
- Other Labor (NOT included in bid spec): $132.50 (0.5%)
- Batteries (NOT included in bid spec): $0.00 (0.0%)
- Parts & Miscellaneous (NOT included in bid spec): $446.39 (1.5%)
- Tire & Battery Disposal Fees (NOT included in bid spec): $179.00 (0.6%)
Sub-Total for Items Included In Bid Spec:
$20,456.17 (70.0%)
Sub-Total for Items NOT Included In Bid Spec:
$8,775.09 (30.0%)
Total of All Expenditures for Tires and Tire Services:
$29,231.26
2009 (thru 7/25/2009)**
- Tires/Tubes (included in county bid spec): $12,657.56 (74.3%)
- Tires/Tubes (NOT included in bid spec): $2,087.26 (12.3%)Tire Casing Credits (NOT included in bid spec): $0.00 (0.0%)
- Service Calls (included in county bid spec): $466.50 (2.7%)
- Change/Repair/Balance Labor (NOT included in spec): $1,675.50 (9.8%)
- Other Labor (NOT included in bid spec): $0.00 (0.0%)
- Batteries (NOT included in bid spec): $0.00 (0.0%)
- Parts & Miscellaneous (NOT included in bid spec): $140.26 (0.8%)
- Tire & Battery Disposal Fees (NOT included in bid spec): $9.00 (0.05%)
Sub-Total for Items Included In Bid Spec:
$13,124.06 (77.0%)
Sub-Total for Items NOT Included In Bid Spec:
$3,912.02 (23.0%)
Total of All Expenditures for Tires and Tire Services:
$17,036.08
** This represents an analysis of invoices provided. Note, however, that invoices dated 7/26/2009 thru today's date were not made available for this analysis.
Based Upon All Tire And Tire Services Invoices Examined From 4/18/2005 To 7/25/2009
- Tires/Tubes (included in county bid spec): $66,151.32 (59.3%)
- Tires/Tubes (NOT included in bid spec): $24,581.71 (22.0%)
- Tire Casing Credits (NOT included in bid spec): $70.00 (0.06%)
- Service Calls (included in bid spec): $3,358.25 (3.0%)
- Change/Repair/Balance Lbr (NOT included in bid spec): $12,771.7 (11.5%)
- Other Labor (NOT included in bid spec): $753.75 (0.7%)
- Batteries (NOT included in bid spec): $551.60 (0.5%)
- Parts & Miscellaneous (NOT included in bid spec): $3,036.36 (2.7%)
- Tire & Battery Disposal Fees (NOT included in bid spec): $258.50 (0.2%)
Grand Total for Items Included In Bid Spec:
$69,509.57 (62.3%)
Grand Total for Items NOT Included In Bid Spec:
$42,023.67 (37.7%)
Grand Total of All Expenditures for Tires & Tire Services:
$111,533.24
From this analysis, we can see that the county has only been bidding out 62.3% of its total tire and tire services expenditures. I recommend that the county revise and improve its tire and tire service bid specifications to make it more comprehensive. I advise that this work be performed by the Road and Bridge Department Superintendent under the close direction of the County Commission.
The big opportunities for improvement of the county's tire and tire services bid specification are as follow:
- add in a number of "odd" tire specifications which are not currently included,
- add in change labor, repair labor, tire plug labor, tire mounting labor, etc.,
- add in large tire casing credit (which the county has generally not been getting),
- add in the labor rate(s) for other non-tire servicing labor,
- add in prices for batteries most commonly used, and
- combine the Road and Bridge Department tire contract with the Sheriff's Department tire business and bid the whole package out together so as to attract more and better bids.
Ever see this kind of detailed analysis in the County Commission Meeting Minutes? Ever see this kind of detailed analysis in any county newspapers or any county news online websites? You don't have to answer; I already know the answer! We've got to demand more out of the local press!
Now let's talk about what Commissioner
Penning and I found when we poured through all those tire and tire services invoices. It was absolutely shocking! Eye-opening to say the very least!
Here's what we found:
- Jost Tire Co. invoices and a few Central Tire Co. invoices unsigned by ANY representative of the county,
- Jost Tire Co. invoices signed or initialed by Presiding Commissioner Ron Jost on behalf of the county,
- Jost Tire Co. invoices signed by Jost Tire employees "for" the receiving county employee and initialed under the signature,
- Duplicate invoices from Jost Tire Co. (Did we actually pay twice for the same tires and tire services? I hope not!),
- Inconsistent recording of truck # and mileage as well as grader # and hours,
- A few Jost Tire Co. invoices which reflected tire pricing which was higher than pricing previously accepted in their bid pricing,
- Jost Tire Co. invoices for the same tire purchase or tire service for the same truck or road grader repeated on surprisingly short time intervals and absent any record of truck mileage or grader hours,
- Central Tire Co. invoices where credits for tire casings were actually given .... but not for very long and only for a total of amount of $70, and
- NO Jost Tire Co. invoices reflecting any used tire casing credit whatsoever. NONE! NADA!
It has been obvious that changes in procedures are sorely needed. We are told that some of the
problems I have listed will be solved with the implementation of new procedures. Well, for the sake of Gasconade County taxpayers, I hope that will in fact be the case!
So,
Hermann Hearsay nation, I hope you will agree with me that Northern District Associate Commissioner
Penning was entirely justified in raising the issues he has raised! I hope you will agree with me that scrapping the county's competive bidding process altogether vs. tightening it up by including items (37.7% of the total) that had not previously been included in the sloppy county tire and tire services bid specification was the WRONG thing to do! I hope you will agree with me that the county should carefully examine the pros and cons of combining the Road and Bridge Department tire and tire services business with the Sheriff's Department tire and tire services business into ONE BIG BID PACKAGE. The votes taken by Presiding Commissioner
Jost and Southern District Associate Commissioner
Lairmore during the 7/1 Commissioners Meeting will result in less than optimum tire and tire services purchasing. I hope you will agree with me that their votes were unwise. You will have to determine for yourselves whether their votes were also unethical and in violation of one or more Missouri state statutes.
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