Living Here

Article by Terry O’Neill

Condolences go to John Halverson on his election into the city’s labyrinth, with its magic doors and hidden passages that open for some and shut for others. It will take some time to see behind the curtain, and see who and how the doors and passageways are controlled. But here is a little insight into the city’s bidding maze. There has been, and probably still is, a lot of subtle rigging of city bids, which starts with the city’s bidding procedures which few have ever read.

Although city has to post bid requests for projects, and anyone can bid on them, their bid may never get looked at unless they follow the procedure which they may not know even exists.

For example: In the procedure, a business has to prequalify every year for each and every specific type of job that it wishes to bid on, otherwise their bid will be discarded without opening, or notification to them that their bid has been discarded (it is in the procedure). Of course the procedure doesn’t say who makes the decision on what the pre-qualification requirements are; or who verifies that the businesses being prequalified can, does and will meet those requirements, or who in the city will issue the city’s prequalifying approvals? The procedure doesn’t explain why it has to be done every year, but the city’s bidding process can explain why a parking garage that should have had a cost of about 2.5 million to build was quoted at 7 million, and why it costs $400,000 to build a gazebo.

City government is a legal labyrinth that may lead to dead ends or open passage ways, but that all depends on the wizard cloaked in silence who selectively opens and closes those passageways for whom he wishes. It doesn’t end there. Those who are prequalified receive advance notice of the bid (it is in the procedure, then the bid is placed in the newspaper, as required by law. However, once again, only those who are prequalified, and therefore have already received an advanced notice, can have their bids accepted. So the city meets the law but not the intent of the law. Welcome to Lake Geneva’s labyrinth, Mr. John Halverson!

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