Faro will soon be implementing a new purchasing policy, designed to benefit local contractors. While it hasn’t actually become policy yet, one company has already taken advantage of it, keeping town’s money flowing to local contractors! Or at least one local contractor.
Some people noticed work being done by the mayor’s company on some empty lots on Ladue – and asked about it. The town administration explained that there was a new purchasing policy on the horizon, so that the town could hire contrators who had pre-registered with the town to make the process more efficient. Rather than going to tender, they could just look in their book of pre-approved vendors and call one.
Ok, so that’s the future. The town can look at the list of who has filled out the form and choose the mayor’s company – or some other if anyone else understands the process and has filled out the forms. But what about the work being done now? When it was pointed out that this new purchasing policy did not yet exist, the manager of operations eventually said that it was faster just to hire the mayor’s company than to put things out to tender.
So there you have it. Rather than looking for the best deal for Faro, it was faster just to give the job to the mayor’s company with a no-bid contract. Let’s celebrate the efficiency of that.
And in the future, there will be a quick process to give town work to the mayor’s company – or other local contractors that dedicate the time every year to fill out all of the forms, provide copies of their insurance policies, etc, all with no guarantee of work with the town of Faro – or that the work even exists. But of course the mayor does know what work is coming up – and has a bit of an advantage in this.
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