Van Treuren: Lorain County Commissioners Are Violating Ohio Revised Code With No-Bid Projects
Added: (Wed Jan 18 2012)
Lorain County Commissioner candidate Phil Van Treuren said today that he believes the board of commissioners has violated Ohio Revided Code over the last six years by not publicly bidding out projects that consistently exceed $25,000.
Ohio Revised Code Section 307.86 requires that any purchases in excess of $25,000 be subjected to a public bidding process. Van Treuren pointed to records that show the Lorain County Commissioners have routinely approved more than $25,000 in expenditures for Technivision video filming and editing.
"I’m not suggesting that the Lorain County Commissioners are purposely violating the Ohio Revised Code," Van Treuren said, “but six years in a row of exceeding the spending limits creates the impression that they are sidestepping the law. This might simply be a case of carelessness, but it’s hard to believe that no one has noticed it yet.”
According to public county records, the amounts approved for Technivision by the commissioners were $28,785 in the year 2007; $28,000 in the year 2008; $28,000 in the year 2009; and $28,000 in the year 2010. In 2011, the total amount of taxpayer funds spent on Technivision was $25,800, which is also in excess of the limit.
Ohio Revised Code section 307.86, which governs competitive bidding requirements for boards of county commissioners, states the following:
"Anything to be purchased, leased, leased with an option or agreement to purchase, or constructed, including, but not limited to, any product, structure, construction, reconstruction, improvement, maintenance, repair, or service, except the services of an accountant, architect, attorney at law, physician, professional engineer, construction project manager, consultant, surveyor, or appraiser, by or on behalf of the county or contracting authority, as defined in section 307.92 of the Revised Code, at a cost in excess of twenty-five thousand dollars . . . shall be obtained through competitive bidding."
Van Treuren said that the law is clear, and that this oversight adds to a narrative that taxpayer money isn’t being spent responsibly by the Lorain County Commissioners.
"These expenditures simply do not qualify as emergencies, and a real pattern of careless spending and disrespect for taxpayer dollars is starting to emerge here," Van Treuren said. “The public bidding requirement is in place for an important reason: because it often results in saving taxpayer money. I’m calling on the commissioners to start taking this requirement seriously."