Not all that long ago, Allentown Mayor Edwin "Fed Ed" Pawlowski was sentenced to 15 years in prison as the ringleader in a political corruption case that included bid rigging for just about everything. You'd think that would be a broadside to local officials throughout the state, to say nothing of the Lehigh Valley. You'd think wrong. Believe it or not, it may still continue. And in Emmaus of all places, just a stone's throw from Allentown. Not only that, but with one of the principals who was tarnished in the Fed Ed case and who should know better. A lot better. Let me lay out the details. You can decide.
Back in 2015, Emmaus Borough voted to purchase the Rodale building and two nearby properties for $2.95 million. For reasons I've yet to discern, they wanted to move police, borough hall, fire department and ambulance corps away from the downtown. Advising them on this deal was the Spillman Farmer architectural firm. They advised borough council that renovations would cost between $2.5 and $3.4 million, depending on whether the work was done in-house or contracted out. Spillman's estimate was a tad off. When the quote came back at $11 million, Emmaus got cold feet on the relocation.
Instead of centralizing, Emmaus instead decided to renovate the three buildings housing its Borough Hall (28 S 4th St), Police Station (400 Jubilee St) and Fire and Ambulance Station (100 N 6th St).Though you won't see it on its borough webpage, it recently issued a Request for Proposals and Qualifications (RFPQ) for an architectural firm. This was advertised in the East Penn Press, a weekly publication with under 5,000 subscribers. It appears in no daily publication of general circulation.
Under Pennsylvania's Borough Code, it appears there's no need to bid a contract for professional services. But even when no RFP or RFPQ is legally required, if you decide to issue one, it has to be fair. If you rig it in favor of one bidder, you are defrauding other bidders who spent considerable time and money in making a bid. And here's the problem. It appears that the Emmaus RFPQ was rigged to favor Spillman.
Spillman, you may recall, is the very same outfit identified as a participant in a corrupt deal for a new pool at Cedar Beach. The court found there was a quid pro quo that Spillman would get the pool contract in exchange for a $2,700 contribution. Spillman later reneged on the contribution, but Fed Ed in the meantime had "baked the cake."
That cake was the RFPQ. Fed Ed instructed city officials to make sure it went to Spillman.
There are several red flags concerning Emmaus' RFPQ.
First, it was advertised in a publication that would never be noticed by most potential bidders.
Second, it is seeking bids only from entities that have done three police stations, three fire departments and four municipal building projects within the past five years. That seems designed to exclude participants.
Third, it wants each bidder to submit its "SFA Hourly Rate Schedule." SFA is Spillman Farmer Architects. It's pretty obvious that Spillman prepared this RFPQ for Emmaus, and would be the only firm on earth to have an SFA Hourly Rate Schedule.
Fourth, Emmaus' Borough Manager ducked me when I called to say I had questions about this RFPQ,
In Fed Ed's case, he wanted campaign contributions. But there could be other incentives. It does not always have to be cash in a brown paper bag. It could be Flyers tickets, nice meals, a vacation.
Emmaus has received bids from just three architectural firms, and one of them just happens to be Spillman Farmer. Borough Council will announce its decision on November 16.
Blogger's Note: I heard from the Emmaus Borough Manager and will update this story on Moday. He tells me the SFA is a reference to a Standard Form Agreement. After some discussion, I agree that I should supplement this story and will do so Monday. (6:55 pm)
13 comments:
Jeepers....
"SFA".....they need a proof a reader
The last time I heard of Spillman Farmer it was concerning the Cedar beach pool. There were shenanigans there for them to do the pool, the most qualified were rejected and it was obvious they favored Spillman Farmer. They cost the city 3x the original quote and the job was sub-par.
It seemed at the time that not only Powlowski but many in the administration including Susan Wild approved that deal. There are lots of incentives often offered in these instances, wining and dining are obvious and common, but also sporting events, Hunting Trips, cruises and just bulging brown bags. This is common in local government from school building projects on up. It seems sometimes that citizens would rather not know, because it makes them feel uncomfortable.
Can anyone imagine the corruption at the state and federal level, again many are willing to turn their head and live in denial.
Lots of those folks in Emmaus just moved there from New Jersey over the past 15 years. They won't notice a thing. Don't worry about it!
Welcome to Southwest Lehigh County, the land of the tailored RFPQ. Next door to Emmaus is Lower Macungie, which used an RFPQ recently to replace its local, longstanding and well respected township engineering firm with an out of county company. Costs are way up.
This is alarming, and worthy of attention.
However, your indictment of Emmaus Borough using a weekly newspaper to post "legal notices" is a tad misplaced.
As everybody knows, certain municipal matters like requests for bids or zoning applications, by law must be advertised in a newspaper of general circulation, whatever that means.
Using weekly "community newspapers" to fulfill the publication requirement to post notices is common practice among municipalities like Emmaus who take advantage of the cheaper advertising rates charged by smaller papers. Emmaus has been advertising in that newspaper for as long as I can remember, so this instance was not unusual.
Blame for this should be placed on our state government. The state's newspaper lobby has convinced legislators to preserve this outdated requirement because the revenue from legal ads pretty much keeps newspapers on life support.
Nowadays, such public "legal notices" should be online. Few people read newspapers any longer, so in effect no one is seeing these legal ads, and the tax-paying public is even less informed.
The flip side of that argument is legal ads pay for whatever community journalism the smaller newspapers do provide, and so the requirement should remain to help support local news gathering.
Interesting read. I wonder what SFA has to say about this...have you called them? FYI - the Spillman principal implicated in the Allentown trial left the firm in January (if you look at his LinkedIn profile).
I did not contact SFA, which in hindsight I should have done. I did contact Emmaus.
Page 27 of the document states:
This is the actual language from the RFP. So, I guess it was a stretch for you to look at the words "AIA Document B1010-2007, Standard Form Agreement", go down 3 lines and think...hmmmmm, I wonder if SFA is short for Standard Form Agreement? Or, perhaps, actually going online and looking what a B101-2007 actually is, and the fact that it actually discusses hourly rates and compensation in 3 sections? Too much effort to try to do real research I suppose? Rather, let's send them to jail...because that's obviously the conclusion you draw?
Page 27 of the RFP:
1. The Agreement shall be comprised of the following documents:
a. AIA Document B101-2007, Standard Form Agreement Between Owner and Architect.
b. Other Documents, including but not limited to:
i. Certificate of Insurance
ii. SFA Hourly Rate Schedule
iii. Proposal and Approval Letters
iv. Fee Schedules
v. Other documents as listed in the Agreement
Sounds more kike what happens in Northampton County.
Check out Grace md that story.
Sad story but really good investigative work Bernie. Placing that ad in a weekly with 5,000 readers, many of whom primarily enjoy the front pages and neighborhood news, surely will result in fewer bidders. Why would Emmaus do that? Who benefits? No one can find out.
It's amazing Spillman is still in business after the pool debacle. You know who was the most hurt by the pool scandal, center city children. Hundred degrees in summer and no place to cool-off. Keep up the good work Bernie.
In addition, there were 5 bids. The RFP was also mailed to more than a dozen other architect firms. In addition, you are correct, the Borough did not have to advertise, and could have simply chosen an architect, but the didn't. They chose to advertise. Perhaps if the Morning Call was actually affordable, and not nearly $2,000 to place an ad, they'd use that paper. But since their pricing is absurd, the East Penn Press and their affiliate newspapers were used.
Lastly, yes, there were definitely requirements with experience relating g to doing prior municipal work. The architect that designed the police station in 2006 designed it without a single closet, no storage, no HVAC for the IT room, an evidence room less than half the size it needed, an heating system from Belgium that required the Borough to import parts every time it needed serviced, and no storm water drainage around the building, which resulted in the basement being flooded. Yeah, I would say experience is required. Would you an insurance attorney to be your labor attorney or criminal defense attorney? Why would you hire an architect not experienced in designing police and fire stations?
11 million is nothing, South Whitehall Township, Lehigh County is spending 14 million to renovate their existing building to build a township manager suite for princess bickel and queen moirgan to backstab people in while bonding over the planned removal of Wehr's Dam.
that 14 million will extend the life of the building 20 years
should have just built new and design it to last 50 years.
quid pro quo is rampant in south whitehall as tori morgan is mulling a run for county commissioner
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