Public Contracts (Office Of The City Manager)
| Multi Request | Public Contracts |
| Submitted | July 11, 2018 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Dan Rubins
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the California Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:
To Whom It May Concern:
I. Background Information
Contract administration is frequently a source of concerning behavior in the public sector. For example:
- In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, a company with only two employees (Whitefish Energy) was hired hired by PREPA, Puerto Rico's public utility company, to restore power to the island at a cost of $300M. The contract had audit-proofing clauses and left little recourse for PREPA due to nonperformance. After 8 months, Puerto Rico did not have power fully restored and now Congressional and FBI investigations are pending.
- During an internal audit of the City of San Diego's contracting practices, the contract with office products supplier Staples was found to exceed the City Council's approved $2M annual threshold by a full $1M. Auditors found found insufficient financial controls and produced a further 60 pages of recommendations.
- The US Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) found sustained exceptions for incurred costs audits 28.6% of the time in its 2017 Report to Congress.
- From 2010 to 2013, a Maryland Transit Authority employee allegedly used poor contracting oversight to siphon $6.3M from the state coffers.
- The City of Vallejo, CA was recently the victim of an alleged contracting kickback scheme run by the city's landscape maintenance manager, only uncovered in an FBI investigation. The kickback scheme occurred only a few years after the city was in Chapter 9 bankruptcy because of ballooning contractual obligations.
- In recent years, officials in the southern California cities of Bell, Irwindale, La Puente, Monterey Park, Pico Rivera, Temple City, and Vernon have been brought up on various public corruption charges.
While the vast majority of public contracting is done with integrity, bad actors and a lack of public knowledge have a disproportionate effect on the fiscal wellbeing and public trust of every level of government.
II. Requested Records
Pursuant to the { law }, I hereby request the following records:
1. Any and all executed contracts, memorandums of understanding (MOUs), and other equivalent agreements that are currently active, or were active within the last two years, other than standard employee agreements. Please provide a copy of the executed document as well as any addenda, amendments, attachments, exhibits, materials, and schedules.
2. Any and all contract template documents, for example, employee agreements, vendor agreements, master services agreements, nondisclosure agreements, or interagency cooperation contracts.
3. General policies and procedures for contract administration, including training materials and records used to instruct members of your agency in contract administration.
4. Any available process narratives, audit reports, or findings regarding contract administration covering the last two years.
I am happy to discuss any issues or suggestions to make fulfillment more manageable for your office.
III. Fees
If there are any fees for searching or copying these records, please inform me in advance of fulfilling the request.
I would also like to request a waiver of all fees in that the disclosure of the requested information is in the public interest and will contribute significantly to the public's understanding of how governments manage public money and the obligations to which they are entrusted.
Neither I, nor my company (Legal Robot), has any commercial interest in obtaining the requested information. Rather, we intend to use software to analyze and disseminate the requested information free of charge so that the public may identify patterns of bad behavior that, when eliminated, will benefit governments and the public alike.
We plan to enrich and cross-link the information we receive from multiple jurisdictions, and provide an exploratory interface for the public on the internet, for free. Because we consider this work to be Data Journalism, and we further expect to provide our analysis to other media organizations for additional print and online publication, I ask to be categorized as a representative of the news media. Upon request, I am happy to provide our analysis and any articles we write based on our analysis in advance of publication, though I cannot speak for other media outlets.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 calendar days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Dan Rubins
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter.
I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 calendar days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Dan Rubins
From: Office Of The City Manager
Dear Mr. Rubins,
The City of Roseville is in receipt of your records requests.
The records requests dated July 19, 2018 were received by the City of Roseville City Clerk Department on January 23, 2018.
The records requests will be processed accordingly. A fee may be assessed for the reproduction of documents consisting of more than nine pages, photos, CD's, DVD's, and postage requirements.
Correspondence regarding the records requests will be sent to requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com>.
Kelly Adams
Deputy City Clerk
City Clerk Department
o: (916) 774-5264
f: (916) 786-9175
Civic Center | 311 Vernon Street | Roseville, CA | 95678
[Roseville_logo_RGB_2016-01]<http://www.roseville.ca.us/clerk/default.asp>
[cid:image003.jpg@01D2BAAA.BDAC2D70]<https://www.facebook.com/cityofroseville>[cid:image004.jpg@01D2BAAA.BDAC2D70]<https://twitter.com/CityofRoseville>[cid:image005.jpg@01D2BAAA.BDAC2D70]<https://www.instagram.com/cityofroseville/>[cid:image006.jpg@01D2BAAA.BDAC2D70]<http://nextdoor.com/>[cid:image007.jpg@01D2BAAA.BDAC2D70]<https://www.youtube.com/user/CityofRosevilleCa>
From: Office Of The City Manager
Dear Dan Rubins,
The City of Roseville (City) is in receipt of your records request. As is always the case, we are more than happy to provide responsive non-exempt records in response to public records requests. In addition to acknowledging receipt, we are contacting you to discuss the scope of your request. As a full service City, responding to your request will cause a significant burden to staff time and resources based on the sheer volume of records that your request will return. Your request as currently submitted is below, with City comments under each item:
1. Any and all executed contracts, memorandums of understanding (MOUs), and other equivalent agreements that are currently active, or were active within the last two years, other than standard employee agreements. Please provide a copy of the executed document as well as any addenda, amendments, attachments, exhibits, materials, and schedules.
It would be supremely helpful if this request can be narrowed in any way. Are there specific types of agreements that you are looking for or is there a sample size that would fulfill your purposes? Please also note that for contracts, agreements, MOUs and any other matter requiring City Council approval, all of that information and attachments thereto are publicly available online here.<https://www.roseville.ca.us/cms/One.aspx?portalId=7964922&pageId=8712755>
Additionally, pursuant to the controlling law, Government Code, Section 6253, subd. (a), (b), and (f), provides, "In addition to maintaining public records for public inspection during the office hours of the public agency, a public agency may comply with subdivision (a) by posting any public record on its Internet Web site and, in response to a request for a public record posted on the Internet Web site, directing a member of the public to the location on the Internet Web site where the public record is posted. However, if after the public agency directs a member of the public to the Internet Web site, the member of the public requesting the public record requests a copy of the public record due to an inability to access or reproduce the public record from the Internet Web site, the public agency shall promptly provide a copy of the public record pursuant to subdivision (b)." (Emphasis added.)
We are more than happy to work with you in good faith to locate the records you seek and hope that you can work with us, as applicable, to narrow your request.
2. Any and all contract template documents, for example, employee agreements, vendor agreements, master services agreements, nondisclosure agreements, or interagency cooperation contracts.
We can pull and provide to you sample/template form agreements.
3. General policies and procedures for contract administration, including training materials and records used to instruct members of your agency in contract administration.
We can pull and provide items that appear to be responsive to this request.
4. Any available process narratives, audit reports, or findings regarding contract administration covering the last two years.
We will search to see if we have anything that is responsive to this request.
Based on the burden and extremely large scope of your request as presently submitted, we would also request that you assist us and graciously waive the standard ten (10) day timeline and, instead, agree to allow us to provide you records as quickly as reasonably practicable.
We very much thank you in advance for your cooperation and understanding in assisting us in fulfilling your records request. If you have any questions at all or wish to speak further about anything related hereto, please just let us know.
Thank you,
Kelly Adams
Deputy City Clerk
City Clerk Department
o: (916) 774-5264
f: (916) 786-9175
Civic Center | 311 Vernon Street | Roseville, CA | 95678
[Roseville_logo_RGB_2016-01] <http://www.roseville.ca.us/clerk/default.asp>
[cid:image003.jpg@01D2BAAA.BDAC2D70]<https://www.facebook.com/cityofroseville>[cid:image004.jpg@01D2BAAA.BDAC2D70]<https://twitter.com/CityofRoseville>[cid:image005.jpg@01D2BAAA.BDAC2D70]<https://www.instagram.com/cityofroseville/>[cid:image006.jpg@01D2BAAA.BDAC2D70]<http://nextdoor.com/>[cid:image007.jpg@01D2BAAA.BDAC2D70]<https://www.youtube.com/user/CityofRosevilleCa>
From: Office Of The City Manager
Dear Dan Rubins,
Please find, attached, a compressed file containing some of the records that are responsive to your request. We are still waiting for you to respond to our prior email requesting clarification of your request and how we can assist you in finding exactly what you are looking for - please see that message and contact us. We will provide additional responsive records a promptly as possible as soon as they are available, but for much of your request, we are necessarily waiting for your assistance and response. (Cal. Govt Code, Section 6253.1.)
Thank you,
Kelly Adams
Deputy City Clerk
City Clerk Department
o: (916) 774-5264
f: (916) 786-9175
Civic Center | 311 Vernon Street | Roseville, CA | 95678
[Roseville_logo_RGB_2016-01]<http://www.roseville.ca.us/clerk/default.asp>
[cid:image003.jpg@01D2BAAA.BDAC2D70]<https://www.facebook.com/cityofroseville>[cid:image004.jpg@01D2BAAA.BDAC2D70]<https://twitter.com/CityofRoseville>[cid:image005.jpg@01D2BAAA.BDAC2D70]<https://www.instagram.com/cityofroseville/>[cid:image006.jpg@01D2BAAA.BDAC2D70]<http://nextdoor.com/>[cid:image007.jpg@01D2BAAA.BDAC2D70]<https://www.youtube.com/user/CityofRosevilleCa>
From: Office Of The City Manager
Dear Mr. Rubins,
We have not received any reply to our request for clarification or to the information that we have provided and are considering this request closed unless we hear otherwise.
Sincerely,
Kelly Adams
Deputy City Clerk
City Clerk Department
o: (916) 774-5264
f: (916) 786-9175
Civic Center | 311 Vernon Street | Roseville, CA | 95678
[Roseville_logo_RGB_2016-01]<http://www.roseville.ca.us/clerk/default.asp>
[cid:image003.jpg@01D2BAAA.BDAC2D70]<https://www.facebook.com/cityofroseville>[cid:image004.jpg@01D2BAAA.BDAC2D70]<https://twitter.com/CityofRoseville>[cid:image005.jpg@01D2BAAA.BDAC2D70]<https://www.instagram.com/cityofroseville/>[cid:image006.jpg@01D2BAAA.BDAC2D70]<http://nextdoor.com/>[cid:image007.jpg@01D2BAAA.BDAC2D70]<https://www.youtube.com/user/CityofRosevilleCa>
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