Public Contracts (Office Of The City Manager)
It is a clone of this request.
| Multi Request | Public Contracts |
| Submitted | July 12, 2018 |
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Communications
From: Dan Rubins
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
From: Office Of The City Manager
This email is sent in response to your e-mail of July 19, 2018, addressed to Dan Buckshi, City Manager for the City of Walnut Creek. In your e-mail, you requested information related to City of Walnut Creek contracts, MOUs and other equivalent agreements that are currently active, or were active within the last two years, other than standard employee agreements, in addition to addenda; amendments; template documents; general policies and procedures for contract administration; and audit reports or findings regarding contract administration pursuant to the California Public Records Act (Government Code ยง 6250, et seq.).
City staff is identifying and gathering responsive, non-exempt public records that reasonably appear to fall within the categories of records that you requested. Due to the voluminous number of records being requested, a 14 day extension is needed to gather the files. We estimate that these can be identified, gathered, and reduced to an electronic database by August 13, 2018, though we will strive to complete the work sooner. We will notify you as soon as the information is ready.
Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions you may have regarding this letter.
Suzie Martinez, MMC | City Clerk
City of Walnut Creek | Website: www.walnut-creek.org<http://www.walnut-creek.org/>
* (925) 943-5819 | * smartinez@walnut-creek.org
[http://claycord.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/walnut_creek1.jpg]<http://walnut-creek.org/government/city-clerk/public-meetings-video-audio> [https://facebookbrand.com/wp-content/themes/fb-branding/prj-fb-branding/assets/images/fb-art.png] <https://www.facebook.com/cityofwalnutcreek/> [http://espp16.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/files/2016/07/Twitter-Logo.png] <https://twitter.com/WalnutCreekGov?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor> [http://3835642c2693476aa717-d4b78efce91b9730bcca725cf9bb0b37.r51.cf1.rackcdn.com/Instagram_App_Large_May2016_200.png] <https://www.instagram.com/walnutcreekgov/>
NOTE: All e-mail messages and attachments sent to and from this e-mail address will be archived and stored for a period of 2 years or longer and may be subject to monitoring, review and/or disclosure to individuals and/or parties other than the recipient.
From: Office Of The City Manager
Mr. Rubins,
This e-mail constitutes the City's response to the California Public Records Act request you submitted to the City Manager's Office on July 19, 2018. As you will recall, I informed you on July 24th that the City had begun the process of identifying records responsive to your request and that I would follow-up with you on or before today, August 13, 2018. That process is now complete. Please see my specific comments below each of your original document requests (which are restated below).
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.
Contracts, MOUs, and other agreements requiring approval by either the City Council or the City Manager are generally retained by the City Clerk's Office. Those specific agreements entered into over the past 2 years (since July 1, 2016) can be accessed directly off our Public Records webpage here: http://www.walnut-creek.org/government/city-clerk/public-records For your convenience, I have also included a list of the 400+ contracts/agreements that can be accessed via the above web link - see excel spreadsheet.
The City Clerk's Office also requested that each City Department separately search its own files and provide agreements/contracts that it has entered into over the past 2 years and which may have required Department Head or Division Manager approval (as opposed to City Council/City Manager approval). Those additional documents have also been collected and are provided as PDFs on a flash drive.
Pursuant to California Government Code Section 6255 (which authorizes the City to redact specific information when the public interest served by such disclosure is outweighed by the privacy interests in not disclosing such information), and where practicable, we have redacted the following information from the responsive documents: Social Security Numbers; personal/residential mailing addresses; personal/residential telephone numbers; and actual third-party signatures on the contracts themselves (leaving the applicable parties' names for identification purposes).
Finally, it is worth noting that since July, 1, 2016, the City's Arts & Recreation Department has entered into 1000+ facility rental agreements. Various examples of each type of agreement are provided in the folder and subfolders entitled "ArtsRec/Facility Rentals". Since these agreements are virtually identical (except with respect to the specific parties, duration of rental, etc.), we have not produced all 1000+ agreements. Please contact me directly if you require further information regarding these specific agreements.
2. Any and all contract template documents, for example, employee agreements, vendor agreements, master services agreements, nondisclosure agreements, or interagency cooperation contracts.
All contract templates approved by the City Attorney's Office and utilized by various City Departments are provided in the folder entitled "Form Templates".
3. General policies and procedures for contract administration, including training materials and records used to instruct members of your agency in contract administration.
A copy of the following are provided: City's Purchasing Policy and Procedures, Policy #208; and Contract Routing Flow Chart.
4. Any available process narratives, audit reports, or findings regarding contract administration covering the last two years.
The City's Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFR) from 2007-2017 can be found on our website at the URL provided below:
http://www.walnut-creek.org/departments/administrative-services/finance/comprehensive-annual-financial-reports-cafr
A flash drive with all the information noted above will be placed in the mail on August 14, 2018 to your attention at:
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 57934
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516
Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions you may have regarding this e-mail.
Suzie Martinez, MMC | City Clerk
City of Walnut Creek | Website: www.walnut-creek.org<http://www.walnut-creek.org/>
* (925) 943-5819 | * smartinez@walnut-creek.org
[http://claycord.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/walnut_creek1.jpg]<http://walnut-creek.org/government/city-clerk/public-meetings-video-audio> [https://facebookbrand.com/wp-content/themes/fb-branding/prj-fb-branding/assets/images/fb-art.png] <https://www.facebook.com/cityofwalnutcreek/> [http://espp16.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/files/2016/07/Twitter-Logo.png] <https://twitter.com/WalnutCreekGov?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor> [http://3835642c2693476aa717-d4b78efce91b9730bcca725cf9bb0b37.r51.cf1.rackcdn.com/Instagram_App_Large_May2016_200.png] <https://www.instagram.com/walnutcreekgov/>
NOTE: All e-mail messages and attachments sent to and from this e-mail address will be archived and stored for a period of 2 years or longer and may be subject to monitoring, review and/or disclosure to individuals and/or parties other than the recipient.
From: Office Of The City Manager
A copy of documents responsive to the request.
Files
pages