Erdmann defends no-bid contract for consultant

Date: 8/31/2010

Sept. 1, 2010

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

SPRINGFIELD -- Lee Erdmann, the city's chief administrative and financial officer, is hoping the City Council will recognize the potential benefits from training offered through a $143,500 contract with a Connecticut-based consultant.

City Councilor Tim Rooke, though, asserted the contract should have been awarded through a bidding process, not simply approved by Mayor Domenic Sarno.

The City Council has cut the funds for the consultant from the current budget.

Under state statue, Erdmann told Reminder Publications professional services are not required to go out to bid. He added both the city's procurement officers and members of the Law Department approved the process.

Rooke said the state law allows a simple approval process, but that bidding "breeds accountability."

"This should have gone out to bid because Erdmann disclosed a relationship between him and the consultant," Rooke said.

The contract is between the city and Harry Kenworthy, the principal of Quality and Productivity Improvement Center, LLC. Erdman said he brought Kenworthy to Sarno's attention after meetings with city department heads in January where they expressed interest in developing a program of "continuous improvements."

Erdmann had met Kenworthy while Erdmann was employed in Hartford, Conn., and thought he would be the right person for the job. Kenworthy facilitates workshops in which municipal employees look at the processes of city government and find ways to improve efficiency. His program in Springfield, Erdmann said, was called "Continuous Improvement Springfield."

Kenworthy received, according to his contract, $41,000 from the city for "up to 20 training days at $2,000 per day; cost of copying and materials not to exceed $1,000" for the period of March 25 through June 30.

The additional $102,500 was cut by the City Council, Rooke said. He said the Sarno Administration appealed that cut to the state's Secretary of Administration and Finance, who could have restored the line item. It was not restored.

Erdmann subsequently sought and received a $25,000 grant from the Davis Foundation to help fund the program. The City Council must vote to accept that grant, which Erdmann hopes they will do.

"We don't want to lose the momentum," he said.

Erdmann denied the relationship between him and Kenworthy was anything more than a "working relationship" brought about by the "good job" Kenworthy did in Hartford.

Rooke said the City Council hasn't received answers to questions about exactly what Kenworthy is doing for the city and what benefits come from his work.

Erdmann explained that at one previous session in the city procurement department a weeklong review supervised by Kenworthy examined city's contracting process. He said before the review the city took 89 days to put a contract in place. As a result of Kenworthy's work, the process now takes 48 days. Erdmann's hopes that in the future that can be cut to seven days.

Erdmann admitted, "This is an expensive service and we have to justify the cost."

"I believe from the training we're doing we will be able to justify the expense," he added.

He said the city's goal is to end the contract with Kenworthy by the end of the current fiscal year. By then he would have trained people within the city to continue the work of "Continuous Improvement Springfield."

The next session Erdmann would like to run would involve the presidents of all of the city's municipal unions.