New Haven Independent

Santana (pictured) is a construction manager for the school system. The board member posing the question was Richard Abbatiello. He was questioning the cost of an on-call HVAC repair contract that the BOE was preparing to sign.

The interchange Monday night was part of what appears to be a more vigorous oversight by the BOE’s Administration and Finance Committee of the contracts that cross its collective desk before ascending to the full board for approval.

Under discussion Monday night at the committee’s regular meeting were, among many other contracts, five for on-call services: painting and varnishing to the low bidder, LA Homes of New Haven, in an amount not to exceed $100,00; emergency lighting inspections and repairs to Total Lighting Services of Waterbury, in an amount not to exceed $50,000; on-call fire alarm repairs to Fire Protection Testing of Cheshire, not to exceed $150,000; on-call carpentry and renovation to GC Construction of New Haven, not to exceed $100,000; and, finally, that HVAC inspection and repair contract to EMCOR Service/Tucker Mechanical of Meriden, not to exceed $400,000 .

Santana answered Abatiello’s question by saying the HVAC systems, especially in the new schools, have grown more complex, requiring work sometimes beyond the know-how of the on-site BOE facilities staff. “They switch over the heating to air conditioning,” she said, “dealing with the boilers and other issues that may be too difficult for our guys.”

“But, still $400,000 is an awful lot,” Abbatiello, along with other committee members, Michael Nast (at right in picture) and Frances Padilla (pictured below), pressed Santana, Will Clark, the chief operating officer, and Sue Weisselberg, the school construction coordinator.

EMCOR was chosen in part because it has a track record with the system, in addition to being the low-bidder, Santana replied.

“Having been with us,” she said, “they know the preventive maintenance involved, the number of hours that will be required.”

Other companies that bid came in higher because they don’t know the systems, she suggested.

Santana further made her case that for the $400,000, as with the other successful low bids, the BOE gets a promise to have a set number of technicians available simultaneously. “In the winter, for example, if we have breakdowns, they can respond, possibly, worst case, to, say, up to six schools at once.”

That was one reason LA Homes, for example, failed to win a $100,000 carpentry contract. “First, they are new to us, with not a lot of school experience. And, second, they’re a small company staffwise. We thought that even though the painting is pre-scheduled in most cases, they just might not have enough staff to have people available for simultaneous jobs.”

“All right,” said Abbatiello, “but I’d still like more detail.”

“Well,” said Santana, “for example, returning to the HVAC contract, with a lot of the big equipment, they send two technicians, and each guy gets $93 an hour, so that’s close to $200 an hour. That’s why we have to budget; there needs to be sufficient funding for it, should it be necessary.”

“Whoa,” said Abbatiello, “maybe we should be training some of the kids in our schools for that kind of a career!”

In an email message, the Board’s chief operating officer, Will Clark, said he thought the questions raised by Abbatiello, the committee’s chair, and members Padilla and Nast, were neither unusual nor occasioned by the particularly cash-strapped moment in which the city and BOE find themselves.

“The questions asked at the meeting,” he wrote, “are consistent with the committee’s history in which the members are active participants in our process.”

He emphasized that the process is open and transparent, calling attention to the phone-book thick documentation, which comes to members at each meeting, the back-up showing all the detail of the bidding process.

“I can assure you that all bidding requirements were followed and we fully complied with and cooperated with the City Purchasing agent to assure selection of the lowest qualified bidder for the services in question.”

Clark said he was putting together information for the three committee members on the bidding questions they’d inquired about. Committee members retain the right, he said, to either table items or reject them, as does the full Board.