Meridian officials defend legislative candidate’s business contract MAY 18, 2010 | POSTED BY JAY HOWELL
When the contracted administrator of an urban renewal agency (URA) is awarded a separate contract to operate a business venture owned, in part, by the same URA, is it a conflict of interest? That’s precisely the question in the city of Meridian, where the administrator for the Meridian Development Corporation (MDC) also manages the Ground Floor business incubator.
Shaun Wardle is the owner of V&G Ventures, which was contracted by the MDC to serve as the administrator for the URA. According to records obtained by the Idaho Freedom Foundation, V&G is paid roughly $125,000 annually. “We do really everything, in terms of processing paperwork, records management, financial planning, strategic planning, project execution, acting as the team that administrates the overall operation of the development corporation,” said Wardle.
V&G was contracted to manage the Ground Floor business incubator, after the previous management company dropped out of its agreement with the city last February. “It was a quick transition we were in,” said Larry Lipschultz, chairman of the MDC board of directors. “There was a period, over a couple of days, where the owners of Venga Works (the previous management company) fired the president of the company and decided they didn’t want to be in that business anymore.” Crunched for time, the MDC offered V&G $3,000 per month to manage the Ground Floor until Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.
But Merritt said when time is of the essence, that's precisely when public agencies should slow down and not make snap decisions. "If it seems like you've got to do something today, or someone is putting pressure on you to do something, that's when you'd better back away and take a harder look. Maybe bring in some more people, and get some transparency on the issue."
Doesn't State Law require personal services contracts over $10k/year be advertised?
ReplyDeletePeople should give MDC a break - they have been a very transparent organization, and have been willing to share their information without concerns. Sounds like this was a quick need, knowing that Venga Works was going out of business and this happened just a week or two after the launch of their incubator space.
ReplyDeleteI took the time to research Idaho Code on personal services contracts Sec 59-514. 15 days posting in the legal section of the paper is required.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I took the time to see the total tax take of MDC and for 2009 it came to $190,000. They are going to pay $125,000?yr. to the new manager. What's the deal here?