Columbia County's purchasing procedures and practices came under questioning Thursday as a Portage automobile dealer asked the County Board's finance committee why a van for Medical Examiner Angela Hinze was bought from a Beaver Dam (Dodge County) dealership and not from a Columbia County vendor.
Jason Syens said he'd asked to be included on the finance committee's agenda not because he was disappointed that his dealership, Jenkins Motor Sales, didn't get the sale after one of the two medical examiner vans stopped functioning in September.
Rather, Syens said, he wanted to know how and why the committee arrived at its decision to buy a van from Reed Chrysler Sales in Beaver Dam, when offered a van of the same make and model - albeit one year older, with 9,000 more miles on the odometer - for about $1,500 less.
The committee had initially gone into closed session to discuss the issue, citing a statutory exception to the Wisconsin open meetings law: "to confer with legal counsel for the governing body who is rendering oral or written advice concerning strategy to be adopted by the body with respect to litigation in which it is or is likely to become involved."
A few minutes after the closed session began, the Daily Register lodged an objection. Syens also told Corporation Counsel C. Joseph Ruf that he had no intention of suing the county over this issue.
Ruf said his reasoning for recommending the closed session was the possibility that the county's decision might be challenged legally, Syens' assurances notwithstanding.
The committee reconvened in open session and allowed Syens to express his concerns.
Those concerns, he said, were these:
• In September, after the breakdown of one of the two vans that the county uses to transport bodies, Hinze had asked Syens for a price quote for a van that would meet the department's needs.
• Syens said he had a 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan with 71,000 miles on the odometer, for which he quoted a price of $8,609.
• Syens learned later that a 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan with 62,000 miles on the odometer was purchased from Reed Chrysler sales for $10,125.
• Syens said Mike Babcock, chief deputy of the Columbia County Sheriff's Office, had looked at the vehicle offered by Reed but did not examine the vehicle he offered, or any other available vehicles.
• According to Syens, the two vehicles were of comparable quality - a contention with which the committee did not concur.
Syens said he thinks the County Board and its committees should, whenever possible, buy from Columbia County-based vendors.
"We're part of this community," he said. "We all pay taxes. I think it should be a priority to do business in the county."
Chairman John Tramburg of Fall River said the 2007 van was determined to be the better buy, even though it was more expensive, because it was newer and had fewer miles.
The finance committee also had a third price quote that was higher than Reed's quote.
The County Board's judiciary committee had initially asked Hinze to get price quotes for new vans, all of which were higher than the county was able to pay, Tramburg said. Then, she was asked to look for quotes on used vans.
In the search for a used van, Tramburg said, he personally made inquiries to three dealerships - Reed, Reed's dealership in Columbus and another Columbus dealership.
"We went out for bids," he said, "and we got bids. We do try to buy in Columbia County as much as possible. In this case, it was more money than the county could afford to spend. Our dollars are tight, very tight."
County Board Chairwoman Debra Wopat of rural Rio noted that Babcock went out to look at the van in Beaver Dam only after the committee had determined that the "middle" quote from Reed was the best available.
Babcock was not asked to look at all the vans offered for sale, and would not have had time to do so, she said.
County Comptroller Lois Schepp said that when the county makes purchases of vehicles and other items, the finance committee relies on the heads of the departments seeking the purchase to shop for the best deal that meets the department's needs. Committee members do not do the shopping themselves, she said.
The medical examiner's department had two available vans until early September, when one of the vans - a late 1990s model with about 143,000 miles on the odometer - stopped working, and a mechanic advised Hinze that it was beyond repair.
Hinze said the department typically keeps using vans until they reach 150,000 miles, and puts between 19,000 and 25,000 miles on them per year.
The vans are equipped with lights, sirens and special doors for transportation of the remains of newly deceased people. The cost of the special equipment is about $800 to $1,000 above the purchase price of the van.
The finance committee said it expedited the purchase, rather than waiting until a new budget year begins in January, to lessen the likelihood that bereaved families would have a long wait to have remains removed.
Schepp noted that the county is in the process of developing an online registry for vendors of anything the county might buy, including vehicles. When the registry is up and running, she said, vendors who register will be notified when the county is looking for something they might be selling.
Committee member Andy Ross of Poynette, who also is a member of the judiciary committee, said the timing of the old van's breakdown (during September, when the finance committee was beginning a long series of departmental budget hearings), and the need to replace it as quickly as possible, were likely factors in how the purchasing process was carried out in this case.
"We do the best we can," he said, "But perhaps this time we didn't dot all the I's and cross all the T's."
Syens said what he was looking for from the committee was not so much a hard-and-fast purchasing policy, but rather a set of "best practices" that could guide county officials toward buying from Columbia County vendors when possible.
"And I believe this purchase," he said, "should have been made in Columbia County."