Cash Strapped Board of Ed. Found $550,000 for No Bid - New Tech for their New Leased Office Space.

 

But, MCPS teachers can't get any copy paper.

Note that this Resolution was on the Consent Agenda, so no discussion by the Board of Education.  The notation on this purchase claims it was a bridge contract through something called TIPS USA. 

We looked on the TIPS USA site and found this Georgia vendor.  They state that they are not minority or woman owned.  No opportunity for minority or woman owned vendors to bid on this contract.  

https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/CUSS5C70FB0B/$file/Procurement Contracts 230824.pdf

💰💰💰 Watch as @mocoboe Wastes $500K of Education Funding. Couldn't be Bothered to Put Purchase out for Competitive Bids or Use Existing Contract.

 $500,000  

That's how much the Board of Education overspent on the purchase of school buses on August 23, 2022.

That's nothing in Montgomery County, Maryland, right? 

Montgomery County is a wealthy county, and no one cares about spending an extra $500,000, not even when the money could have gone to paying teachers, substitutes, school staff or for classroom supplies. 

Montgomery County is flush with cash.  

On Tuesday, August 23, 2022, the Montgomery County Board of Education approved an "emergency" purchase of $9.7 million dollars for diesel school buses.  

The Board of Education already had an existing contract in place that could have been used to purchase the school buses, but they didn't bother to use that contract.  

They could have put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) for this purchase and taken bids, evaluated vendors (minority/women/disabled) but they didn't bother to do that either. One vendor has already filed a Protest.

They ended up spending $500,000 more than they would have if they just used the contract they already had in place. 

The Board of Education meeting covered this no RFP, no bid purchase for exactly 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

A MCPS administrator shuffled some papers around, gave no explanation for why this was an "emergency" and the Board unanimously voted to spend an extra $500,000 on school buses.  

Watch:  

BREAKING: Vendor Files PROTEST with @mcps over Today's EMERGENCY $9.7M Diesel Bus Purchase. EV Vendors weren't able to bid on this purchase.

Hours before the Montgomery County Board of Education is set to approve the "emergency" $9.7 million dollar purchase of DIESEL school buses an electric school bus vendor has filed a PROTEST with the MCPS Procurement Unit.  

Electric School Bus vendors were not permitted to bid on the MCPS procurement of 64 School Buses on August 5th.  That purchase, made without a public bidding process, is set to be ratified at today's Board of Education meeting with a unanimous vote of the Board.  

64 DIESEL school buses were purchased by MCPS staff on August 5th.  Why didn't they consider purchasing 64 ELECTRIC school buses in alignment with the alleged goal to convert the entire MCPS bus fleet to electric?  

AutoFlex Fleet Protest to M... by Parents' Coalition of Montg...