Board alters plans on bids
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Responding to criticism, top state educators have dropped plans to award two no-bid contracts to the former law firm of state Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek.
Instead, bids will be sought for the $625,000 in professional services after complaints from some members of the state’s top school board and lawmakers.
“We want to be responsive to concerns,” said Penny Dastugue of Mandeville, a member of the board and chairwoman of the committee that oversees contracts.
Education officials said in July that the firm set to get the contracts — Adams and Reese of New Orleans — was one of the few that could do the work.
But critics said they were concerned about the appearance of no-bid contracts going to the firm that employed Pastorek until he became superintendent in 2007.
“You want everything to pass the smell test that you sign off on,” board member Linda Johnson of Plaquemine said in July, one of several board members that asked questions publicly and privately.
Johnson said on Thursday that she wants to see how the request for proposals is drafted.
But Johnson said she was encouraged that the contracts are getting scrutiny.
“This allows me to understand that it was taken very seriously, my concerns,” Johnson said.
All the comments were made in interviews on Thursday and Friday. No formal announcements have been made about new plans for the contracts.
Dastugue said that, since Adams and Reese is Pastorek’s former law office, “there was concern by board members and other people that it may not appear appropriate, even though it was perfectly within the rules in our policy.
“So this is out of an abundance of caution,” she said.
State Sen. Robert Kostelka, R-Monroe, who has clashed with Pastorek on education issues, asked about the no-bid contracts during a legislative hearing on Monday.
Asked later about new plans to seek bids on the contracts Kostelka said, “I can’t say I am pleased.
“I think they sort of got caught and now they are saying they are going out for bids,” he said of educators.
The contracts involve work for the Recovery School District, which includes public schools run by the state, mostly in New Orleans, to improve academic performance.
RSD Superintendent Paul Vallas said he informed the state board of plans to seek bids after talking to Pastorek.
“Because someone is going to try to imply that this is a conflict of interest,” Vallas said of the original, no-bid plans.
Education officials in July said that one of the contracts would have paid Adams and Reese $500,000.
It would be for consulting services to the RSD to help obtain construction funds through state and federal tax credit programs.
The other contract totals $125,000. It includes legal services to the RSD on federal tax programs for facility construction and other issues.
“There are only one or two experts in town with any experience with this at all,” Vallas said on Friday.
Vallas said Adams and Reese offered the state “one hell of a deal.”
He said education officials will seek bids on the projects from law firms and financial firms and submit the three best proposals to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, possibly by November. He said up to $175 million in assistance is at stake.
Board member Chas Roemer of Baton Rouge, chairman of a new committee that oversees the RSD, said he thinks bids should be sought for the work.
A no-bid contract is justified if there is only one provider, Roemer said.
“I don’t believe that is the case here,” he said. “My guess is, and it is a guess, is that there are other firms that could potentially do this and we ought to find out.”
Pastorek was out of town and unlikely to comment on the contracts, said Rene Greer, director of communications for the state Department of Education.
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