Consultant Robert S. Tipton is reported to have demanded an additional $2,000 in consulting fees from the City of Loveland in order to appear before the City Council during an upcoming public meeting scheduled for July 20, 2010.
Tipton recently conducted a study at the hourly rate of $200 per hour to provide “Process Mapping and Recommendations” while Assistant City Manager Rod Wensing is said to be avoiding the public’s eye and willing to pay Tipton the extra $2,000 to shrug the burden of explaining the study to an inquisitive council in public.
Read the entire story.
Rod Wensing is among the top 3 internal candidates for City Manager but this type of disregard for the public’s money isn’t earning him friends among the more fiscally conservative members of Loveland’s City Council.
Wensing has been credited with saying it is best to stay out of the public’s eye because that way you don’t get blamed when things go wrong. Whether he really did say this or not is probably secondary to the point Assistant City Manager Rene Wheeler and Public Works Director Keith Reester are the ones willing to stand-up and be accountable for staff decisions and recommendations while Wensing is frequently absent from council meetings.
In the LovelandPolitics score book that gives both Wheeler and Reester points for accountability and competence while Wensing’s alleged cynical backdoor strategy of earning the top job earns him a big zero.
Any comments?
Wensing apparently was a real follower of Williams, maybe the truth of the matter is that in his role as a leader he doesn’t want to risk wearing the “leadership” provided in the past.
What bothers me, is that if Wensing is stand offish about the past politics, why in his capacity didn’t speak out against it? Not much of a leader as I see it.
People say Wensing became gun shy about council meetings after he had some trouble in Windsor as town manager but I don’t know for sure.
What bothers me is how this guy seems to spend thousands of dollar without taking it back to the city council. Can that be right or did our council approve all this money for the consultant? If they did can you get the vote for us and let us know who puts their money where their mouth is? I am dying to know who voted for this crap!
I had the same concerns, so I looked up the rules. It appears only contracts over $500k have to be approved by City Council, all others can be approved by the City Manager. Contracts involving professional services only have to be ‘negotiated’ (?), doesn’t appear that there needs to be any formal comparison at all in selecting this type of contractor; whether it be price, experience, or expertise. . .
On a side note, didn’t a similar issue come up a few weeks ago with the Visual Arts Commission selecting a contractor without going through a more formal selection process? I wonder how the City knows they are getting the best deal when they only have to ‘negotiate’ this type of contract with one supplier and individual departments only have to state they’ve met certain requirements to Purchasing to award such contracts.
As far as LP’s scoring goes, “accountability” is hardly proven because you are willing to talk in public (just because you say it doesn’t make it fact.) I score -1 for Wensing and leave the other two at 0.
Touché.
Thanks for the information. It would be valuable to learn the circumstances under which a contract can be sole source or needs at least competitive bids. Some professional services, like hiring outside counsel, do not require a competitive bid.
I wonder if there are enough self-help gurus in Colorado to justify a competitive bid the next time they need one to make a cameo appearance at a council meeting?
In all fairness, Bob Tipton will likely say he needs time to prepare for the meeting so that time is included in the $2,000 fee. Now if he means going into a compromising Yoga position in a hot room to bring together the principles of quantum physics, ancient philosophy and native American spiritual healing that he can channel towards council….. I am not sure we should be paying for that.
In addition, I hope he isn’t providing counseling to anyone on city staff suffering from depression – since he likes to recommend his book titled, “Jump” they might infer the wrong advice from the title.