Council members feel they were set up, but vote for survey contract
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY – A spirited debate sidelined a vote June 24 on a contract for ACT Engineers to get on track with bay and lagoon dredging, but a week later council voted 6-1 to approve that contract.
The contract is for a bathymetric survey that measures the silt and sediment buildup to determine the areas to be dredged in the fall. It was added to the annual reorganization meeting’s agenda July 1 at the behest of Councilman Pete Madden.
Although the outcome was different on July 1, the heated comments were a rehash of the earlier meeting, with some members of council feeling they were set up as the bad guys delaying progress on dredging, and accusing the administration of not following its guidance on creating up a pool of qualified engineers for city projects.
“The matter that is in dispute is the way the administration went about in driving this,” Council Vice President Michael DeVlieger said, not the fact any city official wanted a delay in the city’s dredging program.
He reiterated that council asked months earlier to go out to bid with engineering projects but “the will of the administration is not to follow that,” DeVlieger said. He said the administration brings projects like this to council at the last minute and “it makes council looks like the bad guys if it doesn’t go through.”
Saying he is “ticked” at the administration for not not following the process, DeVlieger vowed not to approve another no-bid contract, even for a paper clip.
Councilwoman Karen Bergman said she is happy to approve it. She said she believes in competitive bidding when necessary but that ACT, which has handled the dredging project for six years, was the best one for this particular contract.
“When you get sucker punched, you punch back,” Councilman Keith Hartzell said, referring to the previous meeting a “circus.” He supported DeVlieger’s comments, but said it was time to move forward in a unified way.
Councilman Jody Levchuk said he was overwhelmed with emails indicating some kind of wrongdoing among members of council, including him, after information was sent out saying they were delaying dredging. He said he would respond to everyone about what happened at the prior meeting.
He read a statement supporting making dredging a routine item to keep the process going every year and that he has no problem with ACT Engineers or any other firm “as long as Ocean City and our taxpayers are being taken advantage of.” Levchuk said council asked the administration to put together a pool of qualified engineers for contract. He said the administration is “slowly complying” but isn’t happy about doing so.
He said council didn’t support the contract with ACT a week earlier because it went against the will of council. He said he would support the contract but that the administration had to keep council better informed in the future.
Referring to the sentiment they were set up, Levchuk also said he would expect any member of administration or City Council to “not ever distribute a letter that is not factual and alludes to one believing that this council or me personally are holding up any work for this city. It’s wrong, it’s made up, and it’s not fair ….”
Madden said ACT has done the work well for six years. He acknowledged that City Council is a check and balance to the administration, which chooses contractors, “but at the end of the day, for the most part, council can only screw things up, not actually not there to dictate how things are done or to get into an emotional or political battle over a specific contractor.
Councilman Tomaso Rotondi said he’s only been on council a year and didn’t have prior knowledge of ACT Engineers. He was concerned about how many contracts the company received and wondered why there wasn’t more competitive bidding. Because there was such “pushback” from the administration, he suggested putting together the pool of qualified engineers. He said there were 63 no-bid contracts, which he said was “unheard of” for a municipality.
He, too, called the situation a week earlier a political sucker punch orchestrated by a member of council supported by the administration. He said he was support the resolution to get the work done.
Pointing out Ocean City is a wealthy town, he questioned why the city has a part-time administrator and part-time engineer. Business administrator George Savastano splits his duties with Sea Isle City.
He suggested having a full-time administrator and a full-time engineer on staff.
Rotondi said he wasn’t attacking anyone, but that the city should have its engineer pool done. He said it that wasn’t happening because either the administration “is doing it on purpose to drag your feet to make people look bad in a political situation because you covet one vendor so much or it’s incompetence. I don’t know which one it is.”
Council President Bob Barr said he wrestled with what to do because he cares about the everyone in the town. He said it was uncalled for how much political pressure was placed on him to approve that contract. He said Ocean City is the only town in the county that does things the way it does.
He also spoke to engineers who could put together the scope of work in a couple of hours. At the earlier meeting, Savastano it would take substantial work to put together a bid process for the bathymetric survey.
Barr said he couldn’t support the contract, but was glad there were enough members who would.
Fairness In Taxes President David Breeden spoke during public comment, saying ACT has done work in Ocean City for six years but that during the spring they learned the company was been charging another community less per hour. Because of that, council needed to initiate competition.
Resident Dave Beyel said he appreciated the common sense shown by elected officials and their understanding “right from wrong.” Resident Robert Forman said he was disappointed in behavior of administration and that they should have gotten the engineering pool done.
Todd Eachus said the meeting wasn’t a forum to decide who was to blame and he wanted them to come to a resolution.
Council voted 6-1 to approve the contract for ACT Engineers. Barr voted no.
DeVlieger and Levchuk both said it was for the last time for them voting yet.
Barr, DeVlieger re-elected in split vote
Barr and DeVlieger were re-elected by their peers for Ocean City Council president and vice president in a split vote Friday.
Barr, DeVlieger, Hartzell, Levchuk and Rotondi voted in favor of Barr. Bergman, who was nominated for president, and Madden, voted no on Barr and DeVlieger’s nominations.