To the Editor:

In recent editions of The Enterprise, I have brought to the attention of the public discrepancies in the purchasing process for the proposed new transfer station truck. By my interpretation, there was $32,000 in spending unaccounted for on the quotation when compared to the bid requirements.

I have now referred the purchase of a plow truck approved for purchase order at the February 2020 meeting to the attorney general’s office as that purchase is ready for delivery and was approved by the Berne Town Board at the recent July 2021 regular meeting.

By my interpretation of the quotation provided, Berne paid twice the amount stipulated in the contract documents found in Onondaga County Bid #8996 that I obtained for comparison. There is no explanation for this wild discrepancy on the quotation and the board blindly rubber-stamped Mr, [Randy] Bashwinger’s purchase of more than a quarter-million dollars.

A quotation was presented to the board at the February 2020 meeting for the purpose of voting to make a decision regarding the purchase of this plow truck. I have that hard copy, but the town clerk’s office would not email me a copy.

Mr. Bashwinger presented this quotation as a piggyback purchase on Onondaga County  bid/contract #8996. The document states the pricing is “based off” that contract.

However, that contract document was not provided to the board to check if that was true and the statement “based off” does not really indicate that the pricing is consistent with the actual requirements of the contract. This could have been a misrepresentation.

So I obtained bid document #8996 that includes the contractual obligations of the vendor. The cost paid for that truck is more than twice the price the contract stipulates by my interpretation and by comparison of these two documents.

There was no explanation for this discrepancy in the quotation. The current manufacturer’s suggested retail prices for the truck, the options, and the accessories were not provided and the discounts stipulated in the contract were not stated.

There was no way to determine if the sale was consistent with the requirements of the contract documents. It appears to me that the board blindly approved the purchase in July.

It looks to me as though Mr. Bashwinger paid nearly $90,000 extra for this one. Four board members very willingly approved this spending in July, so maybe I’m wrong.

But I think everyone needs to know how much this truck should cost on the Onondaga bid contract and why so much information appears to be missing from the quotation.

Without the current manufacturer’s suggested retail price numbers, the discounts, and the prices stipulated, I don’t understand the rationale for this purchase, but I am not a lawyer or an accountant. I have yet to hear a good explanation and the vendor does not respond to The Enterprise or to me for comment.

My best guess is that this was not really a piggyback purchase. My hope is that the attorney general will take an interest in this contract as I am told many trucks are bought this way, on this specific contract, by many different municipalities.

If Berne spent a lot of extra money under false pretenses, I would simply like to see it returned. Based on the documentation provided to me by Mr. Bashwinger and the bid contract documents I obtained myself, I can’t seem to account for almost $90,000. Where is it?

Joel Willsey

Berne Town Board