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Hanceville officials spar over questionable purchase
By Karen WilliamsonA firestorm has broken out over whether Hanceville Mayor Katie Whitley or Fire & Rescue Chief Mike Watson has broken state bid law.
Watson said the mayor told him to purchase over $16,000 in fire gear. He said the mayor told him to make sure the vendor sent three separate invoices for the gear, which would have circumvented a state law that only allows purchases up to $7,500 to be made without a public bid process.
But the mayor places the blame on Watson.
On Monday, the mayor said, “Mike ordered the fire gear. He was given permission to order a set every other month if we had the money provided it didn’t go over the bid law.”
Dan Willingham, the attorney for the Cullman County Commission and the town of West Point, said, “The courts interpreted the law to be succinct and definite. As a general statement, the legislature has given public entities a law on how to make a purchase for $7,500 or more and that is to ask for bids, and they are obliged to either grant the contract to the lowest responsible bidder or reject all bids and not make the purchase.”
Public entities can also purchase from vendors awarded state bid contracts, but the law does not allow a person to design a plan to purchase several items that when combined would total over $7,500, said Willingham.
Following Monday’s city council meeting, the mayor said she planned to ask Watson to purchase three or four outfits at a time.
Watson said, this was not the first time he was asked to purchase equipment in allotments that did not go over $7,500.
In March Watson was given two purchase orders to buy equipment including hoses and nosssels. On one purchase order, five invoices totaled $13,086. The other purchase order had 13 invoices totaling $18,888.
At the Aug. 27 city council meeting, the mayor and council members voted to reject a bid from Municipal Emergency Services Inc. for $16,570 for fire gear.
But the equipment had already been delivered a week prior to the Aug. 27 deadline to open sealed bids, according to Watson.
The fire gear included three helmets totaling $720, 10 sets of coats and pants for $14,480, 10 hoods for $210, 10 suspenders for $310 and 10 sets of gloves for $850.
Watson said he is also concerned about another matter affecting the fire department.
The fire department currently has only one engine in working condition. Watson said a house or business could easily be lost due to the delay in getting the trucks repaired.
While council members approved repairs to two engines at the Aug. 27 city council meeting, they only approved a vendor at Monday night’s meeting.
Volunteer firefighter Jason Townes said, “You can only float so much water out of a fire truck.”
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