Commissioner James Calkins accuses three fellow board members of bid rigging

Santa Rosa County Commissioner James Calkins found yet another way Monday to alienate himself from his fellow board members, this time by accusing three of them of breaking the law.

Calkins insinuated that commissioners Sam Parker, Kerry Smith and Chairman Colten Wright conspired to find a way to insure that Architect Design Group-Caldwell received the nod over Madison County-based Clemons Rutherford and Associates for a multi-million construction project. He outright accused the same three of bid rigging.

The board had decided by a 3-2 vote July 27 to change its collective mind and have staff enter into negotiations with Architect Design Group for construction of a consolidated dispatch center building. In doing so it pushed Clemons Rutherford, the first winner of the qualifying competition, to second among five firms bidding for the project.

Parker had asked the board to consider "modifying" its vote after learning that Calkins had ranked Architect Design Group fifth among the five companies in competition, while three other commissioners had placed it first and Smith had ranked it "a coin flip" second. The fifth pla-e ranking had pushed Architect Design Group behind Clemons Rutherford and, on July 13, Wright had requested staff begin contract negotiations with Clemons Rutherford.

During discussion at the July 25 meeting ahead of the decision to go with Architect Design Group, Wright apologized to the public and fellow commissioners for moving too quickly to accept the initial company rankings. He said he had skipped a step in the process that would have given the board a chance to review the tabulations of other members and question Calkins' "outlier" vote.

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On Monday the commissioners discussed voting Thursday at their regular meeting to alter the county's methodology for considering requests for qualification and cement it as policy as opposed to long-standing tradition.

Calkins used the discussion to brief those in attendance at the meeting about his suspicions regarding the board's vote to select Architect Design Group over Clemons Rutherford.

"Commissioner Sam Parker brought this item to the agenda regarding modifying the bid proposal. I would say modifying is the same as rigging it for the company that the board felt should have won it the first time but didn't have the votes," Calkins said. "This absolutely stinks. It looks bad."

Moving forward, the commission is leaning toward going away from a system by which competing companies make presentations to the board and are ranked numerically, with the bidder achieving the lowest score winning the right to be first in line to negotiate for a contract.

The new method will provide for presentations to be made to the board and the board creating a short list by ranking the top three firms, according to county documents. The three lowest scores will advance to a second round and, in the case of a tie, the firms with the same score will be evaluated in a round by themselves to determine ranking ahead of the final round.

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The board will then make a choice and the bidder with the most first-place votes will be ranked first and negotiations will proceed.

If the county goes with the policy change, it will hold on to some alternative means of weighing requests for qualification as situations dictate.

Calkins said he was taken by surprise on the day the bid rankings were swapped when Parker brought up the idea of modifying the score tabulations. And he also noted that Miller Caldwell, a local resident whose company would team up with the Architect Design Group on the consolidated dispatch center, was present when the discussion to modify the July 13 results was brought up.

"Caldwell was sitting in the audience," he said in questioning who had invited the Caldwell Group owner and why no one from Clemons Rutherford had also been brought in. "I didn't have a clue this was coming up. I in no way thought this board would rig it in favor of a company that didn't win the first time."

He called Wright's apology for his error of failing to review the original bid sheets disingenuous, and again used the term "rigging" when talking about the commission's July 25 vote.

"The only reason you said you made a mistake is because you wanted to rig it for the right outcome," Calkins told the chairman.

Bid rigging, which involves people or businesses colluding to insure an outcome in a competitive process, is a felony that carries, in extreme cases, penalties of up to 10 years in prison and $1 million in fines. Calkins has produced no solid evidence that his fellow commissioners had worked together outside of the Sunshine to alter the original vote for Clemons Rutherford.

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Commissioners Wright, Smith and Parker seemed mostly intent on ignoring Calkins' insinuations, though their anger at his accusations was evident. Smith at one point told him to shut up.

"There's no fix," Smith said. "My integrity being questioned, as it is now, is something I'm not going to stand by and let happen without fighting back."

When Calkins interrupted Parker, Wright was quick to shut him down.

"No one interrupted you during your long diatribe of half truths," he said.

Accused of grandstanding, Calkins said "when it comes to ethics and honesty I will tattoo grandstand on my forehead if that's what it takes."

Parker commented that he would foot the bill for the referenced tattoo if he thought Calkins would go through with his offer.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Santa Rosa commissioner accuses fellow board members of bid rigging