With the new year comes new opportunity for me to show my ignorance.... Any one have any experience with these issues? The energy savings are supposed to offset the cost of the equipment and installation....which we have to payout over a period....15 years I think.... The proposed contract is a mess and barely understandable. Would these services, including the work done thereunder qualify as professional services that would not have to be bid? I assume the audit report would be a professional service, but not sure the work required thereunder would qualify. I suppose if it has to be done by or under the supervision of licensed electricians etc. then it might. Any help for a poor, ignorant soul in west Texas?
In the past we may have had one of these. The promises of the company are similar to the promises of foreigners claiming you have won a lottery in Spain or Germany or the Cameroons. Not worthy.
Additionally, if you cannot understand the contract it is a fairly safe bet no one in Scurry County understands it. Sometimes these deals are a disguised strategy to avoid the Purchasing Act. We are providing you a professional service that will recommend that you buy fancy light bulbs which only our affiliated company makes.
Once a vendor proposed the reduction in the number of fluorescent bulbs per fixture. People complained that they could not read because it was too dark in the offices.
Finally, the long term promise. It seems wrong to tie a Commissioners Court in the year 2012 to a contract with a vendor of 2007.
As always, Thanks Ray! one of the reccomendations was to put toiltes in the jail that only flushed a maximum of 12 times a day in a six man cell....at least that is what I have heard.....the proposed contract I saw didn't have any particulars in it yet....and it was to be interpreted by the laws of the commonwealth of Mass. or some northern tier state. On the bright side, we got to file suit in Scurry County using Mass. law I was hoping someone had experience with these things either way, as the commissioners are very interested and it sounds too good to be true!!!!!
I learned for Ray (who may have picked it up from Gerald Summerford) that the prime rule in county contracts is: if it sounds too good to be true, not only is it so, but a grand jury probably should look into it.
Posts: 1233 | Location: Amarillo, Texas, USA | Registered: March 15, 2001
Because my County Judge showed up with a zip drive containing a contract for an energy audit today. My commissioners are interested, also.
My flip answer was that, since we have a wind company wanting to use the ROW for their lines to the substation, swap them the power needed for the courthouse and jail for the right to use the ROW and who cares how much we use???
Lisa...which company is submitting a proposal? Maybe we can collaborate....it still seems to good to be true.... I assumed there would be other entities who had already been down this road....good or bad....
I know it's been a while since this thread has been updated but does anyone have any new experiences regarding these energy savings performance contracts under Ch. 302 of the Local Gov Code? I have a company that has kindly provided the county with a RFQ for energy service providers. Are these Ch. 302 agreements commonplace?
Posts: 16 | Location: Waller County | Registered: March 26, 2012
We ended up going with the Public Power Pool....a non profit political subdivision corporation consisting of a myraid of Texas local governments. The other providers did not like the requests we made to change their contracts. publicpowerpool.org.....If you need the citation to the statutory authorization, i think i have it in a pile around here somewhere.
