Below is the posting which has been on the district's website since Monday and was published in the paper this week. This is a terrific example of how the district tries to deceive the public. They already know who they want for this work. What credible agency offers a request for proposal that needs to be responded to in 3 days (which includes time for mailing)? It's hard to believe this could be allowed by law. If any other public entity tried this bull$h#% the Call would be all over them, with good reason. Even though the district knows they're having a meeting this Friday, they still haven't posted it.
MEHLVILLE FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT
11020 Mueller Road St. Louis, Mo. 63123
Advertisement for Bids & Legal Notice
Sealed bids will be received by Mehlville Fire Protection District for:
EMPLOYMENT CONSULTING
The Board of Directors of the Mehlville Fire Protection District, located in St. Louis County, Missouri, is seeking an employment consultant with experience in the Emergency Services. The scope of the work involves a management audit and cultural analysis of the Mehlville Fire Protection District.
The District has 123 employees and operates out of seven (7) stations in an urban/suburban response coverage area of fifty-two (52) square miles. It is a 100% career department that services a resident population of over 110,000 people.
Bids will be received at the office of Hoffman & Slocomb, LLC, 1115 Locust Street, Missouri 63101, up to the hour of 2:00 p.m. prevailing central time on Friday, June 13, 2008. Bids received after said time will be returned un-opened. Accepted bids will be opened and read at 4:00 p.m. on Friday, June 13, 2008 at the Mehlville Fire Protection District, 11020 Mueller Road St. Louis, Mo. 63123. Faxed bids will also be accepted at the following number: (314) 231-0323. Additional questions may be directed to Mathew E. Hoffman at (314) 436-7800.
The Mehlville Fire Protection District hereby notifies all bidders it will affirmatively ensure that any contract entered into pursuant to this advertisement, disadvantaged business enterprises will be afforded full opportunity to submit bids in response to this invitation and will not be discriminated against on the grounds of race, color, sex, or national origin.
The Board of Directors reserves the right to reject any and all bids and to waive any irregularities therein and to accept the bid most advantageous to the Mehlville Fire Protection District.
41 comments:
How do we find out what time the board meeting is being held and is it open to the public?
"The Board of Directors reserves the right to reject any and all bids and to waive any irregularities therein and to accept the bid most advantageous to the Mehlville Fire Protection District."
HUMMMMM! That's very interesting to say the least!
3:39 There will be some kind of meeting, which is open to the public, at 4pm on Friday. The least they will do is open up these jokes, I mean bids, for their HR/Culture audit.They know what they are going to do, but they haven't posted it yet. I'll try to update you on this blog.
4:01 I trust this BOD about as far as I can throw them, but this is fairly standard language for a bid. It won't matter, cause the only serious bid they'll get is from someone who was set up for it.
You betcha they already know which is the winning bid.
They also have publicly identified who they will be stalking: everyone holding the rank of captain. Why? Because that's the highest rank which can still belong to the union; the guys with the experience and leadership who the rank and file can rally behind.
This is the big push to purge the department of 15-20 year employees.
Hilmer and Stegman chased away everyone 8-10 years who didn't have too much time invested. They quit and went to other departments.
They drove anyone near retirement to jump as soon as possible. The department lost 300 years experience there.
Last year, they bought out some of the 25 year guys who weren't quite ready for retirement.
That left the tweeners, who had too much time in to walk away and still had big family commitments; the 15-20 year guys. Now comes this gun for hire HR firm to "audit" the personnel, especially the captains. HMMM.
Hilmer and Stegman, and I guess we'll have to start including Ryan, are doing their weasel best to drag this department down the sink hole.
So mister smart ass, just how do you know that the board has someone picked. The board is totally legal on advertising for this service. Not only do you think you are lawer but now you think you are a mind reader. GET A LIFE YOU DUMB BA----D.
Who has a board meeting at 4pm? How is that time allowing any resident with normal working hours the ability to participate. Unless, as I am now learning they really don't want us to be involved. When this BOD decides to start suspending people and paying for cultural audits then they better believe people are going to become more involved.
Tomorrow's 4pm meeting is posted at the fire department's HQ. It is not posted on their website and probably won't be till after the meeting. That thing is such a waste of our tax dollars.
Remember when the county council used to meet in the morning, the Call made a big stink about it.They ranted about how the public could not attend a meeting at that hour. Yet, they say nothing when the MFPD BOD meets at 4pm.
Just Remember BOYCOTT THE CALL and anyone associated with them
There is no law saying that thay have to post it on the web site.
Thanks for the legal opinion. Yes, there's no law, but since they wait till almost the last minute to post it and often violate other facets of Missouri's Open Meeting's Laws, you'd think they might try to inform the public. What's the sense of posting a meeting agenda after a meeting? They notify the webmaster with their media notification, so why isn't it posted? Is that their instuction? Why have a website and spend the money if it's not used to share information? I noticed that they held a closed sesssion at their June 5th meeting for personal reasons. I guess you know that's not allowed by law.
11:27 there my be no LAW, but how about some consideration for the people who elected the board. It seems that consideration is not in many people's vocabulary nowadays.
Does anyone know how much a HR person costs? I know it's open for bids but from experience they usually cost the same,maybe a little less, as a lawyer. I guess we'll just ben over to take this one. What else are they going to tack on I know that investigation team is a joke and are just kicking the personnel while they are down. And why is it the rank and file in trouble. They have some of the most experienced chiefs, in that department and compared to the surrounding departments, why in the world are we paying them $100,000 a year. What are the chiefs job? You have the chief, 3 deputy chiefs and an EMS chief. I know Silvernail said he is in charge of everyday operations while this investigation is going on. ??? What? If you are in charge of everyday operations doesn't that tie into some sort of an HR role? Look, I pay this puppet $110,000 a year to do what, make Hilmer look Strong and almighty? I was just at an HR class where there were Chiefs from all over the surrounding area, if Hilmer was smart he'd make one of the Chiefs a HR specialist remove the rest of that chiefs roles, delegate them to the other chiefs and see how this rolls. Instead of paying this new firm another $100,000 plus.
Mike, I see you have some deep thinkers writing you, as do I!
It's really nice to know we can still "infuriate the masses" when we want to!
Tom Ford
Were you at the board meeting to notice this? I wasn't so I surely can not say much however the board did have the agenda up for 48 hours and by law that is all that is required. You are nothing but a big mouth with no brains. By the way did any of your mom and dads kids lived. I sure you were hatched and not borned.
They are not required by law to post meetings on a website. They are required to post the meeting in writing at their facilities.
That being said, I think Stonebraker's blog might land on the radar of some open meeting observers. It's quite certain he's privy to the inner workings and decisions of the Mehlville Fire BOD. It would appear he knows what decisions are going to be made on Friday. When significant discussions are happening "off the books" and the directors are hiring in their friends to do the professional work for the district and profit nicely from it, the residents should be upset. Very upset.
The directors at Normandy Fire have pulled many of the same stunts as those at Mehlville and the residents recalled the two problematic ones. Mehlville Fire hasn't had the media document the reduction in the quality of services, however, they haven't had a media fiasco like Normandy had with the drowning last year. Normandy's blown call was the result of inexperience and employees unfamiliar with the area. It sounds like a majority of the Mehlville Fire workforce is in that category.
If there's a horribly blown call in MFPD, that the media and various officials jump all over it blaming the board of directors, the directors' terms will be measured with an egg timer.
What other facets of Missouri's Open Meeting Laws have they violated?
7:50 Failure to post meetings, failure to post regularly scheduled meetings, failure to take minutes, failure to comply with other minutes requirements, failure to release records within three days, failure to----well, you get the picture, don't you?
NONE OF ABOVE IS TRUE: Its easy to talk, but prove it.
What kind of proof would you like to see? Would you like to see the posting of the regular meetings for the year that came out two months late and only after I contacted the Missouri Attorney General's office? Would you like to see the requests I've made to the district's record's custodian for minutes and their reply that no such minutes existed? Or the repeated requests for an e-mail media notification that was not replied to? Or the e-mail from the records custodian refusing to give me a copy of an open record unless I free legal advice to the district? How about an apology from the district for forgetting to post a meeting?
I went to the fire board meeting this afternoon. It lasted all of 12minutes. Guess what? They had only one proposal for their HR/Cultural Audit. And they accepted it with absolutely no idea if it was at a competitive price. I saw Call Newspapers Mike Anthony, the editor from Arnold, there. He ran away after seeing me in the lobby after the meeting. He must have been afraid of something.
What else could be expected from the champion of the poor working citizen?
Besides, he already knew what the bid was, who it was from.
Now, we get to start digging to find out how this company is connected to Hilmer, Stegman, Ryan or Stony...because it sure as hell is connected somewhere.
Also, let's wait and see how the Call "reports" this bidding process. Let's also visualize what they would say if the school board pulled this crap.
When are decent people going to wake up and realize what kind of weasels they voted for or allowed to be put in office by not showing up at the polls?
I am sure Mike Anthony is not afraid of your wimp ass.
If the Fire District is breaking the law then why is not Jay Nixion calling them on that. Pure simple they are not breaking the law.
AFRAID OF YOU. YOU GOT TO BE OUT OF YOUR DAMN MINE WHO WOULD BE AFRAID OF A CHEAP COWARD.
4:43 Anthony had his tail between his legs and running because of something. I was just there to witness it.
4:45 Jay Nixon's office can't possibly handle all of the minor open record law violations for the entire state. They've already had to set the fire district straight a couple of times in the last two years. It would be nice if St. Louis County would step up to the plate. I really get a kick out of guys referring to people as cowards while you remain anonymous. Grow a set and state your name if you want to call people names. And 4:54, just because I won't buy the bull$h#& that the MFPD BOD is selling, that doesn't make me cheap.
It sure does:
I have a friend that works in Jay Nixon's office and he informed me that Nixon would not take on the Mehlville Fire Department do to Jim Stonebraker being friends with Aaron Hilmer. He furthur said he would not get envolved if Stonebraker was envolved. What does Stonebraker have on these people?
That's interesting speculation. I can tell you that it's difficult to get his assistant AG, James Klahr(sp?)to help you with anything. I'm not knocking the guy, it's just that they have way too much to deal with. I have sat down in his office, on an unrelated matter, an spoke with him at length, finding his advice very helpful.One could easily speculate that in this election year, we won't see any direct help especially if what you're saying has any merit. The Truth Detector/Defector's (James Stonebraker) wife is the political director for John Hancock. Hancock is running Hulsof's campaign for governor. I'm guessing, it's better to let this political sleeping dog lie, even if it's carrying so many nasty fleas.
The reason that no press is in the MFPD arena is because od Silvernail has the reigns! That is one reson why they 'hired' him. If he says no to a story than it is not put in the media!
Wow! Stoney must be the most powerful guy in the state!
Stoney is what he is because of his wife. She wears the pants in the family. She tells gives him his allowence, tells him what to drive, what to wear and what to eat just like he is trying to tell the Mehlville fire employees how much you should make, what to drive, what to wear and what to eat. HMMM funny how this works. Now here's a dollar Jimmy go play nice with the other "reformers".
3:11 AM Do you really believe that jimmy has the reins????? AH has become the worst nightmare of any organization....the vengeful micro manager.
To set the record straight, Stoney got his wife involved in GOP politics. She is a talented lady who worked hard to build her reputation. I know both of them and I can say that they have a very supportive relationship and neither one seems to "wear the pants" in their household.
Thanks for setting the record straight. The fact is Miriam has moved forward to become a major player in Republican Party politics while Stoney hasn't. Things like his past arrest record and irresponsible comments have hampered his career.That's why he writes anonymously on the Truth Spot now.
Stonebraker's arrest record? Prove it!
Send me your address and I'll mail you a copy.
mail@jimstonebraker.com
Hello James,
Why didn't you sign in as the Truth Detector? Are you afraid of some libel lawsuits? I can't e-mail your request because I have only a little more computer skill than Sen.John McCain. I'm sure we can get someone to send you some copies either through the internet or USPS.
McGrath Consulting is doing a consoldation study for fire protection for the City of Frontenac / Ladue. It is rumored the Fire Chief at Frontenac and Mr. Hilmer have some sort of relationship.
Wow, I always wondered where Hilmer got his information from. Ladue and Frontenac have discussed mergers before. I think it's smart for all the smaller municipalities to merge. Ladue, frontenac, brentwood, rock hill to become 1 central county fire dist. They could live on sales tax alone in those areas.
Oh weird, Frontenac's Chief hates Unions as well. I'm sure you'll see a lot more Union haters come out of the wood work. Since this seems to be the new and up coming thing. It's funny when Union's oppose something they always look like the bad guys. When any sane person would do the same to protect what they have. I also think Unions have missed the boat on realizing that they are out numbered and even though collective barganing is a great thing, but you can only squeeze so much blood out of a turnip. Also In a company, everybody needs to realize this, and this is why it is better that everybody take a paycut rather than just the union people. From the CEO down. It's better that everybody take a $4000.00 paycut that laying off a number of people.
Post a Comment