Huckelberry orders review of contracts
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County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry has ordered a freeze on the use of open-ended "as-needed" professional services contracts until he and the Board of Supervisors can reassess the practice.
The order, issued Tuesday, also calls for a review of existing as-needed contracts to see if the county is using them to distribute work that should be competitively bid or is overpaying for some services.
Professional services include such items as road and sewer system design and engineering, architects, surveying and flood plain management.
Huckelberry said Wednesday that he will make allowances for work in which taxpayer interests would be jeopardized by delaying a project and when using an as-needed contract is the best way to get the job done quickly.
For urgent needs, he said, departments will have to "plead their case to me, and I'll decide on a case-by-case basis if it's truly an emergency."
The supervisors approve dozens of as-needed consultant contracts each year, typically at $150,000 per contract. The exact job and amount, however, are left to be determined later by department staff members behind the scenes.
Huckelberry said Wednesday that the freeze was prompted by stories published Sunday and Monday in the Arizona Daily Star questioning the extensive use of as-needed contracts.
The three-month Star investigation found areas of lax contract oversight, no control over how work is assigned, and the apparent ignoring of consultant rankings in favor of political cronies.
The board unanimously ordered a study of county contracting practices last week, after being interviewed about problems that were detailed in the series.
Huckelberry said the freeze will remain in place until the supervisors review all aspects of the issue, including costs and whether as-needed contracts are being used in order to circumvent the county's qualifications-based consultant selection process.
"We need to identify the problem, solve the problem and restore public confidence. It's as simple as that," Huckelberry said. He said he expects the board to consider a number of reforms, including limiting size and cost of projects that can be done under an as-needed contract and requiring a lot more oversight of contract awards and billings.
Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Sharon Bronson did not return an Arizona Daily Star telephone message Wednesday.
In response to assertions by two county staff members in the Star stories that exorbitant fees charged by consultants under as-needed contracts were inflating building costs, Huckelberry said he wants a review of the rates and number of hours billed under existing as-needed contracts completed by the end of this week.
He ordered a full review of all as-needed contracts for projects in which the estimated cost is more than $50,000. That is to include an analysis of what would happen if the contract were terminated.
A preliminary report could be done by the end of next week, Huckelberry said.
After that, he said, he expects the supervisors to initiate a public review of contracting procedures. John Bernal, deputy county administrator for public works, said workers are still trying to determine how many projects might be delayed because of the freeze.
