Below for your review are several source documents relevant to the dispute over the city’s recent purchase and return of a bucket loader. We present excerpts from the Gazette and Northampton Media to provide background. You may also view video recordings of recent City Council meetings at NCTV. The Council is expected to take up the matter again at its March 4 meeting.
Gazette: “Northampton loses bucket loader as council disputes purchase” (2/12/10)
The John Deere Co. dealer who thought he’d sold a bucket loader to the city late last year for $134,000 took it back Wednesday after failing to receive payment nearly six weeks after delivery.“We brought the machine to the city and it was our impression the city was ready to buy it,” said Dennis Neslusan, general manager of Schmidt Equipment Inc., of Oxford. “We asked for payment, but when you don’t get payment … “
Neslusan said he was unaware of an agreement in which his company would let the city use the bucket loader for an extended period of time until payment was approved. City officials, however, said there was an informal agreement between the two sides…
The Parking Division has the money to buy the loader in its parking meter reserve fund, and could do so without seeking council approval. Doing so, however, would deplete the account, and thwart other capital improvement projects planned for the spring, including recoating the municipal parking garage. That’s why Higgins and the Finance Committee asked the council to replenish the money in its parking meter reserve fund…
Joe Cook, the city’s procurement officer, said the bucket loader was put out to bid correctly, but he was surprised to find out that the equipment arrived without a signed contract in place.
“Definitely a problem, shouldn’t have happened,” he said. “It will probably be a cold day in hell before that ever happens again.”
Northampton Media: “$134K Bucket Loader, Procured Without Contract, Sent Back to Dealer” (2/9/10)
The machine had been in possession of the city’s Parking Division since around December 29, 2009, when Schmidt Equipment, of Oxford, Massachusetts, transferred title to the city of Northampton. No money has changed hands, and no purchasing contract has been signed by the Mayor…Ward 7 Councilor Eugene Tacy, Ward 3 Councilor Angela Plassmann, and Ward 6 Councilor Marianne LaBarge are openly opposing the appropriation, and have said that the bucket loader represents an unnecessary expenditure during tough economic times…
Finance Director Christopher Pile told the Council that the Parking Meter Reserve Fund must be used for parking-related expenses. Tacy, however, said that a lawyer at the Department of Revenue told him that no law prevents parking receipts from being used to support a city’s general fund.
… Letendre [Bill Letendre, Commissioner of the city’s Parking Division], in his January 21 appearance before the Council, said that Parking had “purchased” the loader from John Deere. But on February 4, with Mayor Higgins back from vacation and chairing the meeting, Letendre said that the machine was “on loan” and that the equipment dealer “hasn’t been given a single penny.”
Mayor Higgins also stated on February 4 that the bucket loader is “on loan” from John Deere. “If it doesn’t work out, we’ll return it,” she said…
“Things were done out of order,” At-Large Councilor Jesse Adams told Northampton Media. “I don’t believe there was any intentional wrongdoing. In my view, the contract should have been executed before the Parking Division took possession of the loader…”
