Pickleball drama continues

Pickleball was again a center court issue for the Saratoga Town Council during their August 1 meeting as the council discussed the recreation commission's handling of the event.

The discussion involved, at times, heated exchanges between Mayor Chuck Davis, Councilmember Kathy Beck and members of the public. The event itself didn't appear to be the issue. The issues, instead, seemed to be communication between commission members and businesses, the bidding process for food service and authority over expenditures.

The catalyst for the discussion was D'Ron Campbell of the Hotel Wolf, who claimed the restaurant had been led to believe it had been awarded the food bid for the pickleball tournament.

Deal or No Deal

According to Campbell, the Hotel Wolf had been approached to make 52 boxed lunches for the event and had done so. The night before the event, said Campbell, her staff reached out to a member of the recreation commission about pickup and were told the commission had "gone a different direction."

"I'm not asking for any monetary compensation, but I wanted you to know the backstory because we were out inventory and labor. When I responded to your rec commission, they said 'We didn't go that direction and we didn't have an agreement,'" said Campbell. "The last response, and why I'm here, is they said 'As a business, I think it would be best to confirm prior to 10:45 the night before the event that we are indeed going with you.'"

Beck, who serves as the council representative to the recreation commission, read from a text thread between commission member Amber Waldron and Noelle LaDuke, an employee of the Hotel Wolf. In the thread, Waldron requested a bid from the Hotel Wolf for 52 boxed lunches with a sandwich, chips and dessert. LaDuke responded with a bid of $14 per person or $728 total.

After discussing the type of dessert for the lunch, Waldron told LaDuke she would need to present the bid to the rest of the recreation commission. The next contact between LaDuke and Waldron, according to Beck, was one week later. In that exchange, LaDuke had asked Waldron if the Hotel Wolf had been awarded the bid before a food order was made. Waldron did not respond.

"According to that conversation you just quoted, they were in communication to go through with the lunches," said Campbell.

"No, there was a hold," said Beck. "This is actually three weeks before the event. It seems strange that you would place an order three weeks ahead of time."

As the discussion continued, Beck and Campbell disagreed as to who was at fault for the misunderstanding regarding the lunches. While Campbell maintained the conversation between LaDuke and Waldron was evidence the Hotel Wolf was directed to make the lunches, Beck argued the recreation commission was not required to notify a business they weren't awarded a bid.

"If I, as an individual, go to a business-or six of them-and say 'Please provide me a quote' you have the potential to make the money," said Beck. "It's my responsibility, since I'm paying you, to follow up and make sure that you know that you won or you didn't win? Seems to me that the business would be the responsible party to come and say 'You're giving me the opportunity for you to pay me for a service.'"

Lowest or Highest

During the discussion, Campbell-who previously served on the council and the recreation commission-asked if the recreation commission had gone with the lowest bid "according to governmental rules." Beck said they had, at one point in the meeting stating the bid from Hangry Services was $13 per box. During the July 18 meeting, however, it was reported the bid was $780 or $15 per box.

An email provided to the Saratoga Sun shows Hangry Services bid $15 each while the Hotel Wolf bid $14 each. The lowest bidder was The Grumpy Italian, which bid $8.95 each. The Sun confirmed the legitimacy of the email with Mayor Chuck Davis.

During the August 1 meeting, Campbell stated she had been informed the bid from the Wolf Hotel was lower than that of Hangry Service.

"That's where we run into problems. I'm not saying it would have been different. Maybe now that we have a rec director, it can be followed up more closely," said Davis. "Maybe if they were presented more correctly, maybe the town would have a different outlook on this."

It is a general policy among state and local governments to award a contract to the lowest bidder, though this typically pertains to public works improvements and the procurement of supplies and services. For example, under Wyoming State Statute 15-1-113©, "if the contract is let for bid, the contract shall be let to the lowest bidder who shall be determined qualified and responsible." Wyoming State Statute 9-2-3204(b)(iv)(A), meanwhile, states bids or contracts for supplies or services more than $15,000 must be made through competitive bid with it being awarded to the lowest bidder.

Whose Authority?

In addition to the bidding process, discussion also centered around council authority on purchases under $1,000. According to Town of Saratoga policy, members of the council can authorize such purchases without it going before the governing body as a whole.

"Aren't department heads allowed to spend up to $1,000 without council approval?" asked McCall Burau.

"Think about what you're spending it on," replied Davis. "If they need pickleball nets or new gym equipment, that's one thing but when you come in and say 'I approved this $780 to be paid out if we don't sell a sack lunch' information like that needs to be brought back to the council."

Councilmember Mike Cooley also weighed in, telling Beck she couldn't do "this Lone Ranger stuff." He added such decisions should be made by the council as a whole so better decisions could be made.

"Nobody did anything 'cowboy.' We were planning, we communicated with everybody. That's the purpose of a rec commission, is to do those types of planning events and we have committees to do that," said Beck. "We put a lot of time and effort into this."

The next meeting of the Saratoga Town Council will be at 6 p.m. on August 15 at Saratoga Town Hall.