By Rick Madewell
Assistant Editor

Some local contractors apparently are not receiving notice they can bid on school projects, and that prompted some angry comments at the Jan. 18 Osceola County School Board meeting.

Contractors Anthony Padilla, Bob Gee, Sonny Lollis and Bill Newman each took a turn at the microphone to speak to board members and let them know they were not receiving e-mails or others indications that bids were being accepted for projects for which they should have been contacted.

A list of contractors/vendors is contained within the district’s VendorLink, an electronic bid procurement program the district uses to alert interested parties to upcoming projects.

Gee, representing CC&M of Osceola County, said his company had been doing business in the county since 1992.

“We never received any request for bid for those items,” he said of recent projects, adding that the company previously had done quite a bit of business with the Osceola County School District.

Lollis, of St. Cloud, said he was upset that the board was not taking care of local businesses.

“We hired you five people, we’re the taxpayers, we’re the givers and you’re the takers. What we’re looking for is to get these jobs local in this county and it’s not being done,” he said. “And I don’t know what it’s going to take for you five people we hired to run our business. That’s what we hired you for, to take care of us, not Tallahassee, not Orlando, not Fort Myers. We hired you to take care of Osceola County.

“We don’t care nothing about these outside people. We want to be notified about jobs, we want to be e-mailed… ,” he said. “I’m going on 71 years old and … we pay a lot of taxes. We want our jobs and that’s all. I’m for the local people and the local contractors, and that’s all I’ve got to say.”

Then Newman, who called himself the oldest contractor in the county, took the mic, saying he just found out that day there was a pre-bid meeting that same day on a project he was interested in.

“We want the opportunity to bid. We can beat all these outsiders, we can do better work. I want you to try to work on getting your process up,” he said. “What I see in procurement is incompetency. You’ve got a problem. And I would appreciate it if you would look at it and try to straighten it up. The money that you could save by using local contractors could be spent on education.”

Director of Purchasing Cheryl Olson, Superintendent Michael Grego and Board Chairman Cindy Hartig all said they would be looking into the problem and try to get it straightened out as soon as possible. Olson did say there might be cases where notification e-mails are going into junk e-mail, but there have been efforts made in the past to avoid this.

E-mail questioned

Another speaker, Mark Rosenbauer, of St. Cloud, also addressed the board, reading from a prepared statement. He told the board he was appalled at a recent e-mail criticizing certain School Board members; he was referring to an e-mail sent out by Board Member Jay Wheeler.

“Recently, there was an uncirculated e-mail that was unfairly critical of School Board Members Ms. Hartig, Mrs. (Barbara) Horn and Mr. (Tom) Long. I believe the comments were completely out of line and uncalled for,” he said. “Those comments made by someone with no professional degrees were hurtful and disrespectful.

“I sincerely hope an individual apology will be made to each of these board members who were verbally attacked. I personally don’t care if the apology is public or private but it should be made sooner rather than later.”  

During the meeting, Long brought up a resolution that was signed by all members last April regarding dignity, professionalism and courtesy in their capacity as board members, as well as refraining from any disparaging remarks regarding any of those who work in the school system.

“Recently, the discussion got rather heated and I personally take offense at one board member encroaching on Mrs. Horn’s personal space to direct comments to the chair. I guess I can handle slings and arrows of being called certain things and then those comments being repeated in the Osceola News-Gazette where the board is ‘foolish and/or weak’ in an e-mail,” he said. “In fact, the News-Gazette commented that this individual refused to refrain from malicious and mean-spirited comments. It’s a moral compass. We’re all adults here or are supposed to be all adults here and if I have a disagreement here, it should be met without malicious comments in e-mails.”

Wheeler responded, “Those comments are directed at me and I regret my comments, I regret my actions and I made a mistake. I’ll work to do better and ... and that’s the best I can tell you. I apologize for what I did. My emotions got the better of me and I’ll be the first one to admit it. I am human, I’m not perfect. It may happen again, but I regret it and apologize. I’ll work hard to improve.”

But Hartig countered Wheeler’s comments.

“Mr. Wheeler, I appreciate what you’re saying. You’re apologizing for your behavior, you don’t apologize to individuals, and I guess the thing that really disheartens me is in the two and a half years I have been on this board, you consistently apologize for the behavior yet you still repeat it and you just said right now it might happen again,” she said. “That concerns me that you can’t get your emotions in check and try to treat people with dignity and respect. That concerns me very much. I’m wondering how we would feel if our children behaved the same way and said, ‘Well, I appreciate your discipline, but I’m probably going to do it again.’ We need to be leaders and we need to set by example. And, quite frankly, I think you’ve set a very poor example.”

Board Member Julius Melendez added, “I agree.”

There was no further discussion.

In other business:

• Long made a motion to have all School Board members participate in expulsion hearings on a rotating basis, with at least three members present at all hearings. The motion passed 4-1, with Wheeler opposed.

“I really do think it’s important we all participate in expulsion hearings,” Hartig said.