Sunday, June 30, 2013

Time for The BOSS to VETO S1191/A3960

According to the State Legislative website, S1191 "Allows establishment of county-wide purchasing system for certain school district services; offers employment protections for certain food or custodial services employees; and regulates subcontracting by districts and public higher education institutions."

The reality is the bill kills the very concept of "Competitive Bidding" and the ability of each district to customize and craft an appropriate Request For Proposal (RFP) for services that are unique to their district and tailored to the individual needs as set forth in the bid specifications.  This promotes the very concept of competition and ultimately the balance between best price and quality service.  If approved by the Governor, this legislation would end that concept at the expense of true savings along with a diminished level of service as the "one-size-fits-all" bid specifications would be applied to all districts impacted by the law.  Likewise this will result in unsustainable wage concessions.

Once again, one must consider where the support for such legislation stems and whose best interests are served.  The primary sponsor's of the bill are all Democrats who favor the special interest prime benefactors of such legislation... the unions.

Lesniak, Raymond J.   as Primary Sponsor Sarlo, Paul A.   as Primary Sponsor Mosquera, Gabriela M.   as Primary Sponsor Diegnan, Patrick J., Jr.   as Primary Sponsor Greenwald, Louis D.   as Primary Sponsor Quijano, Annette   as Primary Sponsor Giblin, Thomas P.   as Primary Sponsor Sumter, Shavonda E.   as Primary Sponsor

As stated in my March 24th Blog:  "This is a great case of where select individuals in the Assembly and Senate have an extreme disconnect from the actual operations of a school district and the ability of management in this cases School Business Administrators in partnership with Boards of Education to effectively oversee and administer services in a fiscally responsive manner providing cost savings to resident tax payers."

This hypothesis is further borne out in the latest vote which  has the minority "No" vote cast by all Republicans.  (see below)

ABU  6/17/2013  -  r/Aca  -  Yes {8}  No {4}  Not Voting {0}  Abstains {0}  -  Roll Call
 Prieto, Vincent (C) - YesSchaer, Gary S. (V) - YesBrown, Christopher J. - No
 Bucco, Anthony M. - NoBurzichelli, John J. - YesCoutinho, Albert - Yes
 Fuentes, Angel - YesJohnson, Gordon M. - YesO'Scanlon, Declan J., Jr. - No
 
 
Watson Coleman, Bonnie - YesWebber, Jay - NoWimberly, Benjie E. - Yes