Matt Nye, Brevard County Watchdog
State Attorney Releases Initial FDLE Needelman Report Showing Activist Nye Filed Inital Complaint
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- Created on 25 September 2013
- Written by Matt Nye
The State Attorney has released the initial investigative report that triggered the investigation that ultimately led to the arrests of Mitch Needelman, Matt Dupree and Rose Harr. To date the Florida Today has never reported on what triggered the investigation of Needelman and company, in spite of being provided with copies of emails between myself and the FDLE investigators.
FDLE BlueWare Initial Investigative Report by Matthew Daniel Nye
Board Awards Contract to Waste Management
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- Created on 02 March 2013
- Written by Matt Nye
The board voted 3-2 Tuesday before last to move forward with awarding the solid waste contract to Waste Management instead of first place ranked challenger WastePro. You can watch the meeting here - if you click on ITEM VI.A it will take you to that portion of the video.
While it turns out there are several questionable aspects to this deal, one thing that really jumped out was the "commitment" to Brevard Field of Dreams increased from $20,000 annually as presented on January 8th to $150,000 up front and $50,000 annually as presented on February 19th. No explanation was given for the increase at the meeting.
A quick scan of the Brevard Field of Dreams web site shows both Commissioner Fisher and Milo Zonka sit on the board of the Brevard Field of Dreams. Zonka is a former Palm Bay City Councilman and former Waste Management employee who prepared the Waste Management RFP response, but I'm sure that's just pure coincidence and has nothing to do with anything...
Here's a quick recap:
1) The board disregarded the county's procurement policy and the rankings of its own selection committee. You can view the score sheets here.
2) In spite of the staff negotiating the Waste Management pricing down, the Waste Management deal is still significantly more costly than the one put forth by WastePro. Commissioner Infantini has said her numbers indiciate the deal will cost taxpayers some $23 million more than competitor WastePro over the life of the contract.
3) Many people will now be forced to use carts where carts simply aren't feasible for space or distance reasons.
4) The weird stuff with Waste Management pledging to give back $50,000 per year to the county for Economic Development, and all the other ongoing donations promised within "30 days of the commencement of the contract year", but none of which were "required" and none of which affected the Board's selection of Waste Management. Right...
5) The Brevard Citizens Coailition posted a story on their web site last week indicating Waste Management violated the RFP by actively lobbying citizens via mail and asking them to request that their commisisoners vote for Waste Management. I have obtained a copy of the complaint filed by WastePro. At this time it is my understanding their complaint was never addressed by staff, nor were the Commissioners aware this activity was a violation of the RFP when they voted to approve the contract.
WastePro Letter to Purchasing Services 130102 by matthewdnye
I've assembled a library of all the documents I've collected during the last few weeks, and I will be adding to it as this continues to unfold. Even though the board voted to move forward with Waste Management, I don't think this is over yet...