Contract Bidding Issues
Statement from Heather Stavens:
As a resident of Ellington for the past 38 years, I have great respect and love for this town. My husband, David Stavens, and I chose to raise our five children here. In addition, we chose Ellington to establish our business, Barber Utilities, LLC twenty years ago and have stayed involved within the community through town government and local charity. In rebuttal to Aaron Foster’s philosophy and hopes to save money through competive bidding, I would like to state that this town does not and has not handed out their contracts as it has been portrayed to be. Barber Utilities, LLC was the last company to hold the snow plowing bid in Ellington. It was bid on and received by our company before David was elected as a Board of Selectman, and was bid with the intention of saving the town money. The prices remained the same for each year we held this contract, and would have continued to remain at the same prices if we had chosen to participate in bidding the new contract. With the bid going out again this year, our company chose not to participate as this could have been construed as a conflict of interest with David being on the BOS. Mr. Foster has expressed that, “interestingly, last year’s contractor did not bid so we cannot compare those numbers.” The mere fact that Mr. Foster has insinuated that the contract was initially “handed out” to a member of the board of selectman and then turned around questioning why our company did not bid on the contract this year for price comparison is laughable. Mr. Foster should not be taking credit for the transparency of the bidding process when this invitation to bid was going to be published in the paper regardless. Ms. Lori Spielman has done a wonderful job in running this town the last two years. Her services prior to being First Selectwoman have been a great asset to this town from her business skills to genuine passion as a lifelong Ellington resident. She is an effective leader who is not only honest, but undoubtedly hard working and dedicated. Her open door policy and willingness to work with all residents for the benefit of Ellington is a welcomed change in our town politics. I hope you re-elect our First Selectwoman on November 7th.
As a resident of Ellington for the past 38 years, I have great respect and love for this town. My husband, David Stavens, and I chose to raise our five children here. In addition, we chose Ellington to establish our business, Barber Utilities, LLC twenty years ago and have stayed involved within the community through town government and local charity. In rebuttal to Aaron Foster’s philosophy and hopes to save money through competive bidding, I would like to state that this town does not and has not handed out their contracts as it has been portrayed to be. Barber Utilities, LLC was the last company to hold the snow plowing bid in Ellington. It was bid on and received by our company before David was elected as a Board of Selectman, and was bid with the intention of saving the town money. The prices remained the same for each year we held this contract, and would have continued to remain at the same prices if we had chosen to participate in bidding the new contract. With the bid going out again this year, our company chose not to participate as this could have been construed as a conflict of interest with David being on the BOS. Mr. Foster has expressed that, “interestingly, last year’s contractor did not bid so we cannot compare those numbers.” The mere fact that Mr. Foster has insinuated that the contract was initially “handed out” to a member of the board of selectman and then turned around questioning why our company did not bid on the contract this year for price comparison is laughable. Mr. Foster should not be taking credit for the transparency of the bidding process when this invitation to bid was going to be published in the paper regardless. Ms. Lori Spielman has done a wonderful job in running this town the last two years. Her services prior to being First Selectwoman have been a great asset to this town from her business skills to genuine passion as a lifelong Ellington resident. She is an effective leader who is not only honest, but undoubtedly hard working and dedicated. Her open door policy and willingness to work with all residents for the benefit of Ellington is a welcomed change in our town politics. I hope you re-elect our First Selectwoman on November 7th.