North Florida Broadband Authority: Woe begotten Stimulus funded authority gets another black eye. No one bids to service the $30 mil 14 county network.
Posted October 1, 2012 03:00 am | Part XXV
The saga of the woe begotten $30 mil Obama stimulus funded North Florida Broadband Authority continued last Thursday morning, September 27, 2012, when no one bid to service the wireless broadband network. The NFBA spans 14 north central Florida counties. Inept management; a federal government mandated shutdown due to charges of waste, fraud, and abuse; a federal investigation, which has ended up under the carpet; outrageous salaries and non competitive hiring and procurements; and a bankrupt business partner have sent the signal far and wide that the North Florida Broadband Authority is not a government business you want to do business with.
This part of the story begins here:
April 10, 2012, pre bid meeting for Network Operator
In order to bid for the Network Operator contract, the NFBA held a mandatory pre bid meeting on April 10, 2012. This meeting was attended by seven potential bidders.
A Network Operator is who one calls when one has internet trouble. The Network Operator, according to the bid packet, was to provide both a Network Operations Center and Field Service Maintenance. A combined bid was required for both components.
Shortly after the pre bid meeting, the NFBA posted on its website the sign in sheet. Mysteriously, it disappeared soon thereafter. The reason why would soon be clear.
The proposals were originally due at NFBA headquarters in Lake City on April 26, 2012. This date was extended to May 17th.
A bidder receives a mysterious e mail from the NFBA
On May 8, 2012, nine days before the bids were due, the NFBA's Project Manager, Donny Lort, e-mailed Mainstreet Broadband's CEO, Mike Mies, giving him JOYTEL's contact information. The e-mail stated the following:
Mike, I have included all the information for Mark
[M]marques and included him on this e-mail string. I think the two of you should get together and see if there are opportunities for the both of you going forward. Please feel free to contact Mark directly. Thanks, Donny
Two of the bidders, INOC and Mainstreet, were teaming up: Who knew?
On June 8, 2012, NFBA General Manager, Richelle Sucara, announced that two firms responded to the RFP. They were JOYTEL and INOC. Then she added that Mainstreet Broadband (MSB) partnered with INOC. MSB attended the Pre Bid Conference as an independent bidder.
INOC was to supply the Operations Center and MSB the Field Services. It is not clear who at the NFBA knew about this arrangement, or if Federal Government knew this was in the works and gave this deal its approval. MSB was about to default on a 34 million dollar Stimulus RUS loan.
INOC/MSB came in $619,000 less that the other bidder, JOYTEL.
JOYTEL protests the bid
On June 18, 2012, JOYTEL's CEO, Mark Marques protested the bid. In a letter to the NFBA, Mr. Marques began: JOYTEL would like to protest the RFP for network operator. It has come to our attention that one of the selected contractors of the RFP clearly violates a conflict of interest in your RFP and NTIA NOFA rules.
Mr. Marques concluded: NFBA clearly violated its own conflict of interest agreement in attachment H. The selection of this contractor also violates the BTOP NOFA guidelines for contractors. (Read the JOYTEL letter here).
On or about July 10, 2012, according to Mr. Marques, JOYTEL was blown off by the NFBA's outside contractor Cynthia Schultz, who among other things said the NFBA did no wrong.
This was memorialized in a letter to JOYTEL's attorney on July 18th, where the NFBA's Sucara said the NFBA did no wrong.
On July 24th, at 8 pm, General Manager Sucara had a sudden change of heart and sent an e mail to INOC and others advising them that, "The NFBA intends to issue a separate RFP for field services at a later date... I would request that you notify MSB of this decision."
INOC was given the chance to bid on and negotiate the Network Operations Center (NOC) proposal without the Field Service component. JOYTEL was never given the same opportunity.
On August 1st, the NFBA Board, mostly oblivious to what went on between the parties, approved INOC as the Network Operator.
Here they go again: the new Request for Bids for Network Field Services
On September 6, 2012, the NFBA put out a request for bids for Field Services. The bids were due on September 27th at 10 am and the scheduled opening was one hour later at 11 am.
Your reporter arrived at the NFBA offices a few minutes before 11. No one was in the office except the NFBA Clerk, Faith Doyle, who greeted the Observer with a quizzical look.
The Observer said, "I'm here for the bid opening this morning."
Ms. Doyle answered, "There is no bid opening."
The Observer, "It's scheduled for 11 am."
Ms. Doyle, "There were no bids."
On the way out of the building the Observer stopped in the Project Management Office, which was just down the hall.
After a few moments the Observer was greeted by former GSG employee and the NFBA's $88,000 plus Project Manager, Donny Lort.
When the Observer mentioned that he was there for the bid opening, Mr. Lort did not divulge that there were no bids. Instead he told the Observer, "Bid openings are not public. They are not for citizens."
Epilogue
It is time the someone from the Federal Government stepped in and put a stop to this train wreck. It is clear that the NFBA, while it may have been well intentioned at one time, has lost the confidence of not only many local governments, but also an entire industry that has chosen not to service this fourteen county wireless network.