Revise part of contract, officials say

'Thank God we haven't paid a dollar yet,' Commissioner Dan Polivka said of the 1.2 million contract.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A day after Trumbull County Sanitary Engineer Gary Newbrough said he'd made a 548,000 mistake on an engineering contract with a Youngstown company, the county prosecutor's office has determined that at least one aspect of the contract will have to be revised.
Jim Misocky, assistant Trumbull County prosecutor looking into questions surrounding the awarding of the 1.2 million contract to ES & amp;C International of Youngstown, said the county didn't follow proper bid procedures.
Misocky said that in March, the county only advertised for engineering services for the first phase of the project, so it should not have awarded the contract to ES & amp;C for both the first and second phase.
Misocky said the 6 million Newton Township and Newton Falls sewer project is made up of a 2.2 million first phase and a 3.8 million second phase.
"The issue is, did the commissioners select a firm properly for Phase 2?" Misocky asked. "The answer is no."
John S. Evan, vice president of ES & amp;C, said late Wednesday that if his company was best qualified for Phase I, it should also be best qualified for Phase 2, because Phase 2 is more complicated than Phase 1. He said he would like to avoid litigation in this matter, however, and hopes the parties can come to a mutual agreement.
Company: Not our mistake
Evan and ES & amp;C International President Sat Adlaka attended the commissioners' meeting Wednesday and said their contract is legitimate. "It's not a mistake on our part," Adlaka said. He added that there is no provision in the contract to cancel it.
Misocky said he is still reviewing the issue of whether the fees agreed to in the ES & amp;C contract are proper.
Evan said he and Adlaka would be willing to talk to officials further about the price. "We don't want to cause any harm" to the county, Evan said.
Evan handed commissioners a written statement at the point in their regular meeting where commissioners were expected to comment on the matter. The statement said commissioners should "cease and desist with defamation of ES & amp;C."
The letter said comments made in recent days about whether ES & amp;C had been overpaid are "unjustified and causing irrecoverable damage to our character and stature."
Commissioner Dan Polivka did, however, comment on the matter after the meeting, saying, "Thank God we haven't paid a dollar yet" on the contract.
Polivka said he thinks ES & amp;C has started doing some work under the contract, however. Polivka and Commissioner Paul Heltzel said the issue is in the hands of the county prosecutor's office.
A letter from Heltzel to the prosecutor's office Nov. 1 questioned the price paid on the contract and asked the office to review it.
Heltzel was outvoted 2-1 on Oct. 3 when Polivka and Commissioner James Tsagaris voted to approve the contract.
Questions raised
Heltzel has for months questioned whether campaign contributions have had an undue influence in the awarding of professional service contracts -- such as the Scott Street project in Newton Township and Newton Falls.
Asked by reporters whether the issue would result in taxpayer money being squandered, assistant Prosecutor Jason Earnhart, who advises the commissioners on legal matters, said the commissioners "are going to make sure no money goes out the door on this."
The ES & amp;C statement said the contract did call for a higher amount to be paid to ES & amp;C than the amount estimated in a 2004 preliminary engineering report prepared by MS Consultants of Youngstown, but the statement gave an explanation for that.
MS Consultants called for engineering costs to be 685,000, Newbrough said Tuesday, but because he misread MS's report, he thought ES & amp;C was supposed to be paid 1.2 million.
The reason the contract was higher, the ES & amp;C letter said, was because the company was basing its fees on construction costs in 2008 and 2010 because those are the years when the two phases of the project are scheduled to be completed.
The letter said additional amounts were added to the price for crossing the Mahoning River near the historic Newton Falls Covered Bridge.
The letter asked commissioners to turn over copies of engineering contracts dating back to 2000 and appoint a committee of three professional engineers from county departments to review the Scott Street project.