43
Purchasing slip-up nearly costs Mahoning County $4,400
YOUNGSTOWN
Because a juvenile-court financial officer ordered from the wrong catalog, Mahoning County nearly spent thousands of dollars more than necessary for new furniture, equipment and supplies that were delivered to that court earlier this year.
The purchase was to total $93,611, but after an inquiry by The Vindicator, the court received $4,389 in credits from the vendor toward other purchases, lowering the cost to $89,222.
“I’m pretty content and confident that this won’t ever happen again,” said Anthony D’Apolito, juvenile-court administrator and magistrate.
Both D’Apolito and James Fortunato, county purchasing director, said they’re convinced the discrepancy stemmed from unintentional human error by the financial officer, who was new to the county’s purchasing procedures.
The financial officer, Nicholas C. Fournier, assumed purchasing duties for the court last year after having worked for the court in other jobs, D’Apolito said.
Fournier, who joined the court in February 2004 as a corrections officer and then worked as a day-reporting facilitator and supervisor, declined to comment on the furniture transaction.
The purchases, which were delivered in February, came from Modern Office Products Inc. of Boardman, with which the county has a standing purchase order under a competitively bid contract.
The contract calls for discounts from the S.P. Richards catalog of 40.1 percent for furniture, 32.1 percent for machines and 49.1 percent for other supplies.
However, under the county’s contract, these discounts were to apply only to the 2010 catalog, Fortunato said. Fournier mistakenly ordered from the 2009 catalog, Fortunato said.
After a discrepancy was spotted by The Vindicator, Modern agreed to apply the 40.1 percent discount to 17 executive chairs, resulting in a $3,655 credit.
Modern also issued a $516 cred-it, which gave the county the 40.1 percent discount on a credenza it had bought at the nondiscounted price of $1,760, and lowered its price to $1,244.
“This all stems from using the wrong catalog,” said Bill Cross, Modern’s president. “I was under no obligation to give these credits,” he said, adding that he gave those credits at Fortunato’s request.
Cross described his business relationship with the county as “outstanding.”
If the county identifies any other items on the purchase list where it inadvertently deprived itself of its discount by using the wrong catalog, Cross said he’d “more than likely” apply the discount as a courtesy.
D’Apolito said he’ll ask Fornier to search the purchase list for more potential savings, if Fournier hasn’t already done that.
“Any savings is substantial savings,” D’Apolito said.
Due to a pricing error by Modern, that company issued a $218 credit for a conference table top and base combination, making the combined price $961, including the county’s 40.1 percent discount.
Fortunato said he spot-checked the remainder of the court’s lengthy purchase list, but he didn’t find any other errors.
The new furniture was purchased under a Reclaim grant consisting of federal anti-juvenile delinquency money, which passes to the court through the state, D’Apolito said.
Last July, the Ohio Department of Youth Services told the court it had two weeks to apply for — and decide how it would spend — the money, forcing Fournier to determine the court’s needs and order quickly, D’Apolito said.
“If he didn’t, we might have lost the money. So he was rushed,” D’Apolito said.
“I think he did as good a job as he could have done under the circumstances. Do we expect better from him now? Yes,” D’Apolito said.
“I take responsibility as the administrator to make sure that he learns from this and we don’t do it again,” D’Apolito said.
The responsibility to ensure that the county orders correctly and pays the correct price is shared between the court and the county purchasing department, D’Apolito said.
The county’s purchasing department, which consisted of seven people during the 1990s, now consists of only Fortunato and Megann Basile, assistant purchasing director.
With only two people overseeing $60 million to $100 million in purchases annually, including major road, bridge and sewer project bidding, the purchasing department spot-checks, but it’s impossible for the purchasing department to scrutinize every county department’s purchases, line by line, before and after each purchase, Fortunato said.
However, Fortunato said he and Basile stand ready to help all county departments comply with state purchasing laws and make their purchases correctly.
D’Apolito pointed out that “not one general-fund dollar” was spent on the new furniture.
“Ninety thousand dollars is a lot of money, but this furniture is going to be here for 30 more years,” D’Apolito said.
“It was a fair contract with fair pricing,” and Modern was the lowest and best bidder, Fortunato said.
“They’ve been an excellent vendor. Their service is excellent,” and the county commissioners have twice renewed Modern’s contract, he said.
Some of the furniture replaced by the new furniture had been in the juvenile-court building at 300 E. Scott St. since it opened in 1979; some was 20 years old, and none was newer than 10 years old, D’Apolito said.
The old furniture was moved from juvenile court to Mahoning County High School, a school enrolling 100 troubled youths, he said. The school, which is operated jointly by the juvenile court and the county’s educational service center, occupies the former Sheridan School on the city’s South Side.
“We always look to be the most frugal that we can be when we spend this money,” D’Apolito said.
“We don’t spend money here haphazardly,” he added.