The Bossier City Council’s decision to allow plenty of time to vet a propose four-year extension of its public-private partnership with Manchac Consulting appears wiser than ever as more details and analysis emerge about it – all of which buttresses the case that competitive bidding take place to manage city most engineering, public works, and utilities functions.
Last week, the Council stalled an attempt to begin the process of considering the no-bid extension. As originally cued, the Council could have signed off on a rate representing an increase of 50 percent over the deal that started in mid-2021, or $195,000 monthly, as early as Nov. 21. Instead, it will deal with the deal at the beginning of 2024, about three weeks prior to the agreement automatically extending for the existing three years at $169,000 monthly, starting mid-2024.
The extra time will give the city time to work through some issues, beginning with city ordinance allowing for only a three-year maximum on the life of a contract. However, state law allows local governments to use five years as a maximum, and as state law takes precedence over ordinance, the city could violate its ordinance and still have a legal contract as long as it doesn’t span more than five years. When the city initiated the arrangement in 2016, which then only covered utilities, it was for five years, and when it renewed in 2021, incorporating previous amendments and adding others, a three-year term was used after initially setting it at another five and a whopping increase to more than $303,000 per month that the Council quickly yanked.
In other words, because it has a legal excuse to do so, as written the Republican Mayor Tommy Chandler Administration and the Council simply would ignore city ordinance. No elected official has presented a compelling reason why it should do so, and such an adequate defense of a four-year term must be made to justify treating the ordinance as if it didn’t exist.
Then there’s another ordinance that requires the city to have competitive bidding. By its wording, it appears to link to the state’s Public Bid Law unless mayoral directive overrides, which doesn’t appear to exist. Another ordinance excepts no-bid contracts such as the previous two and now proposed Manchac deals when, under regulations, the purchasing agent or his designee above the level of purchasing agent determines in writing that there is only one source for the required service.
Yet there’s no evidence that the previous two or current proposed contracts received this determination, which would be ludicrous to suggest in any case. Plenty of contractors exist for these functions worldwide; in fact, one with an office in Bossier City, IBTS, runs almost the entire government of Central, LA.
However, yet again, there may be an out for the city. State public bid law is silent on whether local government must employ it in the case of professional services, as Manchac performs for the city. The competitive bidding ordinance, in that it covers “Contracts for supplies, services and major repairs exceeding the amount established by applicable state law” implies the city opts in for public bid law for services, yet that law specifies local government adherence only for supplies and repairs. At the very least, the Council should seek an outside legal opinion and from the Attorney General – after all, a majority on it didn’t shy away from telling City Attorney Charles Jacobs, who can do this on his own anyway, to seek such things in regards to the certified petition calling an election on term limits for elected officials – clarifying whether the city has to bid competitively for this service, which in any event the Legislative Auditor highly recommends that it do, especially when talking about a $9.12 million dollar deal.
Then there’s a question kicked around over the years, most recently by Republican Councilor Chris Smith, about whether hiring Manchac and installing one of its functionaries, currently Ben Rauschenbach, as city engineer violates the city charter in its requirement that the mayor appoint, subject to Council confirmation, that official. The same is true for director of public utilities, which Rauschenbach holds by virtue of his Manchac employment. Plus, the charter gives the mayor the right to fire any department head “as provided for by, or under, this Charter or other law except as otherwise provided by law, this Charter, civil service or other personnel rules adopted pursuant to this Charter.”
Both Jacobs, as recently as last meeting, and his predecessor have sworn up and down that this arrangement doesn’t violate the charter. But the arrangement is at best ambiguous and questionable, despite their reassurances.
Until mid-2020, the city had its own appointed engineer, but he “retired” (in actuality, forced out) and Rauschenbach assumed the post in Jun., 2020 by Council confirmation. At the time, the city attorney then opined that this conformed to the charter, since the mayor had the power to fire that individual.
But under the proposed renewal, which bakes in engineering functions of the city, that no longer would seem to be the case. That’s because the terms of the last 2021 renewal jettisoned the city’s ability to leave the contract at will. This means under the new deal that Manchac has full control over who it assigns as the engineer to oversee the contract, thereby who becomes the city engineer. Apparently, because the charter doesn’t give terms embedded in a contract as a reason to override its assigning the mayor removal power, nor is there an ordinance in place that overrides that part of the charter, a mayor who objects to that choice in fact cannot fire that individual.
Further, this negates the mayor’s power to appoint and Council to confirm. As if, of course, this process had happened during Chandler’s term, as the charter says the terms of appointed key officers – Director of Finance; Director of Public Works; Director of Public Utilities; Chief Administrative Officer; City Attorney; City Engineer; Director, Parks and Recreation Division; Director, Fleet Services Division; Director, Human Resources Division; and Director, Civic Center Division – must coincide with the mayoral term. An exception in the charter is for Director of Arena Division, in case as it is presently of contracting out that function.
Throughout the first five months of Chandler’s term, all of these positions were filled, although the Civic Center director was shoveled in to the job of Chandler’s secretary Carol Andersen – except for Engineering and Utilities. The Council apparently never received a nomination from the Chandler for these posts, and therefore never confirmed Rauschenbach, who even though he was referred to as “city engineer” as early as Oct. 25, 2021 in Council minutes apparently technically must operate only on an interim basis, over two years later, in both posts.
Regardless, approval of the renewal appears directly to violate the charter because a contractual obligation would conflict with it. Again, at the very least Jacobs should ask for an outside opinion and one from the Attorney General on the issue.
Finally, not a legal matter but one which raises questions about Manchac’s suitability to perform adequately its duties comes from its subsummation into Waggoner Engineering earlier this summer. Manchac is a wholly-owned subsidiary of and by all accounts in day-to-day operations is let alone by its owner Waggoner and by the Waggoner chief executive officer Emad al-Turk.
But recent actions by al-Turk call into question the fitness of any organization part of Waggoner to manage optimally Bossier City operations. Al-Turk has a long history of political activism especially as it relates to politics of the Levant, specifically Israel and the quasi-state of Palestine. Largely through his affiliation as one of the two officers of the International Museum of Muslim Cultures in Jackson, he publicly has advocated at the very least for complete independence of the three pieces of territory currently with largely autonomous existence but overseen by Israel. He also has posted on social media links to arguments that question the right of Israel to possess as much territory as it does or even to exist as a state.
At best, on this subject al-Turk argues with selective use of information; at worse, he displays ignorance about the entire picture. That has nothing to do with his performance as an engineer and manager, which by all accounts is competent.
However, concerning the recent attack by the non-state international actor Hamas, categorized by most states as a terrorist group including the U.S., on Israel’s territory and people through means that violate international law, he has remained silent on the atrocities committed by Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip with an iron hand, while condemning Israel’s counterreaction that, by all accounts, is violent but adheres to international law. He calls that a “genocide” and in his most recent social media post linked to a cartoon with Democrat U.S. Pres. Joe Biden cradling Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sucking from a bottle labeled “Gaza Blood.”
Again, even as emotive and biased as his opinion here may be, as long as it doesn’t interfere with his running of Waggoner, it’s not an issue pertaining to Council action concerning the Manchac contract. But the problem is that al-Turk’s activism has become an impediment. Almost three weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas assault, apparently in a state of emotional distress, al-Turk notified Waggoner employees that the events of the war so traumatized him and compelled him to engage in political and cultural advocacy on the issue that he would take a 30-day leave of absence from his duties (whether from accumulated paid time off or forgoing pay was not mentioned).
Bossier City needs a partner that is on-call around the clock. Having its partner’s CEO out of pocket for reasons of political activism when crucial decisions may have to be made disserves the citizenry and calls into severe question whether the partnership with Manchac should continue.
As has become evident, there are many unresolved issues with renewing the Manchac contract. The Council was wise to tap the brakes on the move and needs to resolve these before any proceeding with a renewal, which may include introduction of competitive bidding for the job.