[nfbmi-talk] wish lara bsbp would do this

[joe harcz Comcast]

That includes the Tim Hortons contract or other expenditures related to the franchise arrangement that clearly the recent FOIA suggest they have or had in spite of all types of double speak to we who are blind and to the media in general.

Joe

Michigan Economic Development Corp plans to put contracts online | Lansing State

 

Kristen M. Daum

 

 

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After facing criticism over a lack of transparency, the Michigan Economic Development Corp. plans to post all of its contracts with outside suppliers online

by mid-October.

 

The agency’s contracts for goods and services are available individually to those who ask for them, but the MEDC wanted

to charge the Lansing State Journal $1,700 last month

in order to make all of them available for review.

 

In light of that request, Gary LaRoy, the MEDC’s chief information officer and senior vice president of administration, said the department wants to be

more transparent with the millions of dollars in public money it awards annually to contractors and put those agreements online.

 

Outside vendors provide the MEDC with everything from consulting services to technology equipment.

 

LaRoy said the $1,700 charge was because of the need to convert the MEDC’s computer files into accessible formats and the need to then run all of the documents

past the MEDC’s attorneys on the off chance there might be confidential information that would need to be redacted.

 

Instead, the agency now is taking it upon itself to make those documents available online for all to see.

 

Information on all active contracts, including written copies of those agreements, should be available next month once they’re posted online at

www.michiganbusiness.org,

LaRoy said.

 

“We’re going to do it as close as we can to the way (the Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget) does it, so you’re looking at apples to

apples across the state,” LaRoy said.

 

On its website,

DTMB offers a summary of all active contracts plus copies of the written agreements. The department administers the lion’s share of state contracts: About

$32 billion worth of goods and services, as of Aug. 1.

A State Journal analysis last month

showed 78 percent of those contract dollars are with Michigan companies.

(Page 2 of 3)

 

Three state agencies have the authority to manage their own contracts independently: The MEDC, the Michigan Department of Transportation and the Michigan

Lottery. However, those contracts weren’t immediately available, so the State Journal asked to see them through Freedom of Information Act requests.

 

The Michigan Lottery responded that it has only one agreement on its own: A nearly seven-year contract — worth $320 million — with GTech Corp, a Rhode Island-based

company that provides the equipment retailers use to sell lottery tickets.

 

Meanwhile, MDOT has executed more than $1 billion in construction contracts and about $100 million in consultant contracts so far this fiscal year, but

it’s still unclear how much of that money goes to Michigan-based companies. The agency originally said it could cost “

tens of thousands of dollars

” to make its contracts available for review. But after meeting with MDOT officials earlier this month, the State Journal now is working to compile basic

details on the agency’s contract data in order to determine where the money goes.

 

Local benefit

 

While the MEDC’s contracts are prepared for publication online, LaRoy provided lists of payments to contractors the MEDC has made so far this fiscal year

during a meeting with the State Journal last week.

 

The numbers LaRoy provided show the MEDC buys relatively little from outside contractors, compared to MDOT or the Michigan Lottery.

 

So far in 2013, the MEDC has spent $16.1 million on 103 contracted services, according to the data. Of that, $11.8 million — or 73 percent — was awarded

to Michigan-based companies, representing 80 of the purchases.

 

By comparison, $4.3 million — or nearly 27 percent — of the dollars went to companies outside Michigan, including a $1.5 million contract awarded to an

Iowa-based company that created this year’s “Pure Michigan” travel guide.

 

Revelations this summer of that contract sparked controversy among politicians in Lansing who balked at the idea of something so iconically Michigan being

produced elsewhere. It also prompted the State Journal’s review of all state contracts.

(Page 3 of 3)

 

However, like with DTMB’s contracts, much of MEDC’s dollars that appear to go to out-of-state companies likely still benefit Michigan firms because they

often represent payments to national businesses with Michigan locations.

 

For instance, Meredith Corp. — the Iowa firm behind the “Pure Michigan” travel guide — employs 280 people in Michigan and paid $1.3 million in state taxes

last year, MEDC officials said.

 

The data LaRoy provided last week differed from what MEDC spokesman Michael Shore provided — and the State Journal reported — last month. Shore’s data indicated

the presence of more than 500 contracts, altogether worth $32.6 million.

 

LaRoy said that data included payments on grant awards as well as contracted services. He said the term “state contracts” has a broad definition under MEDC’s

accounting systems and can include anything from goods and services to tax incentives and investments.

 

'We're in business for local business'

 

MEDC’s mission is to help enhance the state’s corporate-friendly image and entice businesses to invest or re-invest in Michigan, so the agency naturally

would prefer to allocate its business to Michigan-based contractors.

 

“We’re in business for local business,” LaRoy said.

 

But the MEDC also must comply with the same constraints as DTMB when it comes giving preference to Michigan businesses.

 

In practice, it simply isn’t possible.

 

State law allows preferences for in-state contracts only when the quality of service is the same and the cost is exactly the same as an out-of-state competitor

bidding on the same contract.

 

LaRoy said MEDC needs its own authority to manage contracts for goods and services because its accounting system includes two sets of funds — state appropriations

and dollars received through the state’s Indian gaming compacts — and the dollars need to be kept separate because of legal requirements.

 

However, all MEDC contracts are managed within one office inside the agency. It’s staffed by two people who work with MEDC’s legal division, LaRoy said.

 

In general, they follow the same protocols as DTMB, which weighs quality of service with cost to determine which vendor can offer the best value. Any purchases

in excess of $1 million or that weren’t budgeted need approval by either or both of MEDC’s governing boards, he said.

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