Perham Selectmen Raise Ire of Community in Road Contract Controversy

By:  David Deschesne

Fort Fairfield Journal, September 17, 2014

   At the August 27, 2014 Perham Selectmen meeting, Chris Langille of Langille Construction was awarded a contract for road grading in spite of the fact that Roger Connolly of Perham Logging had submitted a lower bid; has been a Perham inhabitant and taxpayer for decades; and had completed work similar to the work called for in the contract in past years, including last year.

   Deb Viola, also a Perham inhabitant, stated she believed the bid-review process and contract-award process were mishandled by the Selectboard.

   Ed Clark, who was in attendance at the meeting,  stated that as far as he knew, all government entities “from the federal government on down” are obligated to award a contract to the lowest bidder unless the entity can prove there is some reason to believe the lowest bidder cannot or will not perform the work in a satisfactory manner. Debra Viola added it is also permissible for a government entity to reject a bid if the bidder doesn’t have the required insurance coverage.

   The Maine Municipal Association recently advised the Perham selectmen that a municipality has the right to accept or refuse a bid for any reason.

   Chairman Farley stated that the reason he wanted to award the grading contract to Chris Langille instead of Roger Connolly is that when Mr. Connolly’s crew graded roads in Perham last year, they left behind some windrows that had to be cleaned up later. “Those ridges were supposed to be picked up by the town's highway man, but it didn't happen,” said Connolly.  Connolly asked Chairman Farley why he didn’t bring this problem to his attention last year, when he noticed the problem, and Chairman Farley stated that he had just chosen not to do so. 

   “It's my understanding that Chairman Farley stated, during the contract-award process on August 27, 2014, that Roger Connolly was too busy to perform the road-grading work for Perham this year and that therefore the Selectboard should award the contract to Mr. Langille, even though Mr. Connolly’s bid was lower than Mr. Langille’s,” said Deb Viola. Chairman Farley denied having made this comment.  Leslie and Viola reminded Mr. Farley that his remarks had been recorded.

   Roger Connolly pointed out to Farley that his statement that he was too busy to perform a job he’d bid on could be considered slanderous. “If I was too busy, I wouldn't have bid the job,” said Connolly.

   Tom Goodyear, who was in attendance at the Selectman meeting, said it is ridiculous that a low bid from a long-term Perham resident, Roger Connolly, had been rejected by the Select board. Mr. Goodyear said, “It is insane not to give him the job. You are asking for trouble.” Mr. Goodyear then left the meeting abruptly.

   Connolly said, as far as he was concerned, what was really going on resulted from Chairman Farley’s and Selectman McLaughlin’s anger toward him because on one occasion a year or so ago he admonished a town employee for not approaching his assigned work more diligently.  He also pointed out that with the way the town of Perham handles their bid process, pretty soon nobody will want to bid on work the town needs to have done.  That seemed to prove itself out at last Wednesday's selectmen meeting where there were no bids received for culvert replacement in Perham.    “I warned them no one would be interested in bidding and nobody bid,” said Connolly.  “I can't read minds, but one job is as lucrative as the other and there were four bidders for the grading and none on the culvert replacement, it looks like that proved my point.”