Presque Isle appeals DHHS process

PRESQUE ISLE – The Department of Health and Human Services’ efforts to consolidate offices in Presque Isle and Caribou are raising questions with the city of Presque Isle about whether the department is following the process properly.

DHHS began an effort this year to locate offices with the Bureau of Developmental Services throughout the state to serve clients more efficiently.

Presque Isle city officials took a strong stance against the department’s recent decision to terminate a request for proposals, or RFP, for office space in central Aroostook County. The space was to house both the DHHS office, now located in Caribou, and the BDS office, now located in Presque Isle. DHHS officials say they terminated the RFP because they had not considered some important factors, including client demographics, in completing the office merger.

In a unanimous vote, city councilors recently asked that DHHS rescind its decision to terminate the RFP. Councilors also asked the department to reinstate the RFP and issue a letter of intent to the best of four submitted proposals. The city was working in support of two of the proposals by Presque Isle bidders; the other two bids originated from the Caribou area.

“We believe there did not seem to be sufficient information to suspend or terminate the RFP,” Presque Isle City Manager Tom Stevens said recently.

Councilors had Stevens write a letter to DHHS Commissioner John R. Nichols about the vote and request under the Maine Freedom of Access Law the information on which DHHS based its decision to terminate the RFP.

“The City’s position can best be summarized by our repeated statements that the city supports the process and any decision on where the offices will be located, either in Caribou or Presque Isle, as long as the process is followed,” Stevens said in the letter.

“It is disingenuous for DHHS to suggest at the time of decision-making, however long delayed, that a lack of data pertaining to client demographics is a sufficient reason to abandon a process that otherwise fairly represented the needs and interests of the public and private sectors,” Stevens said later in the letter.

Stevens also sent a letter to Gov. John Baldacci asking him to intercede in the matter. The city has not received a response to the letter, the city manager said.

The city received a written response, however, from the DHHS commissioner.

Nichols declined to give the city the requested information because, according to the Attorney General’s Office, it is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

Nichols said the department chose to terminate the process so it could fully consider concerns received from parties in both Caribou and Presque Isle.

John Conrad, director of leased space division of the Bureau of General Services, said Monday that the state always has the right to terminate the RFP, though this was an atypical situation. BGS develops and advertises RFPs after state departments and agencies give basic criteria. Conrad said it is up to the tenant agency to gather local concerns and identify important factors that could affect the RFP.

DHHS officials will meet with interested stakeholders on Oct. 13 to discuss factors that should be included in a new co-location RFP.

“In hindsight, we should have met and discussed the factors with stakeholders before we sent out the RFP,” Cheryl Ring, DHHS director of special projects, said recently.

Ring said that DHHS cannot reinstate the RFP because it already has been terminated: “It’s as though the first process no longer exists,” she said.

She added, however, that DHHS hopes to initiate a process that all parties will feel is fair and comprehensive.

As DHHS moves forward on the new RFP, Stevens said, the city will have to re-evaluate its position on whether it will attend future meetings about the co-location. Either way, he said, the city still takes issue with the fact that local officials don’t have a clearly defined reason for termination of the original RFP.

“Until we can receive that [requested] information, we will always wonder what happened,” Stevens said.