NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Without prior explanation, public announcement or notice to prospective bidders, the New Rochelle Board of Education abruptly pulled a Request for Proposal for Legal Services.
The RFP was distributed on the District web site, BidNet and in the Journal News in October with a deadline of November 13th at 11:00 a.m.
The original RFP required that interested bidders indicate their intention to bid by October 31st. Talk of the Sound has requested the list of prospective bidders.
As of this morning, there was no mention at all of the RFP on the District website.
School officials have since confirmed the RFP was pulled on Friday at the direction of the school board.
In a statement to Talk of the Sound Board of Education President Jeffrey Hastie acknowledged the disappearance of the RFP:
“The Board of Education and the Superintendent have temporarily rescinded a Request for Proposals (RFP) for legal services that the business office had posted on the District website,” said Hastie. “The RFP was pulled due to errors in the document noticed by members of the Board and the District Clerk.”
Hastie said Superintendent Dr. Magda Parvey has requested that the business office correct the errors and provide the revised RFP to the Superintendent’s office and the Board.
“The RFP will be re-posted once the Superintendent has received it and gotten approval from the Board of Education.”
Hastie did not explain the nature of any errors or why it would take days to fix such errors.
Hastie did not say whether the previous RFP process will be continued or whether a new RFP process will be initiated at some future date.
The RFP was intended to solicit competitive bids after 41 years of an exclusive, no-bid contract with law firms connected to Jeff Kehl. In 2008, the New York State Comptroller first raised concerns about Kehl’s no-bid contract saying the failure of the board to bid out the contract raised questions about whether the interests of taxpayers was being protected.
This is the second time in four months that the board directed an RFP for Legal Services be put out and then pulled it back without taking bids.
UPDATE: list of law firms that filed an RFP receipt indicating they intends to submit a proposal to provide legal services to the District.
Ingerman Smith
Hauppauge, NY
Pullano & Farrow
Rochester, NY
Bond, Schoeneck & King
New York, NY
Guerico & Guerico
Farmingdale, NY
Keane & Beane
White Plains, NY
Shaw, Perelson, May & Lambert
Poughkeepsie, NY
St. Paul Law Firm
White Plains, NY