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Video: Local contractor speaks out on $200K he says Clerk owes for county work

City Desk Naples-Marco Island, Florida
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Gina Edwards
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Local contractor speaks out in interview with Naples City Desk on $200K he says Clerk Brock owes for county work 

Local businessman Buddy Quarles, owner of BQ Concrete, speaks out in this interview with Naples City Desk about the $200,000 he says Collier Clerk of Courts Dwight Brock owes him for concrete work he’s performed for Collier County government.

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Quarles, who’s been in business for 27 years and has done work for Collier County for more than a decade, said it’s been more than 2.5 months since he’s been paid by Brock and the payment delays are forcing him out of business. He said he’s had to lay off six employees and he’s behind in his business and personal bills.

Brock did not respond to requests for comment from Naples City Desk.

Collier Commissioner Donna Fiala, in an interview with Naples City Desk, said she would think what’s happening to Quarles “would be illegal.”

“I think it’s very unfair what’s happened to that poor guy. To me, I would think it’s illegal,” FIala said. “He signed a contract. We signed contract. We established a price. He did the job for that contract price and we all expected him to be paid.”

Fiala had strong words for Brock. Hear Fiala and Quarles in Naples City Desk interviews in the video here. For past stories related to the lawsuit Brock recenty filed to overturn the County Commissioners' purchasing policy, subscribe to Naples City Desk.

Brock is broadly asking the courts in the lawsuit to give him power to block any county government purchase that he deems doesn’t have a valid public purpose, which would give him broad discretion over all county spending. County government purchasing pumps more than $100 million to local Collier area businesses each year. 

The purchasing policy authorizes County Manager Leo Ochs and Purchasing Director Janne Markiewicz to negotiate and sign off on purchases below $50,000 without a vote of the board in advance. However, the expenditures are routinely approved by Collier Commissioners after-the-fact as serving a valid public purpose and published for the public online as part of the Commission agenda.

Brock contends the policy is an illegal delegation of Commissioners' spending powers. 

Ochs said identical purchasing policies that delegate authority to county staff to sign off on smaller dollar purchases are in place at numerous other counties around the state.

In material presented to commissioners last week, Ochs' staff noted that 93 percent of county spending — totaling $237 million — is voted on and approved by elected county commissioners. Commissioners also set broad spending policies in the budget.

The smaller purchases above $3,000 and below $50,000, for which staff still have to seek competitive price quotes, total $9.6 million a year. Smaller purchases including credit-card style purchases by employees for things like travel or online purchases total $8.4 million a year.

If he succeeds, the lawsuit by Brock would strip virtually all discretionary spending away from county staff for small dollar items and for any items below the county’s competitive bid threshold that’s outlined in the county’s purchasing ordinance. County Manager Ochs has previously told Collier Commissioners Brock’s demands would essentially grind county government operations to a halt and create red-tape that isn’t the norm in counties across Florida and hasn’t been the norm in Collier for many years.

Since January, Brock has refused to pay a software vendor $32,000 for online training courses saying Ochs and County Purchasing Director Markiewicz violated state law when they authorized the contract. The software vendor contract is the subject of the lawsuit.    

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Reporting by: Gina Edwards

Dateline: Naples, Fla., May, 5, 2015

Contact Gina Edwards at 239-514-1336 or by email at ginavossedwards@gmail.com 

 


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