Understand the relationship with V. Lessard & Sons and the Town of Hampton

Rational Taxpayers of Hampton requested under the State Right to Know Law that it be provided with information regarding the amount of business conducted with Lessard and Sons or other entities under their control for the years 2011 and 2012. This request resulted from the illegal encumbrance for $100K that indicated Lessard and Sons had an open Purchase Order. The Town provided an analysis showing that it did $1,800 in 2011 and $58,000+/- in 2012.  Goods and services over $15,000 must be competitively bid by policy.   We then requested to look at the contract for Tuck Road project for $37,450 and were invited to visit the Town offices to review the contracts. We did see a contract for Mill Rd. which had been properly competitively bid but Lessard and Sons was not involved on the contract but we did notice that the funding for Tuck Rd. project had been funded from a transfer from that contract. We are not sure how this is possible. We then asked to see the bid documents on Tuck Road and were told to go to the DPW. We wrote the DPW asking for the information but were told to contact the Town Manager. (Sounds like a bit of a runaround doesn’t it?). Well this past Tuesday we sent a request to the Town Manager with a copy to the Selectmen and the DPW asking for the documentation confirming it was competitively bid and as of today we have not heard back.

Granted there are other matters going on in town but we presume that it would only take a few minutes to pull the file and respond.  Rational Taxpayers of Hampton wants to make sure that there were proper bid procedures and if for any reason there weren’t, then that the Board of Selectmen would have been properly informed about this. Further we also requested information on the cost of the State beach rakings completed by Lessard and Sons and we were shown an invoice showing it being paid in April 2012 although the work didn’t commence until October.  We are awaiting information on that as well.

Rational Taxpayers of Hampton want to make sure that the Town’s purchasing practices and procedures are properly being adhered to. We don’t know if the independent auditors of the Town perform a systems and procedures review, but if not, perhaps it is something that should be considered in the future engagement of the auditors.

Norman Silberdick For Rational Taxpayers of Hampton