Scott Brooks: No matter how you slice it, some say it was half-baked idea

By SCOTT BROOKS
New Hampshire Union Leader Staff
20 hours, 50 minutes ago

MAYOR Frank Guinta had a memorable line in a debate a couple years back, when the subject turned -- as it invariably did in those days -- to pizza.

His opponent, Tom Donovan, had just been hammering him for letting the school board obsess over the district's pizza contract. "Well, let's talk about pizza," Guinta said, proceeding to blast Donovan for failing, as a school board member, to put the $250,000 contract out to bid.

"Any business person knows you go out to bid," he said.

Mayor Ted Gatsas, a seasoned business person in his own right, would tend to share his predecessor's view. But not always.

In fact, in the first two months of his administration, Gatsas has opted three times to forgo the competitive bidding process and stick with a current vendor.

The mayor's tactic has been to negotiate deals himself. This is how the Manchester Transit Authority got to keep the school busing contract, and it's how Intown Manchester, the downtown advocacy organization, got a one-year contract extension.

Most notably, it's how the city ended up locking down a 21-year deal with SMG, the company that manages the Verizon Wireless Arena.

Aldermen were so enthusiastic about the SMG deal that they voted it up immediately, the very night it was unveiled. Since then, a few skeptics have emerged.

"We could be losing millions of dollars in the next 20 years, but we will never know, will we?" said Mike Roche, the self-proclaimed dean of the city labor unions. "There is a very good chance another company would have offered the city of Manchester more money. That is the whole reason why we go out to bid in the first place!"

Former state Democratic Party Chairman Kathy Sullivan made a similar point.

"It's just basic good government," she said. "When you're entering into a contract of that magnitude, involving tens of millions of dollars, for 20 years, and you don't go out to bid, you don't notify the public that you're doing this, then mistakes can be made."

Gatsas is proud of the deal he negotiated. He has said the SMG contract will be worth about $24 million to the city, in savings and revenue, over the next 21 years.

"I think everybody in the city is thrilled to death with the deal we got," Gatsas said.

Gatsas' feeling about competitive bids is that they're good, but only "when you don't put the city in jeopardy of possibly losing other benefits."

The school-bus contract, for instance, was a risky one, he said, since the contract belongs to the MTA, the publicly subsidized agency that also oversees the city bus system. Taking it away, he said, might have put the bus system in jeopardy.

The school board backed his decision, save for two members, Art Beaudry and John Avard, who pointed to a policy requiring the district to go out to bid on contracts worth more than $20,000.

"I just don't like to circumvent our rules," Beaudry said. "If that's the case, then why do we have rules?"

Aldermen, similarly, had planned to put Intown's contract out to bid, but they went along with Gatsas when he proposed giving the agency a one-year extension. Gatsas said he was able to place some demands on the agency, directing them to find cheaper office space somewhere else in the city.

Sullivan has been an early critic of the new mayor, which puts her at odds with the many Democratic aldermen who regularly sing his praises.

One of her main arguments is that Gatsas, a supremely confident businessman and politician, is making a habit of shooting from the hip.

"I think he has a tendency to think that he's a good businessman, so therefore he can make a good deal," she said. "Well, his business was not managing arenas. This is totally different. He doesn't know enough about the arena business to know he's getting a good deal."

Gatsas' deal with SMG abrogated a contract that would not have expired for another six years. The city could have gone out to bid at that point, but of course, there's no telling what sort of deal the city might have gotten. Gatsas said he doubts it would have been as good as the one he just struck.

"Can you tell me what the economy is going to be in six years?" he said.

The city has solicited bids for other services in recent weeks. One request was for a company that could track legislation on the city's behalf in the State House. Another, Gatsas said, was for an ambulance service.

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WE CAN WORK IT OUT: Former Mayor Bob Baines said he was surprised this month to hear Gatsas say the city does not have "confidence or trust" in the International Institute of New Hampshire, a local refugee resettlement agency.

Baines is a member of the Institute's advisory board and has raised money for the agency.

"During the time that I was mayor," he said, noting that was more than four years ago, "the Institute had excellent communication with all the different agencies in the city."

Baines said he gave Gatsas his first tour of the Institute just a few weeks before the new mayor took office in January. He understands Gatsas will be meeting again with the agency's regional director soon.

"I don't want to second-guess what he's doing," Baines said.

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YOU AIN'T GOIN' NOWHERE: April vacation is just around the corner now for Manchester students. They should enjoy it. It could be one of the last they ever get.

The school board came this close last week to scratching April vacation off the 2010-2011 school year calendar. The plan, designed to keep the school year from dragging on late into June, also would have moved up the first day of school to Aug. 31.

Members nixed the idea when superintendent Tom Brennan explained the surrounding towns that send students to Manchester have already set their 2010-2011 academic calendars. Gatsas signaled he wants to look at this again next year.

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Read Scott Brooks' column in the New Hampshire Union Leader. E-mail him at sbrooks@unionleader.com.