MARCO ISLAND — Fear of another a protest to a city bid process nearly led to another round of searching for an auditing firm to conduct the forensic audit on Marco's six-year, $40 million, Collier Boulevard reconstruction project. The bid process led to a long discussion and debate at Monday evening's City Council meeting.

The citizens' committee charged with selecting an auditor for the Collier Boulevard project chose to interview three firms, which were ranked based on their responses to the city's original request for proposals in Fall 2008. The list was further refined by searching for a firm that had no prior contracts or connections with the City of Marco Island.

The Ad Hoc Forensic Audit Committee unanimously chose to recommend the Daytona-based firm James Moore to perform the audit of the Collier Boulevard project at their Feb. 20 meeting. The firm estimated it would take up to 500 working hours and $79,000, including travel expenses, to complete the forensic audit, or detailed audit which will hold up in court.

The three firms interviewed were James Moore & Co., KPMG Forensic and Crowe Horwath. KPMG Forensic's bid was $81,800 including travel. Crowe Horwath's bid was $95,700 plus travel expenses.

James Moore plans to begin by looking at all transactions above $20,000 for the project that spanned 2002 through 2008 and was last estimated to cost $40 million, according to a fall 2008 report by former Finance Director Bill Harrison and Public Works Director Rony Joel. Upon the committee’s direction, the firm may look at all expense and income transactions for the not-to-exceed amount of $79,000.

James Moore originally bid $42,000 for the forensic audit and their opportunity to rebid became the focus of Monday night's debate.

Councilman Jerry Gibson was first to question the dramatic change in the bid.

The change was based on committee chair Terri DiSciullo's request, made on behalf of the committee, for the firm to give an estimate on an audit of every transaction in addition to their original bid which was based on the method of representative sampling. Based on the hours estimated to complete either a audit type, one based on every transaction or one based on sampling, the hourly rate charged by the firm was still the lowest of the three firms.

Chairman Trotter said he was concerned that all three final bidders weren't given equal opportunity to refine their bids.

"Evidently (James Moore) first misunderstood the nature of the bid," Trotter said of their representative sampling bid despite the request for all transactions outlined in the RFP.

Vice Chair of the forensic audit committee, Joe Batte, didn't see it that way.

"They provided us with some flexibility. If you get to a certain point, if everything is pointing the right way, you could back off of some of it. They were so flexible to work with us and do exactly what the RFP required," Batte said.

Interim Finance Director Bob Creighton said he believed James Moore should have been disqualified.

"Allowing them to rebid taints the whole process. I don't think it's a level playing field. Originally, 27 firms received bid packages. If the process has been flawed, as I think it has been, be more specific on expectations. You'll get more responses in this economic climate," Creighton said.

Alan Gabriel, the city's attorney, said he could not approve the contract because there wasn't a written contract or proposal for the $79,000 full audit.

Councilman Ted Forcht recommended a rebid so all firms were on a "level playing field."

"I want to make sure when this audit is complete, we can say for sure what happened on Collier Boulevard. I want to be able to tell everyone in the room, everyone in TV land this is where every dollar went," Forcht said.

Councilman Rob Popoff said he didn't think this should be compared to a recent bid protest which occurred regarding millions of dollars in sewer construction project bids.

"We're comparing this to an STRP bid. This is a nominal amount compared to the STRP," Popoff said.

Audit committee member Larry Magel said the selection was based on interviews, not the usual ranking bid process.

"Even if they were the high bidder, they would have been recommended because of the interviews. If you go through the legalities, as far as I'm concerned, you're going to get the same result," Magel said adding "Professional services do not have to be bid the same way widgets have to be bid."

Resident Bob Brown, who attended several of the audit committee meetings, said he didn't want to see another six to eight weeks go by to rebid the forensic audit.

"It would be a total shame and actually a total sham to put it out again," Brown said.

Councilman Chuck Kiester agreed.

"I'm sick of this thing getting strung out and strung out. I've been asking for an audit of this thing for three years," Kiester said.

Council narrowly approved the recommendation for a $79,000 maximum contract with James Moore to conduct the forensic audit of the Collier Boulevard project subject to the audit committee's, Creighton's and Gabriel's approval of a written contract which will further define what the city is paying for specific services.

Councilman Wayne Waldack, Trotter and Forcht opposed the approval of contracting with James Moore.

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