Why no official bid for Ehlert fencing?

No Bid Contracts? Is PEP buying off the Little League?
Who stands to gain a profit by this? Who’s friend got the job?

There was a special Brookfield village board meeting held March 13, 2008 at 4:30 p.m., a rather inconvenient time for most residents.

The meeting lasted four minutes and the Brookfield village trustees in attendance voted unanimously to approve a resolution to waive competitive bids and enter into a contract for fencing at Ehlert Park Western Conference Field for $39,900.

Is there any sane person, other than on the village board in Brookfield, who would not get competitive bids when spending almost $40,000 for such a mundane item such as fencing?

There are 45 fencing contractors in our local yellow pages and no doubt hundreds in the Chicago Metropolitan area, many of which are qualified to install or repair fencing.

I think every resident would appreciate a conscientious effort to obtain the lowest price when expending their funds.

I'm sure that the excuse will be that it is a highly specialized type of fencing, or that it had to be done immediately (why the procrastination?), or it's been done before by the previous administration. (That one's getting old.)

But clearly this is not a good reflection on the so called "professional management" of our village. The real reason for this poor example of money management lurks beneath the surface and unfortunately the taxpayer is the loser.

UPDATE! Lyons Township paid an additional $20,000.00 toward the fencing. A Grand Total of $59,900.00 with no bids!!! Who is getting greased here?