Nursing Home Sign Cost

You might recall this past April when I posted about the new sign at the Champaign County Nursing Home.  I finally got around to finding out the cost of it a month or so ago and am just now posting about it.  The sign cost $16,088.  I think that amount is pretty ridiculous for a sign on an operation that's bleeding money every month, but apparently it's fine for the Auditor who didn't peep a bit.

What's most remarkable is that the purchase didn't follow the County's purchasing policy. 

B.  CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION OR FACILITIES MAINTENANCE PURCHASES EXCEEDING $5,000 AND LESS THAN $20,000
1.  Shall be submitted to the Purchasing Division on a Purchase Requisition, including detailed information of items to be purchased.
a.  If the good or service is in a category covered by the Pre-qualified Vendor List maintained pursuant to Article IX, the County Administrator shall first set a reservation price less than $20,000. The County Administrator shall then attempt to obtain quotes from at least three vendors from the Pre-qualified Vendor List. The County Administrator may award the contract to any of the vendors from the Pre-qualified Vendor List who provide a price less than the reservation price.

You'll recall I've written a few times about the prequalifed vendor program that was the brainchild of Steve Beckett in an attempt to steer more contracts to minority contractors.  Like so many actions by government, it made for nice press and looked good on campaign brochure, but there has been absolutely no follow up on it.  Now you can put Fabri in that category too.  This bid clearly fell under the prequalified vendor area of the purchasing policy yet no one decided to act on it and contact any of the vendors that are on the list that Inman has, which hasn't even been properly formed.  And Inman's failure to follow the purchasing policy got nary a complaint from Fabri.  He routinely touts that he makes sure the county's purchasing policy is followed, but he's done nothing to enforce this particular provision.