WAUPUN — Following a long discussion, the City Council voted to purchase a new work truck from Homan Auto from the recommendation of the Board of Public Works.
The purchase was made along with plans to revise the local purchasing policy to increase the threshold for local businesses on the insistence of local residents, members of the Board, City Council, and Mayor of Waupun Rohn Bishop.
When the local purchasing policy was enacted in 2022, it allowed for a 1% difference in price from the lowest bid. Using this, the City previously purchased a truck from Ewald Automotive over the difference of $1,600 lower than Homan Auto. Some members of the community took issue with this, including the Mayor who expressed his disappointment over the decision.
These same issues repeated this week after the Department of Public Works made the City aware that they desperately needed a new truck earlier this week and sent out for public bids from suppliers, including Ewald, Holiday Automotive, Homans, and Napleton. The truck in question is a 2024 half-ton pickup truck, more specifically a 2024 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 4WD Regular Cab that was being considered from Ewald.
According to the meeting agenda packet, Ewald bid the lowest at $39,017, followed by Holiday at $39,908.60 and Homans close behind at $39,911. Napleton submitted a bid of $41,334.50 but was not discussed during the meeting.
The matter was brought to the Board of Public Works which was held at City Hall Tuesday at 4:30PM.
Mark Homan, representing Homan Auto, addressed the board with his views on why he believed that the City should purchase from locally operated businesses.
“I definitely understand that the City has to be responsible with taxpayer dollars,” Homan said. “We wish we were the lowest bid but Ewald’s state bid program—which only one dealer in the state is eligible for—is just something we can’t match. They get bid concessions we don’t get.”
“I just hope that the decision makers look at the dollars that our dealerships, our owners, and our employees put back into the city—whether that’s the personal property taxes that we pay, the dollars we donate to Celebrate Waupun, Waupun Community Fund, our churches, the Hockey Association, local sports programs, the food pantry, REACH Waupun—I can go on.”
“I know you have a 1% policy [for local purchases]. Personally, I don’t think that’s very realistic,” he said. “As you can see by the other local bids, we are definitely competitive. If it was my personal dollars—but I know they’re not though a little bit of them are—but I wouldn’t even consider buying an hour out of town for $1,000 difference in price. The convenience of knowing that the difference will stay in town means a lot to our dealership.”
Homan went on to explain that they’ve had no hassle in selling vehicles to other local municipalities, including Brandon, Fox Lake, and Ripon.
Following Mark Homan’s address, Mayor of Waupun Rohn Bishop also spoke about his desire to buy local “whenever we can.” He pointed out that the last time this issue came up the difference in price was $1,600, while in this case it was only $900. He also stated that he posted about his frustration about the issue to Facebook and received several offers from current and former residents to donate to the City to cover the difference in price if the City decided to purchase from Homans—which had added up to $610 as of the time of the meeting.
“The community is sending the message loud and clear that they want us to buy it locally,” Mayor Bishop said. “Homan Auto sponsors Celebrate Waupun, REACH Waupun—which I believe they are the number one contributor to. Without them, I don’t know if these events or organizations would exist. Homans has stepped up for just about every sport in town, but most recently the Hockey thing. We wouldn’t be in the position to get the floor replaced if it wasn’t for them. So to buy a car from out of town over $900 doesn’t make sense to me, especially if we’ve got $610 raised online. I would strongly encourage this Board to go ahead and purchase the truck from Homans.”
The Board discussed the various details of the purchase, starting with an explanation of the bid process from Works Director Jeff Daane. The new vehicle is needed as soon as possible to replace an old vehicle. According to current City policy they must receive several quotes, and if the local option—defined as within Fond du Lac and Dodge County—is within 1% that the City would go with the local bid.
Questions were brought up about how the City would go about receiving donations for a purchase such as this, and whether that would impact the policy if followed. During the discussion it was pointed out that the price of the Homan bid was higher than Holiday by only two dollars and sixty cents, and since the current purchasing policy includes Fond du Lac that would mean Holiday would be given preference as well.
City Administrator Schlieve pointed out that the policy has been around for over a year now, but that not everyone has been happy with it. They briefly discussed the process that went into the creation of the policy, and ways they could improve it. The Board, Mayor Bishop, and City Admin Schlieve all agreed that changing the policy to something everyone can agree with is a good idea.
By the end of the discussion the primary concern was whether it was legal for the City to purchase the truck from Homan Auto, despite being technically outside of the local purchasing policy. Since it is a policy and not an ordinance, it is mostly a guideline for how the City should be making decisions before Council input.
City Administrator Kathy Schlieve emphasized that Daane and the City did their jobs as according to the current policy, having recommended the lowest bid from Ewald in the agenda.
“Jeff did his job to the letter of the law as written by the policy, he has done exactly what we would want him to do and we should be very proud of the work that he did,” Schlieve said. “What gets translated in all of this is that staff are seen as not wanting to do business locally, and that’s not true. But we are obligated to follow the policy as the board by the law.”
It was essentially agreed among everyone at the meeting that the best course of action was to purchase the truck from Homan Auto if possible.
Following this, Mark Homan offered to contribute his own “donation” to the City by bringing down the bid on the truck to 1% over the Ewald bid if they decide to purchase it, which is within the limits of the purchasing policy. This would make the final cost of the Homan Auto bid proposal $39,407, disregarding small change.
The Board voted unanimously to accept this proposal, and went on to discuss other items on the agenda.
Following the Board of Public Works meeting was the City Council meeting, held the same night at 6PM. There was much on the agenda but the most pressing issue was no doubt the Public Works truck. As explained by Daane in the previous meeting, they could not postpone the purchase to a future meeting.
Jason Whitford addressed the Common Council before the meeting about the local purchasing policy. He reiterated many of his complaints which he posted on Facebook.
“I don’t think it’s right that Mark Homan has to come in here and he’s got to donate the money back to get a bid,” Whitford said. “I agree with Kathy, after the last fiasco, that if you’re really interested in buying local and making it right, you should have fixed the policy. Because 1% is not doing it, in my opinion.”
Whitford went on to thank the members of the Board and the City Council for taking steps to fix the policy and for putting up with residents “like himself” that make a stink about certain issues, as he had been in their positions in the past—pointing out that it’s the life “they chose” for being in those positions.
When the Council came to the issue on the agenda Alderman Pete Kaczmarski reiterated much of the conclusions of the Board of Public Works meeting earlier that night, as several members of the Council were not in attendance.
Alderman Dan Siebers asked several questions about the procedure. He stated he was in favor of buying local, but did not want to change policy while in the middle of a purchase.
“I just want to come to a fair consistent process where Jeff is empowered to do his job,” Siebers said.
Revising the policy would provide more direction for City staff, and align with what the community wants the City to do in cases like this.
“The way to fix the problem is to fix the policy,” Schlieve said. “We spend a lot of time churning on decisions which we do not need to spend that kind of time on—we need clear direction.”
It was also pointed out that the reason it was brought to the Board and the Council was because the truck would have been over budget for such purchases, which require Council approval to make.
Kaczmarski emphasized that the reduced offer from Homan Auto is a proposal, which is separate terminology from an official bid. Siebers asked if other businesses were invited to speak on their behalf, if that was required. Attorney VandeZande pointed out that it was a public quoting process, not a sealed bid, and may be subject to change.
“It was an informal bidding procedure,” Alderman Jason Westphal said. “Homans changed their informal bid to come within the 1% which now allows us to still follow the policy and buy local from the local dealer—which is what we should be doing by the policy and what we all want to do.”
Following the discussion the Council voted unanimously to accept the proposal for purchasing the truck from Homan Auto, motioned by Kaczmarski, seconded by Ledesma. No timeframe was set for when the Council would revise the policy.
