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Vicites vows to produce disputed price quotes

By Amy Zalar 3 min read

A month after it surfaced as an issue, Fayette County Commissioner Vincent A. Vicites vowed Tuesday to produce “as soon as possible” two additional price quotes he says the county solicited for the new $6,100 fire school building roof. Vicites said his administrative assistant Holly Sumey has access to the quotes, but she is on vacation this week. Vicites said he would likely be speaking with Sumey as early as today, could learn the location of the written quotes and then could provide them to the newspaper, which started asking for the information two weeks ago.

“I will talk to Holly (today) and get it as soon as possible,” said Vicites.

County Manager Warren Hughes said he received the winning $6,100 quote from G&W Roofing of Eighty-Four, which was putting a roof on the courthouse at the time. Hughes said he has no information about any additional price quotes.

Under the county code, commissioners must obtain three quotes for all purchases between $4,000 and $10,000.

Hughes said normally whatever county office is having the work done gets the quotes.

Fayette County Commission Chairwoman Angela Zimmerlink did not dispute Hughes’ statement that normally county department heads secure price quotes, but said it is not necessarily the function of an administrative assistant of a county commissioner to do that work. She said it normally falls under the realm of the county manager to secure quotes for commissioner-related purchases.

“Warren Hughes is the county manager and director the buildings and grounds department. In this role, he obtained one quote for the roof repair. An administrative assistant to a county commissioners would not be asked to obtain quotes for a roof contract,” Zimmerlink said.

“If the other two quotes existed, an administrative assistant to a commissioner would not be the keeper of those records; instead those quotes would be in the possession of Warren Hughes in his role as director of building and grounds and as county manager,” Zimmerlink added.

Last month Zimmerlink questioned the procedure that Vicites and Fayette County Commissioner Joseph A. Hardy III used in purchasing the roof for the fire school building, which was by simply signing a requisition instead of voting on it at a public meeting. She also questioned the use of county bond money to pay for the project.

Hardy and Vicites signed a county purchase requisition to pay G&W Roofing $6,100 to repair the roof at the Fayette County Firemen’s Association fire training building, which is owned by the county. The Fayette County Firemen’s Association agreed to pay an extra $2,000 towards the roof repair.

Vicites has maintained the proper procedures were followed, but has not provided the documentation. The minority commissioner also defended using bond money, saying a prior general motion was made to allow for capital improvements with bond money.

Zimmerlink said all supporting documents for the fire school roof project should have been presented at the agenda meeting in June, but all that was included was one written quote from G&W addressed to Hughes, along with a letter from the secretary of the firemen’s association.

Chief county clerk Judith Bodkin said the only documentation she received was a quote from G&W Roofing and a letter from the firemen’s association prior to the June agenda meeting, the same material distributed at the agenda meeting.

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