Indianola Ward 4 Alderman Marvin Elder is trying to gain clarification about which city vendors have active contracts.
During this past Monday’s board meeting, Elder told the board that this is something the city needs to get straight.
Elder said, “We are saying that this board does not have contracts with different people, but come to find out, we do have contracts with different people.”
City Clerk Angela Goodwin presented the board with a list of vendors that the city has contracts with.
Goodwin said, “I highlighted three of the 600 vendors that we have. I did a planning of consultant service. I also placed a lease agreement that we have with one of our stores downtown. The third contract that I think caused a lot of headaches for some of our aldermen on this board was a contract literally with South Delta (Planning & Development). I believe one alderman stated on television that we never had a contract with South Delta, and that is not true. We have always had contracts with them.”
Goodwin said that she placed this information inside the board’s packets so they may review all of the contracts.
“There was a contract with South Delta, with Spencer Construction and everyone that was involved in the situation,” Goodwin said.
City Attorney Kimberly Merchant asked Goodwin to clarify if she said the city had a contract with Spencer Construction.
Goodwin said, “I saw one signed with Spencer Construction in here.”
Merchant said, “Right, Spencer Construction and Mary Young.”
Merchant explained to Goodwin that Spencer Construction’s contract was signed on the company’s behalf, not for South Delta. The contract was between Mr. Fred Spencer and Mary Young, a homeowner.
Mayor Ken Featherstone said, “So to be clear, the city has never had a contract with Spencer Construction?”
Merchant said, “It never did. That was my entire point initially.”
“Like the clerk said, everybody needs to take time and read this since people want to go on TV and say what we didn’t. But it’s some signatures in here saying we did,” Elder said.
The mayor clarified again that the City of Indianola did not have a contract with Spencer Construction. Featherstone asked the board if they had any other questions.
Elder said, “Yes, Mr. Mayor, we have requested everyone that does professional services with us provide their contract. The reason I say this is because everyone doing business with the city should be in your office or the city clerk should have the information.”
Elder told the board that he would advise his colleagues to review the contract information.
“The city did have a contract with the homeowner, and if we had a contract with the homeowner, that means we had a contract with South Delta. There are some signatures we have signed with the homeowner. (Steve) Rosenthal signed and you (Featherstone) have some signatures here. We need to figure out exactly what signatures that we have with the homeowner and South Delta. This isn’t about Spencer Construction anymore; this is about these contracts that were signed.
