$1 million Richmond police car deal broke rules

• RELATED STORY: Richmond City Council member blasts police car deal

• AUDITOR'S REPORT: Police cars bought without competitive bids

Richmond officials violated procurement rules when the city bought 40 police cars for nearly $1 million in 2007 without allowing vendors to compete for the business, according to a city auditor's investigation.

The procurement services department wrongly treated the purchase as though only one vendor could provide the Crown Victoria vehicles when numerous Ford dealers across the city and nation could have, City Auditor Umesh Dalal wrote in a report Tuesday to Mayor Dwight C. Jones and other officials.

Eric R. Mens, who authorized the purchase of the vehicles, gave notice June 30 that he would resign effective Aug. 30, city spokesman Michael Wallace said yesterday. Mens has been the director of procurement services since January 2007.

His resignation was not requested by the administration, and so far, no disciplinary action has been taken as a result of the investigation, Wallace said.

"The administration just received this report today, and it's under review by senior staff," Wallace said yesterday.

Mens could not be reached for comment and is scheduled to be out of the office until Monday, according to an automated response to an e-mail message.

Richmond paid $993,520 -- an average of$24,838 per vehicle -- to an unnamed vendor for the police vehicles, according to the auditor's report.

State officials said the city and other localities can piggyback on the state's contract for police vehicles, but it was unclear what savings, if any, could have been realized.

In 2007, Virginia State Police paid a base price of $20,626 for Crown Victoria cruisers, spokeswoman Corinne Geller said. It could not be determined whether the vehicles were equipped similarly to the vehicles purchased by the city.

City code requires all public contracts with private vendors to be awarded after competitive sealed bidding or negotiation.

Notices inviting bids or requesting proposals are supposed to be posted publicly for at least 10 days if the contract exceeds $50,000. But that did not happen when the city bought the police vehicles, according to the auditor's report.

Exceptions to procurement rules can be made if officials determine after a "good-faith review" that only one source or vendor is practically available.

The auditor's office said a contract specialist with procurement services had questioned the sole-source designation for the police-car purchase but was directed by the deputy director to treat the purchase that way.

The investigation also found that the deputy director had instructed the contract specialist to send faxes to three Ford dealerships requesting bids for the vehicles. The faxes went out at 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 7, 2007, and they required responses 17½ hours later, at 9 a.m. Nov. 8, 2007 -- well short of requirements, according to the report.

Before the purchase, the department had contacted Ford Motor Co. about buying the vehicles directly, according to the report. However, the deputy director told an investigator that he was advised to contact local dealerships to get the vehicles, according to the report.

"The investigator questioned the deputy director about the manner in which the three vendors were contacted and why the purchase was treated as a sole-source purchase," Dalal wrote. "The deputy director could not explain their rationale for procuring the vehicles as a sole source."

The report added that the deputy director stated that "the original contract awarded to the vendor was canceled and a new invitation for bid was initiated," and that the contract was awarded based on the new bids.

"However, the deputy director could not substantiate his claim with any evidence," the report said. "Subsequent inquiries with other procurement personnel revealed that the department did not solicit any other invitation for bids for this purchase."

The report recommends disciplinary action and was copied to City Council members, as well as Commonwealth's Attorney Michael N. Herring. Herring was unable to say late yesterday whether his office planned to investigate.

Contact Will Jones at (804) 649-6911 or .