NO WONDER THE MIRASOL SCANDAL HAPPENED: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE CONTRACTS AT SAHA

Herman Taylor, the recently-hired Assistant Procurement & Facilities Director at SAHA, has resigned after only two months reporting to Patrick Bourcier, Director of Procurement & Facilities - in shock at the contracting miasma at SAHA. Taylor, who is a professionally-certified public buyer, (know as CPPB), was the only procurement-certified manager at SAHA, says that he was appalled at SAHA's antiquated commodity code system that should have been updated "at least five years ago. "

Because SAHA has neglected using the government's national and efficient coding system for contracting, Taylor explained, the Housing Authority has little room for the many variations and categories of contracts that need to be established, reviewed, and re-configured according to governmental regulations.

SAHA has been under fire for the Mirasol Homes Public Housing Project, a westside community beset with poor construction and health problems linked to SAHA's contractual procedures.

Pursuant to his responsibilites while at SAHA, Taylor said that "When I went through and found the contracts, I went into the system and couldn’t determine what contracts were in place and the Director told me it (the contracts) was not accurate information." Taylor says there was no information on the contracts based on what was expired. So he’s (Bourcier) probably changing the contracts in the system – not in paper. So it lets him cover up the problem. Ninety percent of that (contract) information was not accurate."

Further, Taylor said there were "alot of contracts coming up for expiration," and they should be extended or renegotiated. And while many contracts are eligible for that, he made a list of "40 -50 contracts that need to be (newly) established." In other words, the contracts need to go out through proscribed governmental bidding procedures.

To get around the contracting slowdown created by incompetence, he said that SAHA is making non-profit procurement contracts via their corporate entities, to get around federal regulations. In other words, SAHA is using for-profit procurement procedures for non-profit procurement contracts.

Besides his professional buyer's certification, Taylor is also a real estate broker, mortgage broker, financial planner, securities representative, and has extensive experience with governmental contracts.

Bourcier's salary is near the range of "six-figures,' according to Taylor's estimation. Taylor also stated that he was writing a letter to SAHA's CEO, Henry Alvarez III, detailing his observations, and recommending that SAHA have two separate departments, each charged with Contract Management and Procurement.

Taylor says that while some people at SAHA wanted him to "shine," he had begun to feel he was hired to protect Bourcier, who has been at SAHA for a dozen years - and to "clean up" the Procurement Office without being given any authority whatsoever.


credits: Mirasol Homes, www.hobb.org/hobbv1/images/stories/Mirasol2.gif