Yesterday, we finally got to see the scores, but not the full detail, of the RFP where Tenant Resource Center lost their funding. And any tiny morsel of faith I had left in the process was destroyed. How is this a fair process? Ask your elected officials! Well, my staff say they don’t hate the Tenant Resource Center, they just hate me, personally.
county_board_recipients@countyofdane.com
parisi@countyofdane.com
Green@co.dane.wi.us
Ask them, how do you allow someone with a STRONG bias against an agency to score their applications? Deedra Atkinson from the United Way, the one who said that it was a “non-starter” to work with the Tenant Resource Center as a fiscal agent for the day center and that is why they waffled on their commitment to the project. For background, first of Tenant Resource Center is a member of Community Shares of Wisconsin, not United Way. We have been in some form since it started in 1969 and are one of their oldest members (if not the only one).
Here’s how we got scored by her:
Project Scope (450 points)
Community Action Coalition – 405
Tenant Resource Center – 45 (no, I didn’t forget a number)
Organizational Profile (350 points)
Community Action Coalition – 315
Tenant Resource Center – 35
On project scope, here are the ranges of the other 4 scorers, 3 of them county employees (and given how the county staff has recommended cutting us for years, you can probably see how this is going to go . . . but, still, they acted in a lot more good faith than United Way did.)
Project Scope (450 points)
Community Action Coalition – 288 – 360
Tenant Resource Center – 229.5 – 315
Compare that to 405 (45 points higher than the highest score) and 45 (184.5 points below the lowest score)!
Organizational Profile (350 points)
Community Action Coalition – 192.5 – 280
Tenant Resource Center – 175 – 280
Compare that to 315 (35 points higher than the highest score) and 35 (140 points below the lowest score)
For me, this calls into question the fairness of the entire process. What else did she say or do when they were making this decision? What influence did she have? If you throw out her score, we still lost by 50 points . . . but would we have if she wasn’t there?
This RFP process needs serious review. But I’ve been told there is no appeal process. Now what, just suck it up?
Our clients are the ones who are going to suffer. I guess it will be up to them to complain . . . but will they? People are so used to being screwed in Wisconsin and having no recourse, why would this be any different?
