MARLOWE BEND — The town council voted 5-2 on Monday to hire Halloway & Pitt Advisory to determine why the town had hired Halloway & Pitt Advisory, a question that has remained open since the firm was first retained in March.
The new contract, worth $184,000, directs the firm to review procurement records, interview department heads and produce a report explaining the circumstances that led to its earlier $96,000 engagement on organizational effectiveness. The town received three bids for the review, two of them from Halloway & Pitt offices in neighboring counties. According to the firm’s proposal, 62 percent of the town’s administrative delays can be traced to decisions made during the period the firm was hired to study.
“This firm’s role is to establish a clear record of how the earlier engagement came about,” said Priscilla Vandermeer, the firm’s managing director of municipal engagement. “The record will be thorough.” The review is expected to take 14 weeks and will include a public presentation, a written report and a second, shorter summary of the report for council members who request one. The firm has assigned four analysts and a project manager, none of whom worked on the original engagement, according to the proposal.
Town Manager Dale Frisch said the town had no staff qualified to reconstruct the decision, which he said had been made across several meetings. The minutes of those meetings were prepared by Halloway & Pitt under the earlier contract and were included as an appendix to the firm’s proposal.
Council member Ruth Obeck, who voted against the contract, said she had requested the rationale for the original engagement in April and received a one-page summary that referred her back to the consultant. She said the summary described a decision she had not been shown.
The firm’s report is due in February. The council has scheduled a preliminary discussion of its findings for March, pending a recommendation from the firm on how the findings should be discussed.
