By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
The Colfax County Commission recently released a press release announcing they uncovered serious findings against former Colfax County Manager Mary Lou Kern. KRTN reached out to Kern to explain how the RFP process and contracts worked in Colfax County government while she was county manager.
Kern was county manager from 2016 to 2022 and resigned her position in February 2022 and served into March of 2022. Kern left the position feeling it was time to move on as the job had become very stressful and was negatively impacting her health.
Kern went on to explain the RFP process goes through a three-step process where the department head makes the request for services or goods. The request goes to a procurement officer who then writes the proposal packet. This then goes to the commission for their approval. If approved the proposal goes out to bid. Once received, the bids go through a process where they are opened and go through a selection process and are forwarded to the commission with a recommendation for final approval. The county manager is a part of this process as the county manager is the administrative department head equal to the other department heads in county government, not their boss.
Once approved a contract is written with specifications for the services. A contract can be written for a specific service or goods for a specific price or can be flexible where certain services are provided for a given amount with a clause that allows for overages or changes depending on the circumstances. An example is the budget for the detention center health care services which depends on the health of inmates at the facility. During Covid, the budget for health care was anyone’s guess and was required to be flexible to meet the health and welfare needs of inmates at the facility.
The county press release indicates that the contractor significantly exceeded the allowed budget under the contract. The release goes on to say that invoices submitted by the contractor contained personal purchases and other materials unrelated to the services provided by the contractor and yet were approved by Kern. Kern noted that she did not know or understand the personal purchases, as inmates at the detention center could have received what could be called personal purchases from the health care provider.
All invoices go through the department head for approval, then onto accounts payable for input into the financial system. Once in the system it is part of the financial record and then verified by a financial specialist for accuracy and whether it falls within that department’s budget. It then goes to the commission for approval and signatures on checks. Anywhere in this process charges on an invoice can be questioned and as the commissioners are the final approval before checks are written they can question any charges on invoices should they so desire.
The county press release noted that Kern currently held or has in the recent past held a high level position with the contractor bringing into question a conflict of interest. After Kern resigned from her position as county manager, she was contacted by the contractor that provides health care services to the detention center to do some consulting for them on proposals that they submitted to other county governments. Kern noted that she had a good working relationship with all the contractors for the county as many were local contractors that she had known for many years.
Kern went on to say she thinks “it is slanderous and a slam.” she found the timing of this going into the election to be quite convenient. Kern admitted that she is human and did make mistakes as county manager. She went on to say if she “had to do the job over again there is definitely things that I would have done and approached differently but I’m not dishonest.”
