St. Regis wins bid for Revenue office, again
by John Q. Murray
After further review, the original decision as made in the field stands.
The Department of Revenue will move its Mineral County office from the courthouse in Superior to new office space in St. Regis.
Dan Bucks, director of the state Department of Revenue, and Janet Kelly, director of the Department of Administration, announced the results of a competitive bid process during a conference call with the Chronicle on Thursday, Aug. 16.
Kelly's department oversees all of the bids for office space by other state agencies.
The state went the extra mile by going to the competitive bid process which gave extra points to bids offering office space in Superior. But a St. Regis bid offered the lowest-cost space and also best met the department's needs, Bucks said.
"As you know, this was the second time through the process of trying to locate space in Mineral County," Bucks said. The first process was a negotiated bid process, which resulted in an award to Judy Stang.
Several area residents questioned the award, noting that Stang is a county commissioner who has announced her intentions to run for the state senate.
Some also questioned the move to a different town 14 miles away. It would make Mineral County the first county in Montana to have its Department of Revenue office moved to a town other than the county seat.
In response to those questions, Bucks said, the state decided to start over with a competitive 30-day open bid process. The office requirements were advertised and local property owners invited to bid for the contract.
Bucks said there were two bidders: Judy Stang and Superior property owner Joe Pike, who owns the property at 102 River Street North.
"We gave extra points if the space were in Superior," Bucks said. "We went the extra mile to find space in Superior instead of St. Regis."
The Superior property had a difficult shape, he said. "While the internal walls can be changed, the external shape of the building was long and narrow, resulting in our having to actually lease more square feet of space to accomplish our business purpose. And because of the longer, narrower external wall configuration, it would have been less convenient and less suitable to use in terms of being able to protect the confidentiality of some of the information."
Realty transfer certificates must be kept confidential, he said.
The plumbing in the Superior building, required for the public bathrooms, was also a smaller issue, he said.
In the end, the Stang bid for the St. Regis office prevailed.
"We will be signing a lease contract for the space in St. Regis and our local office will be relocating in the near future," Bucks concluded.
Beyond those steps, he said, the state will also examine ways to minimize the number of trips that citizens must make between the Superior courthouse and the Department of Revenue office in St. Regis. For example, communications links could allow information to be transferred between the state and county offices, reducing the travel burden on citizens.
"We will look at the best options we can," Bucks said. "Certainly in this modern age there are ways to substitute communications for travel. If somebody just needs a document with information from our office in St. Regis, surely we can find some way of having that delivered by fax or electronic means to an office in the courthouse. That way, people can do their business in Superior at once even if the Department of Revenue office is physically in St. Regis."
The state has gone the extra mile, not only in reassuring the public as good stewards of the taxpayer dollar, but also in reopening the bid process, and in seeking to address other concerns raised by the move, he said.
"In terms of the cost, the protection of records so we don't lose property tax records and so we don't have inadvertent disclosure of confidential information on realty transfer certificates, in terms of our ability to meet with citizens when they come into the office--all of that factors into this," he said. "St. Regis was the best in terms of lowest cost and actual workability of the space."
###
After further review, the original decision as made in the field stands.
The Department of Revenue will move its Mineral County office from the courthouse in Superior to new office space in St. Regis.
Dan Bucks, director of the state Department of Revenue, and Janet Kelly, director of the Department of Administration, announced the results of a competitive bid process during a conference call with the Chronicle on Thursday, Aug. 16.
Kelly's department oversees all of the bids for office space by other state agencies.
The state went the extra mile by going to the competitive bid process which gave extra points to bids offering office space in Superior. But a St. Regis bid offered the lowest-cost space and also best met the department's needs, Bucks said.
"As you know, this was the second time through the process of trying to locate space in Mineral County," Bucks said. The first process was a negotiated bid process, which resulted in an award to Judy Stang.
Several area residents questioned the award, noting that Stang is a county commissioner who has announced her intentions to run for the state senate.
Some also questioned the move to a different town 14 miles away. It would make Mineral County the first county in Montana to have its Department of Revenue office moved to a town other than the county seat.
In response to those questions, Bucks said, the state decided to start over with a competitive 30-day open bid process. The office requirements were advertised and local property owners invited to bid for the contract.
Bucks said there were two bidders: Judy Stang and Superior property owner Joe Pike, who owns the property at 102 River Street North.
"We gave extra points if the space were in Superior," Bucks said. "We went the extra mile to find space in Superior instead of St. Regis."
The Superior property had a difficult shape, he said. "While the internal walls can be changed, the external shape of the building was long and narrow, resulting in our having to actually lease more square feet of space to accomplish our business purpose. And because of the longer, narrower external wall configuration, it would have been less convenient and less suitable to use in terms of being able to protect the confidentiality of some of the information."
Realty transfer certificates must be kept confidential, he said.
The plumbing in the Superior building, required for the public bathrooms, was also a smaller issue, he said.
In the end, the Stang bid for the St. Regis office prevailed.
"We will be signing a lease contract for the space in St. Regis and our local office will be relocating in the near future," Bucks concluded.
Beyond those steps, he said, the state will also examine ways to minimize the number of trips that citizens must make between the Superior courthouse and the Department of Revenue office in St. Regis. For example, communications links could allow information to be transferred between the state and county offices, reducing the travel burden on citizens.
"We will look at the best options we can," Bucks said. "Certainly in this modern age there are ways to substitute communications for travel. If somebody just needs a document with information from our office in St. Regis, surely we can find some way of having that delivered by fax or electronic means to an office in the courthouse. That way, people can do their business in Superior at once even if the Department of Revenue office is physically in St. Regis."
The state has gone the extra mile, not only in reassuring the public as good stewards of the taxpayer dollar, but also in reopening the bid process, and in seeking to address other concerns raised by the move, he said.
"In terms of the cost, the protection of records so we don't lose property tax records and so we don't have inadvertent disclosure of confidential information on realty transfer certificates, in terms of our ability to meet with citizens when they come into the office--all of that factors into this," he said. "St. Regis was the best in terms of lowest cost and actual workability of the space."
###