A rushed-through agreement between the city and a newly formed company that paid Terre Haute $750,000 has prompted a local official who signed off on the pact to resign.
Bob Murray, president of the Terre Haute Board of Public Works and Safety, submitted a letter of resignation to Mayor Duke Bennett Monday, and later in the day told The Tribune-Star he had signed the pact because he had been told the agreement for $750,000 was needed “to meet payroll.”
When reached by phone Monday afternoon, Murray characterized his abrupt departure as “a difference of opinion.”
Murray told the Tribune-Star that he signed an agreement between the City of Terre Haute and Terre Haute Dewatering Co. LLC with the understanding it would go before the Board of Public Works and Safety at the next earliest opportunity. He also explained why he was told the document needed immediate attention.
“I signed the agreement to meet payroll, that is what I was told,” Murray said. “That is why I signed it in the first place, as we have many city workers living paycheck to paycheck.” He declined to elaborate, saying he was concerned this “would get political.” He also expressed regret at leaving the board.
“I thought the agreement should have been ratified, but was told it would be pulled off the agenda,” Murray said Monday. “In the past, when the board president signs something, such as for an emergency, then it goes before the board and is ratified at the next meeting.”
When asked about Murray’s claim that he was pressured into signing the agreement so the city could make payroll, Mayor Bennett denied any involvement. “I did not tell him that,” he said when reached by phone. “I have no idea who said that and who told him that. I got a [resignation] letter from him just before lunch. I have not had a chance to talk with him [Murray] or others.”
The mayor said he did not have any direct conversation with Murray about signing the agreement with Terre Haute Dewatering Co. “It worked through the normal system” of going before the president of the Board of Works to sign, Bennett said.
The agreement states that the “city has the immediate need for said prepayment funds in order to meet certain financial obligations of the city constituting an emergency situation.”
Bennett told the Tribune-Star on Friday that the emergency situation did not involve meeting payroll.
The money, according to the agreement, was wired into the city’s wastewater treatment plant fund account 620. The $750,000 is characterized as both a “good faith refundable deposit” and a “prepayment of the anticipated monthly lease payments” in the agreement with Terre Haute Dewatering Co., a limited liability corporation formed March 27. Its registered agent is M. Noah Sodrel of Greenwood, according to the Indiana Secretary of State’s office.
A copy of the agreement obtained by the newspaper shows a time-stamp of March 30. City employees were paid April 2, a departure from the normal Friday payroll due to the Good Friday holiday for city workers.
Under the agreement, the city has until April 20 to reach an operational lease agreement with Terre Haute Dewatering Co., or the city is to refund the money that constitutes nearly four years of lease payments.
If the administration reaches an agreement, the Board of Public Works has until April 30 to approve the operational lease agreement. If the board rejects or fails to approve the terms of the lease, the city is to immediately refund the money.
The agreement topic was pulled from Monday’s board agenda. The four remaining board members heard from concerned people who packed the City Hall conference room.
Attorney Noah Gambill told the board that under state law, if the city leases real property, it is required to get two property appraisals done. In addition, a public bid is to be sought for the lease, and a public hearing is to be held. The lease must also be approved by the City Council, Gambill said. He represents Pat Goodwin, a former city engineer who has publicly raised questions about the city’s sludge-to-diesel plans and who has filed a tort claim, notifying the city of possible litigation on the city contracts.
City Attorney Chou-il Lee said the lease agreement would be for services. Under state law, “there is no bidding requirement established for bidding services.”
Gambill said the city in 1992 passed an ordinance that requires the Board of Works to have written procedures in place for solicitation of bids for services and goods; he asked Lee if the board has such a policy. Lee said the board does not, but he would research the ordinance as well as revisit requirements for real and personal property leases.
Councilman Todd Nation also spoke at the meeting, seeking public vetting of any lease agreement with Terre Haute Dewatering Co. or other contract agreements before action by the Board of Works. City Attorney Lee indicated that would be up to the Bennett administration.
After the meeting, the mayor said the lease agreement will go before the Board of Works, likely in special call public meeting.