01282019 - News Article - UPDATE: Truck competitor says Portage bid process 'irregular,' 'unusual' in garbage truck purchase

UPDATE: Truck competitor says Portage bid process 'irregular,' 'unusual' in garbage truck purchase
NWI Times
January 28, 2019
https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/update-truck-competitor-says-portage-bid-process-irregular-unusual-in/article_189ad855-bd7c-5e24-8ac9-eee823d89fe8.html

HAMMOND — Greg Dadlow said he was "kinda shocked" when Portage turned down a chance to try out one of his company's automated trash trucks.

"It kinda bothered me they did not want, did not need a demo," Dadlow, who worked at Pyramid Equipment of Rolling Prairie, Indiana, at the time, testified Monday afternoon in Portage Mayor James Snyder's public corruption trial.

Dadlow said the process was "unusual" and "irregular."

Dadlow said his company offered four of the six lowest bids in the first round of trash truck purchases by the city in 2013. The contract for three trucks instead went to Great Lakes Peterbilt of Portage. Great Lakes Peterbilt's bid was nearly $60,000 higher than that of Pyramid Equipment.

Snyder is facing two counts of bribery and one of tax obstruction in the trial in U.S. District Court. One of the bribery counts alleges Snyder took a $13,000 bribe from Great Lakes Peterbilt in exchange for two contracts, totaling five trucks from the company.

Dadlow said his bid didn't meet the specifications for either the brand of chassis or body in the bid, but that, in his experience, sometimes a large cost reduction would outweigh the variations in the bid.

After the bids were open, Dadlow said he approached Assistant Street Department Superintendent Randy Reeder, who had been designated the point man in the city's switch to automated trash trucks, and offered the use of a demonstration truck to help sell his product.

Dadlow said an email to Reeder went unanswered and then a sales call and the offer of the demonstration truck was refused.

"Randy Reeder told me they knew what they were going to go with," he said, adding Reeder told him his company wasn't going to get the contract before the Board of Works officially voted.

Dadlow's testimony in the eighth day of the trial followed the second day of testimony from former Street Superintendent Steve Charnetzky, who first approached the FBI in September 2013 to alert them of possible wrongdoing by Snyder.

Under cross-examination Monday morning, Snyder's lead attorney said wrongdoing didn't cause the FBI to open an investigation into his client's activities, but, instead, a former employee scorned.

"Your feelings got hurt because you didn't have input in that process?" attorney Jackie Bennett asked Charnetzky Monday morning.

"Slight," Charnetzky replied.

Charnetzky testified last week he went to the FBI because he believed the bidding process for the garbage trucks was being done illegally, among other allegations.

Charnetzky told the jury he was left out of the bidding process, which was unusual considering his tenure as street superintendent and experience of more than 30 years on the job. Charnetzky testified Snyder gave the job to Reeder, and that at one point during the bid process, Reeder told him the mayor wanted Great Lakes Peterbilt to get the contract, no matter the price of their trucks.

Bennett questioned Charnetzky about the bidding process, timeline of his reporting and meetings with the FBI, and the reasons for Charnetzky's termination in January 2016.