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March 28, 2024

NIU – The scandals continue as the Board does nothing!

By Kirk Allen & John Kraft

On June 22, 2016

DeKalb Co. (ECWd) –

We have already shown that President Doug Baker and Northern Illinois University have experimented with many variations of questionable actions regarding procurement and contracts, especially for friends of President Baker.  But there are still new riffs on an old song.

We recently posted this article that exposed a July 2, 2013 email from Baker’s friend Ron Walters to their mutual friend, Wally Pfeiffer; in this email Walters clearly states that he was Baker’s buddy brought in under a “lucrative consulting contract that did not go out to bid.”  He further went on to say that he believed that Pfeiffer would be brought onboard later (Pfeiffer’s no bid contract was effective March 2014).   But of course, Pfeiffer was not the only friend that Baker and Walters helped aboard the NIU gravy train.  Another friend was Jim Heid of Urban Green.

Heid was introduced in this October 10, 2013, email from then NIU VP Bill Nicklas to local DeKalb businessmen Doug Roberts and Tom Matya. This group was discussing a project that seems to be funded by these men but run through the non-profit NIU Foundation, and under the direction of NIU’s Nicklas.  This email discussed bringing in a consultant friend (Heid) rather than going through an RFP (request for proposal) and open bid process.  “Ron Walters knows Jim Heid, who seems to fit the bill.”  The group apparently chose not to post an RFP and Heid was signed to a contract with the Foundation effective December 1, 2013.

After his introduction to the NIU players to include the NIU Foundation, Heid was also awarded a small no-bid contract with the University itself, effective October 27, 2013, to provide “sustainable development consulting services”.

Included in Heid’s first round of projects was the planning and design of the Lucinda Avenue extension.  The RFP/RFQ for the extension project was then posted and a company named Knight E/A won the bid.  The contract was effective April 2, 2014.  But even though Knight had apparently bid on the project based on the exact specifications as they should have been documented and published by NIU’s design team in the RFP, Walters remained unsatisfied that the project would progress as he had wanted.  In this April 3, 2014, email , Heid mentioned that he had received a call that day from Knight (note the call was after the effective date of the contract). Knight told Heid that it had been “suggested” to them that they include Heid on the team; Heid thought it was a nice gesture.  Walters replied; “That was not a gesture.” And then Walters followed with “…you suggested that it be a requirement that the engineers bring you in…So I made a big deal of this a few days ago, Doug agrees.  Left to their own it will not be done as envisioned.  So, you need to insert yourself into the project.”

Unfortunately for NIU, Illinois state purchasing regulations prohibit anyone who works on either (1) setting up the RFQ or (2) is involved in the bidder selection, to be either a contractor or a subcontractor on the project.  So apparently Knight was instructed to hire Walters’ and Baker’s friend Heid as a subcontractor–a buddy who already had participated in the design of the project and therefore in the RFQ–in violation of state rules!  And similar to Pugh Jones and Alvarez NIU has again ordered a legitimate contractor to accept an illegitimate/illegal subcontract after the contract was initiated.

In July 2014 Heid obtained another no-bid contract with the University itself in the amount of $24,999.  An amount conveniently just $1 under the $25,000 threshold for required open bid on architecture/engineering contracts.   This contract was for “consulting services…regarding design and planning of thirteen…High Impact Campus Improvement projects…” and “…consulting services to University staff regarding RFQ [request for quote] best practices and an establishment of a revised comprehensive RFQ approach…”.  In other words, he helped designed future NIU projects and then helped write the procedures on how to choose the companies to be awarded contracts on those projects.

Some of these projects have come to fruition.  One was Central Core.  This project was put out for bid and Knight E/A again won the contract.  Interestingly, on a side note, somehow the contract with Knight was effective November 10, 2014, but was signed on behalf of NIU by VP for Finance and Administration Al Phillips—who did not start at NIU until MARCH 2015!  That timing in itself is a puzzler.  But apparently by the time they bid on the Central Core contract, Knight had seen the writing on the wall.  In the contract, Knight included Heid as a subcontractor.  The contract was in the amount of $125,580, of which Heid was scheduled for $22,500.  To again recap state rules, Illinois state purchasing regulations prohibit anyone who works on either (1) setting up the RFQ or (2) is involved in the bidder selection, to be either a contractor or a subcontractor on the project.  So Baker’s pal, who participated in the design of both the project and the project bidding process, was again paid for a subcontract on the project in violation of state rules!

The obvious moral of this story is that it is good to be friends with a man in power.  And especially a man in power who is permitted to stay in power despite all of his administration’s known deliberate violations of state rules and seemingly ethical lapses. And who is allowing him, apparently unfettered, to stay at the helm of a state institution?  His bosses, the NIU Board of Trustees.

So again we must ask, what is the Board of Trustees doing?

Better yet, what are the Federal Authorities going to do about this?

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3 Comments
  • Edgar County Watchdogs getting kickbacks?
    Posted at 00:39h, 30 July

    Hmmmm. You are still going down. The State Police, AG, OIG and Chicago Tribune are in possession of information that likely proves you printed this crap without fully investigating because, well, you likely have, or will have, a financial interest.

    Have you ever investigated the “open orders” details from Facilities? Those that date back to Eddie? Didn’t think so.

    • jmkraft
      Posted at 06:20h, 30 July

      Good luck with that.

  • Edgar County Watchdogs getting kickbacks?
    Posted at 23:46h, 03 August

    Good luck with what exactly, jmkraft? You guys are involved in total corruption of the worst kind – writing this crap with an inside knowledge that what you print is not the case!

    Printing “stories” under the disguise. of being “above the law”? Give us a break.

    We may concede Bill Nicklaus may be corrupt – he appears to be as stupid as he appears – what exactly has he accomplished outside of government? And we will concede Al Phillips is a total idiot. Only an IQ test will confirm that.

    But if the law says $25,000 and if services are below that even if only $1, is that not legal, you buffoon?

    If I were a so-called “watchdog,” I would have asked “why would Bill Nicklaus, who has done nothing but been a leech on taxpayers his whole life, more likely than not no one would have hired him in him in the private sector, allowed his DeKalb buddies in on contracts? When you hire people, you assume they will act ethically.

    We do not like Baker by any means, nor his corrupt COO Lisa the Provost. Just admit you are in cahoots with the old guard already!

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