BOISE, Idaho – An Idaho copier company is filing a complaint with the largest school district in the state, saying administrators turned down a contract that would have saved taxpayers $680,000 over five years.
Fisher's Document Systems Inc. Chairman Gary Mahn says his Boise-based company bid about $32,417 per month to provide more than 120 copiers to the Meridian School District in southwest Idaho for 60 months.
The district instead picked the Connecticut-based Xerox Corp., which submitted a proposal requesting $43,758 a month to provide the district that same number of copiers for the next five years, Mahn said.
"Our major complaint is not that we didn't get the contract," Mahn said. "The issue is, how can you justify walking away from $680,000 in these times, when people are getting laid off, teachers are getting laid off."
Despite cuts in statewide education spending for next year, Meridian schools balanced their budget with $7 million in reserves and avoided teacher and staffing losses, district spokesman Eric Exline said.
Fisher's Document Systems filed a notice of objection with the district Wednesday, saying the board that governs Meridian schools should have been more fiscally responsible with public money. The board will now have to reconvene to decide if they want to respond to the objection or stick with their decision.
Fisher's provides services to about 3,500 customers and four school districts in southwest Idaho, including Nampa, Payette, Kuna and Parma.
"We're not just a bit player, we're the largest independently Idaho-owned copier company in the state," said Mahn, a former director of the state Department of Commerce.
Xerox has provided copier services for Meridian schools since 2004, Exline said.
The district sent out a request for proposals this year to provide copier services for its administrative offices and about 50 public schools expected to serve an estimated 34,000 students this fall.
The district assembled a committee of four staff members to review proposals from four copier companies, including Konica Minolta, IKON Office Solutions, Fisher's Document Systems and Xerox, Exline said.
The school board voted to renew its contract with Xerox on July 21, deciding the benefits of selecting the copier giant outweighed the savings of picking a less expensive company.
Cost was among several factors considered by the committee, which included a school secretary.
The copier companies were also graded based on their history, equipment, service, the technological compatibility of machines with district needs and the presentation of their proposals to the district, Exline said.
Fisher's Document Systems submitted a proposal with the lowest price, but the petition came in second overall after areas such as company history, equipment compatibility and customer service were factored in, Exline said.
"They did not score as well as Xerox in any of those categories," he said.
The biggest difference in the two proposals was that Xerox offered to provide one full-time employee and one part-time employee, based locally, to oversee maintenance of the copying machines, Exline said.
Fisher's proposal offered to send someone for repairs as needed and replace broken machines within 24 hours, Exline said.
"In the world of schools, having a machine shut down for 24 hours would be unacceptable," he said. "You have teachers lined up every morning printing materials for their students."
Fisher's contends its proposal offered to provide service within four hours.
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