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Sarasota News Leader September 28, 2012 Barbetta argued that "we're one of the high- est" in the amount of bonds required among the six counties Coyman and his project team had surveyed for best practices. "That was set prior to my arrival," said Coy- man. (County Administrator Randall Reid appoint- ed Coyman the procurement official in late July. Coyman had been on staff in the Pro- curement Department since Sept. 26, 2011.) Coyman added that the bond was used as a means "to weed out or minimize a frivolous protest." Without such a bond, he added, the number of protests could rise. Patterson pointed out that Sarasota County had no bond for a number of years. Then, af- ter having to deal with a number of protests during a short time frame, she said, the com- missioners decided to impose a bond. "We spent one full day on the protests of one per- son," she said, "so I'm not sure it's a good idea to go back to nothing." She suggested lowering the amount. Commissioner Jon Thaxton pointed out it was not a good practice to set policy on the ba- sis of one situation. "I guess I do have some regrets about adopting [the bond] in the first place." "To my knowledge," Coyman said, "in the last 12 months, there has been one formal protest, regarding specifications," a situation in which a bond was not required. A motion by Patterson to reduce the bond to 1% or $1,000 failed on a 4-1 vote. She was the Page 19 only commissioner to vote, "No," on a motion by Barbetta to eliminate the bond, though Robinson said, "I'm going to support this with a degree of hesitancy." With Thaxton out of the room, the commis- sioners voted 4-1 to give a firm three business days to file a written protest after a mandatory review with Coyman, instead of three calen- dar days. The commissioners also voted unanimously to allow a firm 10 business days to file a formal appeal to the County Commission regarding the decision of the county administrator or a hearing officer on a protest. The motion in- cluded language specifying that the final de- cision would rest with the commission. Further, the commissioners voted unani- mously to give the county administrator the authority to award and execute a contract up to $100,000. Any purchases over that amount would come to the County Commission. ETHICAL STANDARDS On a motion by Vice Chairwoman Carolyn Ma- son, the commission unanimously agreed to Coyman's recommendations for the new pro- curement code section on ethical standards. Among other points, it will make clear that bid-rigging, collusion, submission of false or misleading information, and lobbying during solicitation or renegotiation processes would be violations. The revised code also will include a section on environmental crimes. SarasotaNewsLeader.com