ORANGE – An independent agency that prevents and detects fraud, waste and abuse of public funds and public property has informed the town it violated the law when disposing of surplus equipment and supplies and recommended ways to remedy the situation.

The Office of the Inspector General emailed Orange officials and the senior project manager behind the Fisher Hill Elementary School renovation and expansion to explain public entities are obligated to follow several legal requirements when getting rid of surplus goods and equipment.

“This is to ensure that the town receives a fair value for the item and that there is no favoritism when disposing of surplus government property,” Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro said in the Oct. 18 letter. “When followed, the law ensures that purchasing items with the public’s money or disposing of surplus items purchased with the public’s money is done fairly and transparently.”

According to the OIG, the town paid $16,140 to a recycling company to remove and transport 200 chairs, 137 wood cubbies, 105 tables, 43 student desks, 28 metal shelves, 16 teacher desks and 12 miscellaneous items. However, the OIG is not aware of this inventory’s fate.

“Thank you for your cooperation during this investigation. The OIG hopes the guidance outlined in this letter will assist you in the future disposition of items that are no longer of value to the town or its school department,” Shapiro wrote. “It is important that the Town of Orange, its school department, and all public entities have clear, written policies and procedures to follow upon the end of the useful life of public property, equipment and supplies, similar to policies and procedures used to procure such goods.”

The OIG suggested nine measures that could be taken by the town, the school department and project manager. The recommendations include maintaining written inventory procedures and inventory lists for all town- or school-owned property, equipment and supplies from the time of acquisition until the end of their useful life; determining the value of unwanted surplus items prior to taking steps for disposal; adopting written procedures for the disposal of surplus items valued at less than $10,000; and enrolling employees in OIG Academy courses and designating at least one employee to obtain the OIG’s Massachusetts certified public purchasing official designation.

The town has 30 days from Oct. 18 to notify the OIG of its plans to implement the recommendations. A complaint made to the OIG’s Fraud Hotline prompted this investigation.

Senior Project Manager Martin Goulet and Dr. Elizabeth Zielinski, superintendent of the Ralph C. Mahar Regional and Union 73 school districts, had no comment when contacted by the Greenfield Recorder. The same was true for did Malloy Ellis, the Elementary School Committee chair.

“I wasn’t on the committee at that time so I do not feel there is value that I can add to this conversation,” she wrote.

Attempts to contact Orange Town Administrator Matthew Fortier were unsuccessful.

In July 2021, the town entered into a $45 million contract with general contractor J&J Contractors Inc. to expand Fisher Hill Elementary School to a 97,000-square-foot building and demolish the adjacent Dexter Park Innovation School. The latter was built in 1951 and in 2006, was designated in the lowest rating by the Massachusetts School Building Authority, a quasi-independent government authority. A 50,000-square-foot addition was built onto Fisher Hill, which now accommodates all Orange students in preschool through sixth grade. Dexter Park was torn down and is slated to be replaced with a wildflower meadow.

At a meeting on Nov. 15, 2021, the Orange Elementary School Committee learned of “a significant amount of old, broken, and unusable equipment/supplies at Fisher Hill” and voted unanimously to declare those items “obsolete” and directed that they be “removed and appropriately disposed of.” That meeting’s minutes reportedly do not specify the items that were the subject of the vote. At a meeting a year later, the committee voted to declare the Fisher Hill kitchen equipment as surplus and to turn it over to the town for its use.

According to the OIG, the School Committee took several votes throughout the demolition and renovation process to keep some furniture, supplies and equipment, to donate some to a school in Honduras, and to dispose of the remainder. However, the school did not maintain an inventory of the items it owned and did not specify which items were to be kept, donated, or discarded when taking the votes.

Following the committee’s vote to transfer the Fisher Hill kitchen equipment to the town, Orange donated various pieces to outside parties. In January 2023, the town donated an oven hood from the Fisher Hill kitchen to a restaurant in Orange. The restaurant reportedly did not pay the town or the school department for the oven hood. A few months later, the town donated various pieces of the kitchen equipment, including an oven, to a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in Orange. Neither the town nor the school department voted to donate the kitchen equipment to the charity.

According to the OIG, the Elementary School Committee, upon a roll-call vote in March 2023, declared Dexter Park and Fisher Hill furniture and other items be not moved to the new Fisher Hill to be surplus. The committee voted to turn over the items to the contractor for disposal. The town took possession of some kitchen equipment from Dexter Park, and the contractor disposed of the remaining items. The school department did not sell any of the items. Again, meeting minutes do not list the specific items that were the subject of the vote.

Anyone who suspects fraud, waste or abuse of state or municipal funds or property is encouraged to contact the OIG’s Fraud Hotline at 1-800-322-1323 or to send an email to IGO-FightFraud@mass.gov.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.