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REPORT OF WELD COUNTY AUCTION HELD MAY 20, 1977 3 i.,7g j\
A. PURPOSE OF AUCTION GR ,. . •
The purpose of the auction was to dispose of surplus Weld County personal property.
B. AUTHORIZATION
Authorization is Section 3-8 (4) (1) of the Weld County Home Rule Charter which
provides that the Board of County Commissioners of Weld County has the power to
sell Weld County personal property.
C. DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY
The department heads were delegated to declare their departmental surplus items.
The list of items to be sold were attached to the Commissioners ' Resolution of
May 11, 1977.
D. EXCEPTIONS:
1. Unauthorized items sold.
Just a day before the auction, seven pickups, three graders, and one Jeep were
brought to the auction site. These items were not on the official list attached
to the above mentioned Resolution. The vehicles were from the Engineering De-
partment and had been declared surplus by the department head. The person in
charge of the administrative part of the auction stated that it was his opinion
that it was perfectly all right to sell the surplus equipment even though it
was not included on the list attached to said resolution. In an interview with
the Purchasing Department head who handled the sealed bids, she stated that she
was of the opinion that if the items were not listed they could not be sold.
The Resolution states (----is now considered surplus and should be disposed of,
which property is set forth in detail in the Exhibits consisting of seven (7)
pages, and attached hereto and made a part hereof by reference. ) (See Exhibit C)
Therefore the Engineering Department and the person in charge from the Accounting
Department were at fault: the Engineering Department because it declared the
items surplus after the official list was completed causing the vehicles to be
sent to the auction site subsequent to the official list and the person in charge
of the sale because he allowed the items to be sold.
2. Poor record keeping in the Purchasing Department and failure to notify auctioneer
in time for better and effective advertising.
The Purchasing Department handled the opening of bids and notification to the
successful bidder that he had been selected as auctioneer. The sealed bids were
opened April 28, 1977 and were taken before the County Commissioners May 4, 1977.
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D-2 cont.
Minutes of the May 4th meeting indicate that the LaSalle Auction was awarded
the contract. The Purchasing Department could not tell me the date that it
notified the auctioneer. The department head had noted on a small sheet of
paper in the file that she had called Clyde Johnson, Jr. but there was no
date on the notation. There were other items in the folder that were not
dated. She stated that she had called the successful bidder two or three days
after the May 4th meeting. This did not allow for effective advertising.
3. IBM run of Weld County General Fixed Asset Fund for period ending December
31, 1977 is not accurate.
The Accounting Department furnished an IBM runoff of the Weld County Fixed
Asset Fund which listed items that had been sold at the auction May 20, 1977.
The items included automobiles, pickups and graders. We were furnished a
complete listing of items sold at the auction which included numbers of items
sold which corresponded to the numbers of items on the Weld County Fixed Asset
Fund. It was possible to match the two lists and learn which assets had been
sold but were still listed as being in the list of fixed assets. The listing
of items sold but still listed as being owned by Weld County overstates the
assets of Weld County (See exhibits B and E).
4. Insufficient time between issuance of Resolution and date of sale.
There was not enough time allowed for advertising the auction because the
auctioneer was notified too late for effective advertising. In a statement
from the auctioneer, Clyde Johnson, Jr. , (see Exhibit A) , he said that he
was notified that he was the successful bidder by reading about it in the
Greeley Tribune. He also stated that after reading about it in the paper
he called the person in the purchasing department who handled the bids.
Johnson was given a partial listing of items to be sold and a few days later
he received a call from the purchasing department giving him the complete list
that was attached to the Resolution of May 11th. He stated that he could not
advertise efficiently because he had less than two weeks before the sale in
which to advertise. This caused few people to attend the sale and caused
lower prices because there was not much competition in the bidding.
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E. OTHER INFORMATION BROUGHT OUT
Mr. Clyde Johnson, Jr. of the LaSalle Auction stated that he will not bid on
another auction unless he has plenty of time between time of notification to
the successful bidder and the time of the sale. He also said that he was
surprised when he inspected the items listed for sale two days before the
sale. He said that there were some pickups, graders, and a Jeep that he knew
nothing about. He stated that he could not advertise these items because
he didn't know anything about their availability for sale. He also said his
bid would have been higher had he known about the equipment which was not on
the official list.
In an interview, the County Shop foreman stated that people came to him and
asked why they hadn't heard of the auction. He also wondered why all of the
items were not advertised.
F. GENERAL DETAILS OF AUCTION
All of the listed items available for sale were disposed of except one (1)
pickup truck, lawn furniture, dictaphone equipment, and some metal scrap.
The pickup was returned to the county garage, the lawn furniture was finally
picked up by the buyer, the dictaphone equipment was transferred to a county
department and the metal scrap was taken to the dump by an engineering employee.
Fair prices were obtained for most of the equipment sold and the article sold
always went to the highest bidder. Some of the equipment, such as the graders,
went for lower prices than their true value but that was due to the fact
that there wasn't much competition in the bidding.
G. GOOD AND BAD POINTS OF THE AUCTION
1. Good points.
a. The good aspects of the auction were the fact that it brought into
the County $68,231.50 (see Exhibit D) and the fact that the sale
disposed of much surplus equipment.
2. Bad points.
Most of the bad points were included in the exceptions. There was one
more undesirable event that was not serious enough to be included in the
exceptions or did not have a bearing, or did not have a part in the
auction. This was the inability of some of the purchasers of vehicles
to get the vehicles licensed. The titles had been straightened out and
all vehicles had the necessary correct documents with which to license
the vehicle.
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H. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE AUCTIONS
1. Notify department heads of the pending auction well in advance of the
date of the sale so that surplus material can so be designated in time
to be on the official selling list.
2. Open the bids at least a month before the tale and notify the successful
bidder as soon as possible so that effective advertising can take place.
3. The accounting department should update the fixed asset list by removing
items that Weld County does not own any longer.
EXHIBIT A - Statement by Clyde Johnson, Jr. , Auctioneer
EXHIBIT B - IBM Run of Weld County Fixed Asset Fund dated 1-16-78 for 12-31-77.
EXHIBIT C - Commissioners' Resolution of May 11, 1977
EXHIBIT D - Analysis of 1977 Auction
EXHIBIT E - List of Items Actually Sold at 1977 Auction
EXHIBIT F - Auction advertisement
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ANTHONY Ts,JENKINS
Performance Auditor
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