NORTH SMITHFIELD – A firm that saw quick success with securing grant funding for the town during a brief stint of employment two years ago has now been chosen to do the job for the next 12 months.
Rosewood Consulting was recommended by Town Administrator Scott Gibbs after a request for proposals brought in six bids for the service.
North Smithfield native Lisa Andoscia serves as CEO and president of the firm, first hired for a one month stint by former Town Administrator Paul Zwolenski in 2023. A well-known professional with successful grant-writing contracts for several Rhode Island towns, Andoscia secured a $1 million grant for a project to build a multi-generational center during her brief employment in North Smithfield, and at the time, some hoped the town would set up a longer-term contract for her services.
That wouldn’t be the case after members of the 2023 council found themselves at odds over the way her firm had been hired. Zwolenski had used his authority to spend up to $5,000 in municipal funds without board approval for the short-term contract, and some councilors were unaware of the administrator’s power to expend the money under town charter, leading to contentious debate.
After attending several meetings where heated discussion of the issue lasted long into the night, Andoscia said that she saw herself a target of political crossfire, and declined an invitation to submit a bid for a more permanent role in her hometown. Instead, councilors hired New York-based G & G Municipal Consulting for the grant writing service in early 2024.
That firm reportedly saw much less success in the role. In January, Councilor John Beauregard, who had initiated the effort to bring Andoscia to town in 2023, expressed disappointment with G & G, noting the group had not applied for or suggested any grants that weren’t already underway.
Gibbs also expressed the need for a change, repeating history that month when he used his authority to expend funds in hiring Andoscia for a 30-day stint to help with documentation needed to complete paperwork for some of the town’s already approved congressional grants.
For the longer-term grant writing contract, the six bid proposals were independently evaluated by Gibbs, along with Finance Director Antony St. Onge, Town Planner Mark Carruolo, Beauregard and Council President Kimberly Alves. The top three firms were invited for online interviews.
“This is the end of a long process,” Gibbs said on Monday.
The recommendation this week again brought out some opposition.
“We never do any long-range planning,” said resident Michael Clifford, pointing to the need for a detailed capital improvement plan. “I don’t think we should be hiring any grant writer or applying for any grants until we get our act together and organize yourselves.”
Clifford also noted that in evaluations of the applicants, Rosewood Consulting received high scores for “access to appropriate contacts.”
“She contributed close to $85,000 to political figures in Rhode Island, and that’s what gets you the access,” said Clifford, adding that funds available through federal grants are expected to decrease, and that Andoscia has supported Democrats. “The federal government – they’re going to take care of their own – and that’s the Republicans.”
Councilor Rebecca DeCristofaro would later echo some of Clifford’s concerns.
“To Mr. Clifford’s point earlier yes, we have existing projects and programs, but we don’t have a long term plan to inform future projects and programs,” she said, adding that of the bidders, Andoscia’s cost was the highest, and $29,000 more than the second highest bidder.
Gibbs later said that access to key contacts “is incredibly important,” to a grant writer’s success.
“If you don’t have a grant writer with good access to the decision makers within various departments and federal agencies – regardless of political party – than you are at a disadvantage,” Gibbs said. “We felt that was an important criteria.”
He added that a successful grant writer should have a close working relationship with the town’s congressional delegation.
“That’s very important to us,” he said. “We’ve had enough opportunity in the past six months to see how things are operating – and they’re not operating well.”
Gibbs said that although she was only hired short term to help with paperwork on a previously approved federal grant, Andoscia calls him daily to provide various updates. He also disputed the idea that the town doesn’t have a long-range plan, stating that currently there are “buckets of priorities.”
“When grants surface we can figure out where that grant fits,” he said. “It is not that complicated.”
DeCristofaro said she was not comfortable voting on the hire without seeing the bidders’ complete responses to the RFP.
“I can’t make an informed decision unless I see all of the information,” she said. “As a town councilor representing my constituents, I would like to be able to make more informed decisions, and I would like that insight into their responses.”
Gibbs said that while he’d be glad to provide the information, the hire was time sensitive.
“I’m losing time right now and it’s not boding well for us,” he said.
The administrator also noted that the recommendation was made following an agreed upon process, which included the appointment of Alves and Beauregard to represent the council on the evaluation team.
“It’s like the process that was adopted suddenly is not sufficient to make a decision,” he said of DeCristofaro’s request.
Beauregard expressed some frustration with the hesitation, pointing to Andoscia’s success both in town and elsewhere.
“We hired somebody else. How many million dollar grants did they get us?” Beauregard asked, noting that Andoscia has meanwhile secured millions for other towns that she works in. “These communities have all received million in grants that we’re missing out on. We will continue to lose out on these grants if we don’t hire the right person.”
“There’s no reason to waste any time,” Beauregard added, making a motion to approve the hire.
Councilors approved the recommendation by a vote of 4-1, with DeCristofaro casting the only dissent.
The final price for the service, however, has yet to be determined. Gibbs noted that the price for Rosewood’s services was “a little high,” particularly considering that town staff plans to do much of the actual writing.
“We want to have more involvement in that,” Gibbs said, noting that under state law, he could not engage in discussion of the cost until councilors approved the hire. “I want to sit down with her and negotiate.”
You know the saying you get what you pay for. She’s the best in the state . Lisa is professional and well liked and respected on the federal level. That’s how you secure these funds. She got $1,000,000 in one month. That speaks for itself.
I did a little research on the best grant writers in the state and Lisa’s name did not come up in any of the websites. So antidotal hearsay stories do not make her the best. So we will see if anything useful is delivered for the high cost.
I hope that Ms. Andoscia will be able to make lemonade out of the very few lemons that will be available. As far as selection of the top firm, I agree with Rebecca. Every variable needs to be reviewed and the data should be objectively quantified. In addition, Mr Beauregard should have recused himself in the selection process due to bias. Best of luck Ms. Andoscia. It will be like making wine out of water.
I just have one question. Did the other bidders really have a chance or were they simply used as numbers to satisfy a multi-bid requirement? I did not go back to check the video but I think her bid was $75,000. I thought it was 15 over the next highest bidder but this article says 29. If indeed it was 29 and her bid was 75 then her bid was 63% more than the next highest bidder. I’d like to know what went wrong with the other two interviews. If it was solely based on her connections than the decision was made before any resumes were accepted.
On a more positive note it was nice to see that some of the people who tend to be against anything recommended by John Beauregard are on board with this decision. Although I personally did not agree with it, I am hoping the decision was the correct one.
I’ll be very happy if she can find a way to get that pool at Halliwell, but I think that I have a better chance of winning the lottery. The consulting fee at $74,000 is outrageous. By the way, her connections are with the Democratic power holders and federal agencies, now all run by Republicans. As far as JB, he should have recused himself, due to an inherent bias. But, he wouldn’t have known that, or would he? Yes, and because Scott and others have worked with her, they held an inherent bias too. I have little faith that things will work out to the benefit of NS taxpayers.
Always have some “conspiracy theory angle” “Rick T” …can you elaborate as to who and what the benefits of these deals were / are? Seeing you know?
The RI pollical machine got their wish. Someone promised a favor to hire this person and in the end NS did exactly what was expected. NS needs to bid many contracts and consultants that have just been extended every year which is a violation of the RI procurement law. I can think of at least 3 contracts that have not been bid in years. To quote one councilman “if it ain’t broke why change vendors”. I will tell you why maybe to get a more competitive price with better quality service. I can speak to one vendor that has done a subpar job but is extended annually because he is a friend of the program.