GEORGETOWN – Town Administrator Orlando Pacheco awarded no-bid contracts in 2022 and 2023 to install electric vehicle charging stations at Town Hall, the Library and American Legion Park to a private company at a price significantly higher than the charging station the town installed at the Perley School through a bidding process by the Light Department.
Pacheco disputed the characterization of these contracts as no-bid. He wrote in an email, “These are not ‘no bid’ as you have described but part of a specific process to vertically integrate implementation.”
He wrote, “The companies that perform the audits of the facilities can easily transition into the construction phase provided that the project cost is under $300,000.”
See Pacheco full statement in the sidebar (below).
Automated Controls Integration in Salem, NH, had the winning bid for the contract at the Perley School to install a Level 2 Breeze EV Charging Station with two ports for $36,246 and a five-year AmpUp charging software subscription. Six other companies were invited by the Light Department to bid, but only two did.
Inovis Energy, which Pacheco worked with on energy projects for the town of Shirley while employed by Georgetown, was awarded at least three no-bid contracts: one with two ports at Town Hall for $61,524, one with four ports at the Library for $93,172, and one with four ports at the American Legion Park for $59,226.
Some of the costs for the charging stations was paid from four grants of $50,000 — $50,000 for each station from the state Department of Environmental Protection. The grant totaled $200,000 to acquire 14 charging stations under the Electric Vehicle Incentive Program Public Access Charging.
Pacheco wrote: “The Town was the responsible party for the Perley School Project under our EVIP grant, not the Light Department. The location of the changing stations changed specifically to the Perley School. Originally it was going to be on the other side of the parking lot closer to the COA (Council on Aging). This was designed in case the COA ever obtained an EV Van, which are now available, our decision to no longer pursue and Electric van was low mileage use and cost.
“After review the power source location was not ideal so the charging stations were moved to the current location. When that change took place the Light Dept felt their vendor could do the job cheaper because it was almost identical in scope of the Park and Ride project (i.e., no trench work simply coming off the pole) so they were able to do that job cheaper and under the bid threshold.”
The stations at Town Hall and the Library required large change orders for Inovis to rewire them. The town paid Inovis an additional $16,000 for the Town Hall station and $10,000 at the Library, for a total project cost of $77,524 for Town Hall, and $103,672 for the Library.
Pacheco explained: “The change orders were requested by the Light Department and Electrical Inspector. The cost of the Change orders were paid for by ratepayers of the Light Department.
“The original plan was to have the station wired into the buildings, which was more cost effective. However, in order to better implement a separate metering tariff, the power had to come in from another location. This caused some additional trench work to the project that required the change order. This was the same situation at the library although the amount of trenching and underground conduit varied from each site.”
For the three stations, the town purchased through Inovis an AmpUp lite charging subscription for one year, plus a three-year software plan and a three-year service plan.
In addition, Inovis notified the town that it “will claim any eligible tax credits for itself on any municipal projects that they install.”
Inovis has been paid $290,422 through eight invoices processed through the end of 2024, including the EV station installs, rewiring and LED upgrades for $50,000 at the Georgetown Middle/High School. Since then, they have been awarded a contract to upgrade the light bulbs at the Penn Brook school, not included in the above numbers.
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Ask EV Questions,
and …?
By Lonnie Brennan
When our senior reporter asked six questions in writing to the Georgetown town administrator, the admin. deferred three to the electric department, and responded with the following (below), including yet another one of his frequent insults about this newspaper. Some have suggested that since the folding of the Georgetown Record in 2019, government appointees seem to have grown complacent with not being questioned by reporters. That may or may not be the case in these responses. And of course, we always strive to improve, and correct any mistakes, and do so publicly.
The questions were directed to the town admin. In his reply, he included seemingly everyone but the sandwich lady at the middle/high school cafeteria (he included the fire chief, the police chief, all members of the board of selectmen – which seems appropriate – with the exception of Selectman Mike Donahue, who questioned his actions and outside work for other towns, which the town admin. did during regular town hall business hours. Donahue has also been critical of the town admin. single-handedly awarding multiple contracts totaling in excess of $400,000 to Inovis, etc. See related story.).
The questions and the town admin.’s answers (which he printed in red, and which we’ve reprinted in red), follow. Please note, there was follow-on back and forth. In summary, the admin. admits to purposefully leaving Donahue in the dark – unlike the fire chief – because he suspected we would forward the e-mail to Donahue anyway. Ah, yes, as we would to any member of the selectboard whose employee, the town admin., chose to keep in the dark.
Subsequent to this exchange, we’re told the town admin. has created his own “substack” blog online. There’s a line from Shakespeare about protesting which comes to mind.
Obviously, we did not receive the answers to these and other subsequent questions which would detail why one firm was awarded certain contracts, nor at what state “change orders” were enacted and “rewiring” was required, and why those needs were not planned for prior to the initial project award. We’ll seek out additional resources to find those answers…
Initial Reply by Town Admin.:
“Stewart. Just so I understand. You are writing a story about a project that was completed 2-3 years ago now even through you never wrote a story about the grant that funded a large part of the project itself. Am I correct in that assumption?”
Second Reply:
“From three years ago?”
Third Reply:
“I must assume so given the recent FOIA’s we received. My apologies for the emails but I think it’s important to the public establish the link between the Town Common reporting and the people and avenues it gets its information and motives from. All in the interest of transparency. I will respond to your first email but will also be including many others and will explain why in the email given the gross omissions and inaccurate reporting of the past”
Fourth Reply:
From: “Orlando Pacheco”
<OPacheco@GeorgetownMa.gov>
To: “Stewart Lytle” <stewart_lytle@yahoo.com>
Cc: “Douglas Dawes” <ddawes@GeorgetownMa.gov>, “Robert Hoover” <RHoover@GeorgetownMa.gov>, “Laura Repplier” <LRepplier@GeorgetownMa.gov>, “Ed Dobie” <EDobie4227@aol.com>, “Alicia Raspa” <araspa@GeorgetownMa.gov>, “Matt Mckay” <mmckay@GeorgetownMa.gov>, “David Sedgwick” <DSedgwick@GeorgetownMa.gov>, “Kerri McManus” <KMcManus@GeorgetownMa.gov>, “Jaclyn Davenport” <jadavenport@GeorgetownMa.gov>, “James Pike” <JPike@GeorgetownMa.gov>, “Robyn Holt” <Rholt@GeorgetownMa.gov>, “Maureen Shultz” <MShultz@GeorgetownMa.gov>, “Frank O’Connor” <foconnor@GeorgetownMa.gov>, “andersonm@georgetown.k12.ma.us” <andersonm@georgetown.k12.ma.us>, “Michael Hinchliffe” <hinchliffem@georgetown.k12.ma.us>, “Margaret Ferrick” <ferrickm@georgetown.k12.ma.us>, “Mary Snow” <MSnow@georgetownlight.com>, “Joe Maribito” <maribitoj@georgetown.k12.ma.us>, “Peter Durkee” <pdurkee@georgetownma.gov>, “Elizabeth Wilfong” <ewilfong@GeorgetownMa.gov>, “James Ogden” <JOgden@GeorgetownMa.gov>, “Sarah Cognata (scognata@georgetownpl.org)” <scognata@georgetownpl.org>
Sent: Sat, Jul 11, 2026 at 11:50 AM
Subject: RE: Questions from the Town Common on the EV Charging Stations
Hi Stewart, I want to respond to your questions but also add substantial context around the questions. I am doing this more for the public as opposed the Town Common given the history of inaccurate reporting and consistent omission of substantial factual information. As this email is public, we can now post it to social media to make sure taxpayers have the full story. It should be noted that this project was completed several years ago and received a $200,000 EVIP Grant from MassDEP. At that time the Town Common did not dedicate resources to covering that award or the installation of the charging station which we felt was a positive decarbonization measure for the Town. However, in the past few weeks we have received a number of Freedom of Information Act requests from Kevin Wood and Mike Donahue so it appears your desire to cover the story has more to do with the direction you take and the collaboration the Town Common has with particular individuals than the public interest in terms of a project completed almost 3 years ago being reported on now. As such and in the interest of transparency, the term used often by some who also hide behind anonymity, I wanted to share my response with others.
How much are the charging stations used? This question is better directed to the Light Department as they are the ones that meter the charging stations
What do they cost customers to use them? This should also be directed at the Light Department but the rate may vary depending on the time of day
For the installation of the stations, why did the town award no-bid contracts to Innovis Energy for the ones installed at the library, town hall and American Legion Park? It is disingenuous to state the question in this fashion but its also important for me to note the Town Common conclusion prior to writing the story. Hence my opening paragraph to this email. Innovis is an approved Project Expeditor approved by the utilities. Mass General Law Chapter 25A Section 11 clearly dictates that use of the statue for energy conservation and decarbonization projects for Green Communities. This is similar to using a state contract or other approved group procurement. Furthermore, the Town has utilized this method on several occasions without any issue in the past. For example, the Town has utilized this for weatherization measures and other upgrades at several municipal facilities going back to 2020 under Mike Farrell. One vendor, ECI was paid over $200,000 using Green Communities Grant funds. We have also utilized this for several other smaller projects. A copy of the vendor list is attached and we have used 5 vendors from the list. These are not “no bid” as you have described but part of a specific process to vertically integrate implementation. The companies that perform the audits of the facilities can easily transition into the construction phase provided that the project cost is under $300,000. Your sudden desire to report on this now should call into question your integrity and motives as a so-called reporter. That being said we are happy with the work that has been performed by all the Project Expeditors , not just Innovis, and are particularly proud of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant funds utilized to accomplish this work. I think we can all agree that as EV’s become more prevalent in our society that the access to charging is going to be necessary.
I would also like to point out that the type of equipment that was installed had a significant impact on who does the work. We did reach out to some other firms who were specifically looking to install ChargePoint stations, which is a great product and the most common from what we can see. However, it is also a closed source meaning that once installed the back-end software that operate the system and takes a potion of the revenue would be permanent. This was a concern to me as it would me because ChargePoint could charge any fees it wanted and the Town would be stuck. By using the AMP product, the software is open source so at some point in the future if it were advantageous to do so, the Light Dept would be in a position to get a new back-end software provider to operate aspects of the chargers. Many people do not take this into consideration when scoping an EV project and can limit revenue growth in the future. Not all installers have access to the same vendors and many have noon-competes so this aspect needed to be thought through and played a role in the selection of Innovis.
The Light Department bid out the EV charging station at the Perley School to a different firm, which appears to have been installed for less. This project was done using the same vendor as the light Department. The Town was the responsible party for the Perley School Project under our EVIP grant, not the light department. The location of the changing stations changed specifically to the Perley School. Originally it was going to be on the other side of the parking lot closer to the COA. This was designed in case the COA ever obtained an EV Van, which are now available, our decision to no longer pursue and Electric van was low mileage use and cost. After review the power source location was not ideal so the charging stations were moved to the current location. When that change took place the Light Dept felt their vendor could do the job cheaper because it was almost identical in scope of the Park and Ride project (ie, no trench work simply coming off the pole) so they were able to do that job cheaper and under the bid threshold. Your pre-conceived notion to the question I feel required a more detailed explanation
What were the change orders at the library and town hall for? The change orders were requested by the Light Department and Electrical Inspector. The cost of the Change orders were paid for by the Light Department. The original plan was to have the station wired into the buildings, which was more cost effective. However, in order to better implement a separate metering tariff, the power had to come in from another location. This caused some additional trench work to the project that required the change order. This was the same situation at the library although the amount of trenching and underground conduit varied from each site.
What company got the contract for the station at the Park and Ride lot? The Park and Ride project was done by the Light Department with a separate EVIP Grant. They did use the same technology the Town used. How much was that contract for? This would be best directed to the Light Department
Thank you for your assistance.
PS: Because the is a good chance this important detail will be missed in your story is that the Town did not appropriate any funds to accomplish this work. We are very thankful for the Grant awards and Light Department support. The grant funds came as a result of the Settlement with VW over their diesel emissions reporting. The office of the State Attorney General and MasaDEP can provide more details on the VW settlement.
