I do not know Randall, but this is crap that his company is contracted by KCBS.
here is what I would say about that.....until everyone knows 100% of the facts, such as how many people bid on the work, were the bids sealed, who was the most qualified to do the work, who provided the most economical bid, who would likely do the best work and who would dedicate themselves or their company to the contract the most, then I can't say without a doubt that it was a "bad deal" for the KCBS Board to agree to do business with another Board member.
Can it turn out badly? Yes.
does it have to always be a bad thing? Not at all, if done correctly, above board and with a lot of transparency.
I speak from experience when I say this.....I have either served working for a BOD directly or served on other Boards for the last 16 years of my professional life in multiple capacities. I have been a part of well over 320 board meetings in that time. And I can honestly tell you that there are times when the best move for the organization is to do business with another setting Board member. Not very often, but it has and does happen.
And there are also times when that Board member may be the only viable option for the organization to choose.
My guess is that somebody felt strongly about using him, because they all knew it would become public member knowledge that it had been done, and they knew it would likely be controversial......so why did they do it? If I had been on that Board I would have only done it knowing that I truly felt it was the best option or that I knew the dude would be stepping down.
Now in all fairness, I am speaking in generalities.....I understand that. I do not know any of the players involved in this other than a former Board member just a little bit. I don't have answers to any of the questions I speculated about above......so they could have simply made a series of selfish and bad decisions like alot of people feel they have done. But then again, there may be a great deal more to this story than we currently know or may ever know.