Next Mayor Would Be Bound by Contract

By Woody Jenkins.

CENTRAL — The next Mayor of Central would be locked into a master privatization contract with a firm such as CH2MHILL for one-half of his four-year term, according to a Request of Qualifications and Proposals (RFQP) sent out by the City of Central last week.

Although the RFQP has not been approved by the City Council, Mayor Mac Watts authorized it to be issued as a result of recommendations by a 21-member committee he appointed.

The proposed five-year contract would not expire until June 30, 2016 — two years after the next Mayor of Central is sworn in on July 1, 2014.

City Attorney Sheri Morris has ruled that the terms of the contract between the City of Central and CH2MHILL supersede any subsequent city ordinance.  According to that position, the new contract will be “the law” in Central for the next five years, even during the first two years of the next Mayor and City Council.

Mayor Watts’ RFQP provides a timetable which allows the current Council basically “one shot” to change the city’s direction.

That shot would come between May 19, 2011, and June 1, 2011 — when the Council would have the chance to vote for or against the Mayor’s proposed contractor, such as CH2MHILL, and for or against the proposed contract itself.

The Mayor’s 21-member committee has approved the proposed contract and set up criteria for choosing the next City Services contractor.  The current contract expires June 30, 2011.

A nine-member committee appointed by the Mayor will review RFQP’s which must be received by April 29, 2011, and then recommend a contractor to the Mayor.

This process has not been approved by the City Council by resolution or ordinance and has been criticized by several City Council members.  However, the Mayor is proceeding with his plan.

If the Council disapproves the Mayor’s recommended contractor or the contract itself, they could presumably approve another bidder, if there is one, or initiate a new selection process.

The current contract between the City of Central and CH2MHILL allows the city to retain the company’s services on a month to month basis after the June 30, 2011, termination date.  The timetable set forth in the Mayor’s RFQP is as follows:

March 1 — Advertise Request for Qualifications & Proposals

April 1 — Mandatory Pre-Proposal Conference for possible bidders, 10 a.m.

April 22 — Deadline for bidders to submit questions by email

April 27 — City posts questions and responses on city website

April 29 — Deadline for bidders to submit Statements of Qualifications and Proposals

May 9 — Mayor’s nine-member selection committee ranks respondents and schedules and conducts interviews

May 19 — Selection committee recommends contractor to Mayor; Mayor recommends to Council

June 1 — Contract executed, insurance and bonds provided by contractor; contractor begins receiving data and establishing systems.

July 1, 2011 — Five-year contract begins

June 30, 2016 — Five-year contract ends

The RFQP says the April 1 pre-proposal conference is mandatory, and no one will be allowed to bid unless they attend that conference.

Prospective bidders are prohibited from having any contact with elected or appointed officials of Central during the process.  They will only be allowed to submit questions by email, and those answers will not be provided by the city until two days before the bid is due.  This could make it difficult for any company other than CH2MHILL to have enough information to prepare a bid.

If the new Mayor who takes office July 1, 2014, wants to end the contract, he apparently could not do so unless a majority of the new City Council agreed.  Only then would the city be able to give the required 120-day notice of termination.

When Central’s massive privatization contract was bid out in early 2008, CH2MHILL was the only bidder.

Last month, the Mayor’s 21-member committee voted to allow private contractors to bid on four additional services for the city — drainage maintenance, grass cutting and weed control, litter control, and roadway repairs.  However, the city has not announced procedures for bidding on those services.

More information on the RFQP can be found at the city’s website, www.centralgov.com, which is maintained by CH2MHILL.