Consent agenda item 4.2 on the March 4, 2014 city council agenda is about network wiring for the new ball park.
The posting indicates “This is a Venue Project purchase exempt from the competitive bidding laws”. Nice, huh?
The backup material indicates that the project was bid out, however, through the construction manager at risk process. Three bids were received. What is unusual here is that the bid tabulation sheet showing who bid what is not shown. Nice, huh?
Some may feel that the omission is not important. It is to me if city staff is not telling the truth.
The backup material for item 4.4 on the same agenda recommends spending over $300,000 with the same company for a wireless access system for the ball park. City staff wrote that the project was also bid through the construction manager at risk process.
Not true
I follow much of the city’s bidding. This project was not bid through the construction manager at risk process. Further, I don’t see where the city issued a formal bid request.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Desert Communications was one of my vendors on the BTOP project, a local firm, and did a lot of cable work for me, mostly OK as far as I can recall. BTOP was a federal project and the POs went through the normal city processes. It was IT that identified Desert Communications as a potential vendor for us. As I recall, I was very happy to have them because I could actually get some work done.
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Good work – I’m glad there’s real information that’s better than “it just doesn’t feel right to me” or “we deserve better.”
Notwithstanding the fact that we all deserve much better, I’m amazed at the number of tea party “dog whistles” on this site. Having been lurking around here for just the last 12 hours, it occurs to me that if Brutus did a little more work and a little less assuming, this site might actually serve some public good, as it so magnanimously purports.
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Carlos,
Your views are welcome. If you would like to author articles we would be happy to entertain them.
We want to keep it civil and not personal.
Brutus
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Brutus,
Thanks for the opportunity to post on this site and for allowing the post to be viewed without censure. Other site moderators would not have allowed it to see the light of day (or computer monitors, as it were). Apologies for sounding personal, but there are assumptions and innuendo posted here that are presented as fact.
Thanks again.
Carlos
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carlos, your ego is a joke. brutus does fine. don’t like it, start your own blog.
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will,
Apologies if my intrusion into the echo chamber ruffled feathers. As for starting my own blog…
That’s one hell of an idea.
Carlos
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Have these costs for wireless networking, like the $300,000 mentioned, been included in the projected cost of the ballpark or do they mean an increase? By any chance do you share these observations of “selective and incomplete reporting to the public on the city’s website” with the Mayor, City Manager, or city reps? If so, what has been their response, if any?
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