No play

July 10, 2013

This week’s city council agenda asks for permission to issue a three year contract for parts and labor to a local Ford dealer.

The deal is the result of a real bid instead of using a buy board.  This is good.  I congratulate the local dealer.

What bothers me about it is that while there are four Ford dealers in El Paso, only one of them bid.  Why?  It is possible that the other three did not want the business?  Why?  Something is wrong.  The annual amount of business involved for the dealership is almost half a million dollars.

I don’t know why only one local dealer submitted a bid.  My guess is that the three others think that dealing with the city is not worth it.  Maybe they thought they did not have a chance.  On the other hand some might say that there was collusion among the dealers.  I doubt it.

I do know that when only one firm out of several submits a bid there is probably something wrong.  City management in prior years considered this kind of situation a red flag and would work to get competition going.

By the way, one out of town dealer also submitted a bid.  This dealer’s part prices were consistently lower than the one city staff wants to give the contract to.  The out of town dealer was disqualified.  From reading the agenda backup it looks like not quoting a price for local labor was the reason.

If the bid specifications clearly required a local service shop, then why did the out of town dealer spend the time and money  to bid?  Once again I am guessing here when I say that I suspect that the specifications were not clear on the labor issue.  A look at the backup material shows city staff not paying attention again.  This was a Ford related bid.  The bid tabulation shows “SERVICE AND REPAIR OF VARIOUS GMC/CHEVROLET MODELS PERFORMED BY MECHANICS CERTIFIED BY GMC/CHEVROLET”.  The bid tabulation is primarily an internal document.  I hope that the bid specifications did not contain this error.

Evidently Scrivener has a relative working in the purchasing department.

I know many business people  in El Paso that simply will not even bid for city business.  The consensus within this group is that it is too hard to get beyond the favoritism and then too unpleasant to deal with the city if they do get the business.  To them it is simply not worth the trouble.

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | City government, Purchasing | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Why Houston?

July 7, 2013

Item 5B on this week’s city council agenda relates to air conditioning equipment for our zoo.

The city proposes to spend almost $120,000 dollars for various units, once again without bidding, but through a buy board.

Four percent of this money is paid to this Houston based buy board.  A review of the contract documents relating to this vendor reveals that the vendor was not the lowest price  offerer.  The contract was issued in 2010.

Air conditioning equipment and services are available through the  El Paso based Region 19.  We would have to pay a percentage to this buy board also but at least that money would stay in El Paso.

Them again if this item had been taken out to bid we might have found lower prices than through the buy board.  I don’t understand how the city can determine that the buy board is more cost effective than bidding without in fact bidding.

Adding insult to injury, this money is coming from our quality of life bonds.

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | City government, Purchasing | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Stewardship

June 17, 2013

What were the voters saying?

Was it about gay rights?

Was it about city council ignoring the results of an election?

Was it about downtown, destroying city hall, the ball park?

My take is that it was about competence and honesty.  All in all, El Pasoans are a pretty tolerant bunch.  We tend to live our own lives and pay little attention to the temporary tempests that happen here.

What we have witnessed from the city for the past few years got our attention though.  Tearing down city hall and building a baseball stadium with poor planning is costing us a lot of unnecessary money.  The city chief financial officer told us that it would cost us $33 million to move into new city facilities.  We now know that the number is over $70 million and we are still learning about more.

The city manager admitted in public that the true cost of the stadium won’t be known until we finish building it.  If the project had been handled in a measured manner instead of the “hurry up, we have an emergency” way it was handled, we could have known — down to the penny.  I would have voted for a well planned ball park.

The voters approved $470 million of quality of life bonds last November.  The city hall move and the ball park showed the citizens that the team down at city hall could not or would not manage our money with respect.

It looks to me like they chose the mayor based upon his ability to manage money and his promise of honesty and transparency.  My take on the city council election is that the voters wanted to get away from the rubber stamping mentality seen on council.  The voters rejected all of the candidates the Times endorsed for election to city office.  The runaway train must be controlled.

We have committed to spend almost a billion dollars recently.  I think the voters want to get their money’s worth.

In a word, this was about stewardship.

Eternal vigilance is the cost of liberty

Cato

1 Comment | City government, El Paso Times, Open Government, Purchasing | Permalink
Posted by Cato

Buying a lie

June 9, 2013

Next week’s city council agenda has a flurry of purchasing items on it.  I guess council has been busy watching the management team disintegrate.

The Information Technology department seldom takes items out to bid.  They prefer to use buy boards.

Item 6A proposes spending $425,583.73 for various security devices (cameras, locks, and things like that).  The backup material points out that “The City has made the determination that purchasing from this cooperative offers the most cost-effective pricing”.

Horse feathers!

The backup material actually lists the items to be purchased as well as the prices.  The second item on the list is a Model 5200 electric strike.  The city is willing to pay $124.43 for each one of these.  A quick internet search showed a supplier willing to sell the items for $92.25.  The next item on the list is a Model 9500 surface strike.  The city proposes to pay $417.00 each.  They are available on the internet for $313.00.

Another camera on the list is an AXC-0515-001 that the city is prepared to pay $727.17 each for.  The first one I found on the internet was for sale for $649.00.

Safe landing

Then another item proposes to spend $1,000,000 over a four year period with an out of town company for “Airport Financial and Planning Services”.  Pricing was not part of the evaluation.

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | City government, Purchasing, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Hurting the team

May 30, 2013

It was the chief financial officer (CFO) of the city

The video of the May 28, 2013 El Paso city council meeting shows the city manager saying that it was the CFO’s idea to bring the proposed $10 million dollar increase in spending for the ball park before city council.

The city manager offered to take the $5 million for street and sidewalk improvements off the table and then actually handle them the way we thought they would be when the money was originally allocated.

The other $5 million was to be for contingencies.

Council threw a fit. No way, no how would they approve the $10 million at this point.

So how did the CFO think she could put the city management team in the horrible situation that they found themselves in at that city council meeting?

I suggest arrogance.  I think she thinks that she has the right to decide what money will be spent and that our job is to shut up and pay it to her.  She seems to think that we have no power.

Remember she is the one that told us that city hall could be torn down and we could find new facilities for $33 million.  $63.9 million and climbing  broke out the true costs at the time.  Today the costs that we have been able to identify so far put that number at over $70 million.

She told the public and council that the changes to the Times building would be Minimal due to condition of building.  We then saw the city spend millions to change the building, tear down what they re-modeled, and build it again.  The saga continues.

She is behind much of the folly that has been occurring with our city government.  Now she has caused unbelievable harm to her colleagues, her boss, city council, the team owners, and a candidate for mayor.  Word on the street is that the city manager is taking this hard and is considering resignation.

We deserve better

Brutus

8 Comments | City government, El Paso Times, Open Government, Purchasing | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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