HOW LA WORKS-The City Council found itself immersed yet again in a messy contract argument. This one is over which firm should be awarded the contract to run the Greek Theater.
The City Council voted to disagree with the recommendation of the Board of Recreation and Parks Commissioners and its staff of evaluators. So the whole matter goes back to the commission for its reconsideration. (Photo: public listening to the Greek Theater debate in City Council chambers.)
As is the case far too often when big bucks are involved, it appears that the decision-making process is driven by politics, money, and personal relationships.
As the process is now, city staff designs the bid requirements and evaluates the submissions. They eliminate those that don’t meet the city’s minimums, and rank the rest.
Then it gets ugly.
The firms that weren’t selected, the losers, hire lobbyists to demean the winner, and sometimes even the city staff. The tactics can include personal attacks, and basically everything that gives politics a bad name.
It’s a full employment act for lobbyists, attorneys, public relations consultants, and political operatives. Sometimes, bidders will hire people just to keep them out of the employ of the competitors.
The strategy is often to get the commission or City Council to throw out all the bids and start over. By this time, the bid details are known to all parties.
Because so many qualified bidders don’t want the headaches that come with doing business with the city, it’s highly unlikely that the taxpayers ever end up with the best possible deal.
In the end, the winner is often the one with the most friends at City Hall.
There is a simple solution.
Even if it requires an amendment to the City Charter, the city have the ability to take all the qualified bidders for a service or product and let them bid against each other until there is one left standing.
This would take the politics and corruption out of the process, and produce more revenue or less cost for the city and its taxpayers.
In sending the Greek Theater contract back to the commission, the City Council recommended that the contract be rebid (no surprise there), and that community concerns (mainly those living near the facility) be given more weight.
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But if the concern of the community is a desire of the City Council, it, the mayor, and the commissions letting contracts should spell out the process in the bid invitations. It’s only fair to let all the bidders know what’s expected of them at the start of the race.
The City Charter established a formal system of neighborhood councils just for the purpose of weighing in with advice on important matters, such as contracts, before a decision is made.
If City Hall is legitimately concerned about what the community thinks, and not just using that argument to help friends win bids, someone inside government, or even the neighborhood councils themselves, should propose a specific process through which neighborhood councils and the public will be involved before decisions are made, just like the City Charter demands.
The only apparent opposition to a ballot measure that improves the contracting system would come from those who make a nice living off controversy and confusion.
(Greg Nelson is a former general manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, was instrumental in the creation of the LA Neighborhood Council System, served as chief of staff for former LA City Councilman Joel Wachs … and occasionally writes for CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected] .)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 14
Pub: Feb 17, 2015
