The “Request for Proposal” (RFP) method for the selection a garbage contractor resulted in a raucous hour of accusal and recrimination at the June 18 city council meeting.
The RFP method, unlike the more familiar fixed-bid process, allows the city to play contending companies against each other by allowing them to change their offers and prices in a back-and-forth competitive process. The method is intended to allow the city to secure the lowest possible bid for services. In this case, however, it resulted in what one company representative referred to as an unlevel playing field.
Initial bids were submitted by three companies: current provider Republic Services, Pelican Waste and Debris and Waste Management. Offers were presented for regular weekly trash pick-up, dumpster hauling and bulk pick-up of tree limbs, appliances, etc.
The companies were then asked to resubmit offers with additional services and deal-sweeteners to win support. The resulting offers are then weighed against one another and the chosen company is given permission to submit a contract.
That does not guarantee that the chosen company will get the contract, though. The city council then votes on whether to accept it. If the contract is not approved the process continues.
At the meeting, Mayor Thomas Nelson recommended Pelican, mainly because their offer included weekly bulk pick-up, where the others offered bulk pick-up every two weeks. Representatives from Republic complained that the city had specified two-week bulk pick-up. The resulting comparison, she said, was “apples to oranges” and did not reflect a level playing field for bidders.
A heated exchange followed, which included accusations of bias on both sides due to Pelican representative Tommy Thibodeaux’s fund raising for Nelson in the mayoral election and his support of Dist. two Councilman, Craig Prosper’s opponent in his State Senate bid.
Dennis Paul Williams, Dist. three and Debra Landry, Dist. four agreed with Nelson and voted to continue with the RFP process. Prosper, Dist. one councilman Mike Fuselier and Edmond Joseph, of Dist. five concluded that Republic’s offer was better overall and, in a two-to-three vote, gave the company ap-proval to proceed with submitting a contract.
“I knew this would be
a circus,” commented Fuselier. Prosper added that the RFP process is not as good as it appears. “If this goes on we will be lucky to have any bidders for these contracts.” To be fair, he said, the RFP process should produce a single list of services that all companies can bid on.
