The recent action by the City Council to renegotiate it's trash hauling
contract with MRI is pure GARBAGE... TRASH!! Once again I must ask, "who's
minding the store?" If MRI wants to renegotiate, why doesn't the city just
re-open the entire process and solicit competitive bids? Who's protecting
who here?
Last Friday the CC voted 8-5 to have Public Works open negotiations with
MRI, which wants more money even though two years remain on the current
contract. (see Rochelle Olson's story in STrib 3-24) MRI is a private
consortium that collects solid waste, recycling, yard waste, etc. in half
the city, while Public Works picks up the other half. Public Works now has
90 days to renegotiate the contract before reporting back to the CC.
Under the current contract, MRI gets $8.25 per dwelling unit, or an amount
equal to 98% of what it would cost to have the city do the job, whichever is
less. MRI has had the deal since 1971 and the contract has never been
competitively bid!! Lane, Ostrow, Mead, Goodman and McDonald voted against
the renegotiation. Colvin Roy, defending her vote, says "I think the public
is getting a good deal in Minneapolis, and I am not presupposing the
negotiations." I'm wondering, just how accurate is Colvin Roy's crystal
ball? How does she know we're getting such a good deal? I'll tell you--
she doesn't know. Nobody knows if we have a good deal or a bad deal because
we've never solicited competitive bids for the work. Who can say how
competitive city garbage collectors are? We've never checked to find out!
After 30 years why wouldn't we want to solicit bids for this contract? Why
wouldn't we want to know what competing businesses are willing to offer?
Why not announce six months or a year ahead of time that the City will
solicit proposals-- give competitors a chance to organize and prepare a bid
(they've been locked out of the competition for 30 years remember). The
only way to be confident you have a good deal is to go out into the
marketplace and determine what the costs really are in a competitive
environment.
Public Works Director David Sonnenberg will renegotiate the deal and report
back to the CC within 90 days. However, it seems that in the overall scheme
of things, Public Works and MRI are both parties to the deal... a potential
conflict of interest in my mind. Why isn't a third party negotiating this
deal? Why not just solicit bids... maybe the city should get the whole
deal... or maybe none of it... we'll never know without competitive bids!!
Michael Hohmann
13th Ward
http:www2.visi.com/mahco
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