Throughout the year, the city awards numerous contracts to local and national providers as part of a tendering process.
For contract work, city officials post either a RFP or RFP/RFQ on a vendor portal called Bonfire.
The city also publishes the invitations in the Sunday News Tribune in the classifieds section. Any contract costing more than $25,000 must be approved by the City Council.
Purchasing agent Leigh Ann Corrigan and the rest of the purchasing staff prepare bid documents and set deadlines for bid opportunities. A bidding document is similar to a letter of intent, which contains the companies’ requirements and other information needed to make a bid.
Corrigan said it depends on the contract how long the offer opportunities remain published on the portal.
For example, last year the city issued a tender for pruning and tree removal services on October 11 and closed it on October 25, while a tender for park sculpture artists has been open since April and will end in January 2024.
Korte Tree Care and Alford Tree Services each submitted an offer for the tree care contract in October. The tender form stated that around 150 trees would have to be felled and around 30 removed by November this year.
The city also requires bidders to submit detailed information, such as each piece of equipment the company plans to use, how many hours the company expects to take to complete the project, and the compensation for each employee who will work on the project.
According to Corrigan, for each tender process, the purchasing department appoints an evaluation committee, typically made up of three to five people, whose responsibilities are directly related to the contract work.
For example, Parks, Recreation and Forestry director Todd Spalding was involved in the process in October, as was former ranger Ray Wallace.
In a memorandum from Wallace to Spalding, Wallace stated that he recommended Korte for the pruning and removal contract. He explained that Korte had the lower hourly rate offer and Alford had the lower equipment price offer and that the costs were pretty much the same.
Wallace wrote to Spalding that Korte had more advanced equipment, including a remote-controlled grapple saw crane “which is an absolute life saver” and a chain man lift. Wallace wrote in the memo that these pieces of equipment make a big difference.
Wallace also stated in the memo that Korte Tree Care maintains a shorter Standard Response Time and Emergency Response Time.
“And these are important when work needs to be done earlier or while storm damage work is being done,” the memo said.
The Parks and Recreation Commission awarded the contract to Korte at the December 13 commission meeting.
Lee Alford, owner of Alford Tree Services, contacted the city council Monday night with questions about the bidding process. He said Alford recently submitted a bid for a tender to contractors to provide and maintain yard waste and compost supply and maintenance sites in Jefferson City.
Alford’s bid competed with those of two other landscaping companies: Korte and All Seasons Landscaping.
Alford said he felt it took an “extremely long time” to award the contract to one of the three bidders. The offer opened on March 10 and closed on April 27, almost three months ago.
He also said he’s never gone through a closing process that took so long. The October contract had a 47-day period between the closing date and the official announcement of the contract; More than 80 days have passed since April 27th.
Interim city manager Matt Schofield said the timeline for the bidding process can vary and three months is not uncommon, especially given that this particular contract was a “bit of controversy” last year, he said.
Ward 5 councilor Jon Hensley said it is not the norm during budget planning meetings to review and evaluate every single contract the city might secure with companies during the year, but this one carries special circumstances.
Hensley said last year’s budget process was unique because of proposed actions related to the service, which he said were considered controversial at the time.
Last year, during fiscal season, former Mayor Carrie Tergin proposed scrapping the yard waste and composting service entirely and reallocating those funds to the rest of the city’s budget. Due to residents’ disapproval, the city council passed a new bill almost immediately after passing the 2023 budget to continue funding the compost facility.
Treasury Director Sheila Pearre said that during last year’s budgeting process, when the Budgets Committee discussed this particular contract, the contract had not yet been finalized and at the time there was no set dollar amount to allocate. Because of this, Pearre said it had been a “concerted effort” to post the call for tenders to get bids before the budget process began.
Then-Ward 4 councilman and current Mayor Ron Fitzwater said the council made a mistake in removing the service from the budget, and he expressed gratitude for the public communicating with the council the need to maintain a landfill in Jefferson City.
In June, the city began planning the budget for fiscal year 2024. Pearre said that doesn’t mean a new contract can’t be awarded before the end of the year
“What I’m saying is that we knew this was going to be a long process,” Pearre said.
www.newstribune.com
https://www.newstribune.com/news/2023/jul/21/delay-in-announcing-city-tree-removal-contract/
