Taveras Tries to Fast Track $90 Million Contract
Wednesday, June 04, 2014
The City of Providence under Mayor Angel Taveras is looking to award a new five year, $90 million dollar contract in August for school maintenance services, as Taveras aims for higher office in his run for Governor.
The current contract, which was originally awarded to Aramark as a five year agreement in 2005, had been subject to one year extensions since 2010 -- until now.
"This is one of the biggest contracts we have," said City Councilman Davian Sanchez. "It should be an interesting contract for bids....I believe it has to go to the lowest most qualified bidder. It's my understanding it will be around $90 million for the five years."
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Aramark was initially awarded a five year, $60 million contract in 2005, and subsequently had been given yearly no-bid extensions as allowed starting in 2010, which expire this year. On April 21, 2014, the city's Board of Contract and Supply approved and advertised a 55 page request-for-proposals for a new five year contract.
According to sources involved with the bid review process, a pre-bid conference scheduled for the first week of May was pushed back to May 27, and after requests from applicants for more time, the final due date for the bids was ultimately extended from June 16 to June 30 - but the award date of the contract is still expected on August 1.
Meaghan McCabe, deputy spokesperson for Mayor Taveras, said that changes were still being made.
"Several properties were improperly listed in the bid, but the City plans to send out an addendum tomorrow to bidders clarifying which schools are included in the contract," said McCabe. "Schools that are not included in the bid are Asa Messer Elementary School on Messer Street, Harrison Street School, Textron Academy, Windmill Street Elementary School and Flynn Elementary School."
While changes continue to be made to the bid process, Providence School Board President Keith Oliveira said that the board had wanted to put a new five year contract out to bid as early as last year. "The School Board said it's time to end the one year extensions, and go back out to bid to see if can get a better value and efficiencies."
City Council President and Mayoral candidate Michael Solomon spoke to the role that the maintenance contract would play in the city's schools.
"Selecting the best facilities maintenance vendor is important, especially since the City is planning on investing in capital improvements in our schools," said Solomon. "We have to make sure that these improvements have a useful life and are properly maintained, and that ongoing preventive maintenance is completed to minimize the need for more costly repairs or replacements in the future."
Candidates Take Note
Providence Mayoral candidates weighed in on the importance of the school maintenance contract, and bid process.
Lorne Adrain said he would support a "pay-for-performance" policy if elected.
"For all city contracts, we need to strike a balance that allows us to hold our vendors accountable without spending more time and toil than necessary on the negotiating process," said Adrain. "As Mayor, I'll support pay-for-performance contracts that ensure we're getting the most for every city dollar, and enforce existing city regulations to make sure vendors doing business with the city are putting Providence residents to work."
Similarly addressing the issue of return on investment, Jorge Elorza said he would closely monitor city contracts.
"We all agree that our schools need major infrastructure investments. It's important for the city to regularly assess all ongoing contracts to ensure that we're spending money effectively and efficiently," said Jorge Elorza. "As an accountant, I know how to make sure the taxpayers are getting their money's worth. But this contract is ultimately a school board decision."
Brett Smiley said that while maintenance issues were often sufficiently addressed, he saw capital improvements as a more pressing problem.
"While the budget and management for maintenance issues like cleaning and painting of our city's schools is adequate, what is insufficient is the lack of a capital budget for big ticket items like boilers and ceilings," saide Smiley. "As a result, we end up managing one crisis after the next without any foresight that could prevent future crises before they arise."
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