Maintenance Contractors Are In A "No Win" Situation

EDITORIAL - by Jim Albert - Wednesday, April 28, 2010 - At Monday night's City Commission, I realized that our City's bidding system is inherently unfair. The topic at hand was the acceptance of bids for mowing contracts. Two contractors bid on contracts for mowing and trimming of both the City parks and the Riverside Cemetery. The contractor who has been doing the mowing for the last two years submitted a bid equal to what he is currently getting. The new contractor undercut the current contractor and was awarded the new bid.

Here's the flaw in the system... we accept sealed bids to keep things fair. Once the bids are open and accepted, they become a matter of public record. What does this mean? When we hire a contractor and he does a good job, we are almost always guaranteed not to have his services when his contract expires. Since bids become a matter of public record, all a bidding contractor has to do is to look up what the current contractor bid to get the job and undercut that price. We all understand that costs of doing business are forever increasing. It is unlikely that a current contractor will bid lower than he bid to get the job in the first place. Knowing this, a bidding contractor simply has to submit a bid a few hundred dollars lower the the current contractor's contract to get the job.

I think the City should re-evaluate their maintenance contract bidding process. If a maintenance contractor is doing a good job he needs to be somewhat protected. The cards are stacked against him in the bidding process, because competing bidders already know what he will be forced to bid. He certainly can't bid higher that his current contract, even if his expenses have increased. If he bids what he bid last time, he will lose the bid because his bid is public knowledge. If he undercuts his own bid to keep the job, he'll be cutting his income -- perhaps even putting his business at risk.

Our "always accept the low bid" system, when it comes to maintenance contracts punishes contractors for doing a good job. They are in a "no win" situation. Most of us expect a raise if we work hard and do our best. Our maintenance contractors, under our City's system, have to either take a pay cut or lose their jobs.

Jim Albert