Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Public Comments-City Council-December 8, 2008

Status of Grand Garden project and the transparency of public projects and no bid contracts.

Public Comments
City Council
December 8, 2008

Grand Garden and Miscellaneous

Good evening City Council.  I planned to speak about the Grand Garden, a project that would cost the public millions of dollars and extremely valuable property for very little value in return.  But inside sources have indicated that the Grand Garden development project is dead and that it just won’t happen.  So, I don’t need to speak about it.

Any future plans for the River Walk area and other projects should have more public input and less doing the standard procedure of doing business behind closed doors.  I contend that when dollars and terms and conditions of a public project are being negotiated, the public has the right to know that a true value will be determined for both parties.  Too many of the City contracts/agreements with contractors/developers do not delineate what is required to be done and therefore there are no consequences when expectations are not met.  It all boils down to the fact that policies, procedures, and processes need to be updated to meet the requirements of the environment in Pueblo today. 

The solution to improving the relationship between the public and the City administration is transparency.  The actual facts and justification the decisions on which important issues are based on need to be made public.

The public has the perception that no bid contracts for professional and technical services are negotiated behind closed doors. The selection of contractors are not based on being the best qualified and the amounts awarded to the contractors are perceived to allow excessive profits.  Again, for the public to trust that the City administration has the best interest of its citizens and the use of their tax money in mind when negotiating and awarding no bid contracts the processes and procedures used need to be made public.  A possible procedural example is:  1. Determine prerequisite qualifications for work to be done.  2.  Evaluate a minimum of three qualified individuals/organizations.  3.  Select the best price/ performance individual/organization. The results of steps 1 through 3 should be available to the public.

Resolutions 5 and 6 in the Consent agenda for tonight are examples of how no bid contracts can add up to millions of dollars spent each year without public knowledge.

Respectively Submitted

Ted Freeman