Talking Trash
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 10/7/09 @ 12:14 am - Filed Under Featured, Local Politics
I find it odd that Mayor Henry continues to get beat up over the pending city garbage contract. For those that don’t know the city put the $9 million contract up for bid this year and the incumbent, National Serv-All, was underbid by a startup company called Earth First. I hear a lot of whining about this and some of it seems to come from the fact that the mayor’s brother has a 5% ownership in Earth First. The rest of the whining is about the idea that Earth First is a startup company and has no history of municipal trash service.
But isn’t this exactly how capitalism is supposed to work? A small innovative startup company comes up with a creative solution in order to undercut the large and entrenched corporation. If you were only listening to the traditional media you’d think that National Serv-All, despite being out bid, has some sort of unalienable right to provide the city with garbage services. For example, here’s a quote from one local paper:
Though political opponents have stirred baseless rumors about Jerry Henry benefiting from Tom Henry’s position, the awarding of this contract would give credibility to those attacks.
While the administration flounders, the current contractor, National Serv-All, has a blue-ribbon team taking its case to the City Council and directly to residents. It includes attorney Mark GiaQuinta, a former Democratic City Council member, as well as the law firm of Beers, Mallers, Backs & Salin, which has strong Republican ties. The politically connected Asher Agency is helping with public relations.
With Henry on the verge of making a huge political error, National Serv-All has offered him a generous gift, particularly for a company the administration has blatantly dissed: Extend the trash contract with National Serv-All for two years at current rates.
This commentary is absolutely ridiculous and only serves to perpetuate the corporate communism that’s becoming rampant in this country. First, despite the claims about Henry’s brother being baseless the city should still not award the contract to the lowest bidder? We’re not talking about handing $8 million to a longtime political player for an overpriced police station here - this was competitively bid and Earth First won. If somebody thinks the process was unfair then explain why. The city’s purchasing department, lead by Jim Howard, is highly respected across the state so I have no reason to believe this process was unfair in any way.
And did I read that 2nd paragraph correctly? I’m supposed to think it’s a good thing that National Serv-all has hired a bunch of political hacks lobbyists in order to try and overturn a contract which was fairly bid and that they lost?
Henry has surely had several political errors but this ain’t one of them. What he’s doing here is offering residents a cheaper garbage collection service than they would otherwise receive - that’s pragmatic leadership. The idea that National Serv-All is in any kind of position to offer the mayor “gifts” is laughable. They lost the bid because they had become complacent and lacked the necessary innovation. We shouldn’t be punishing the start up for this - we should be praising them. This is a local company going head to head with a national behemoth and winning. We need more of this in this city.
City council should award the contract to Earth First and give them an opportunity to provide residents with cheaper service. If they fail to meet their obligations under the terms of agreement then fire them and re-open the bidding process. But extending the contract to National Serv-All just because Earth First is a start up company is indefensible within a capitalist economy…
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4 Responses to “Talking Trash”
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I think most of the issue here is that it was not really a “bid”- the city put out an RFP.
The advantage of an RFP is that you get innovative responses. The disadvantage is that you are not really comparing apples to apples.
Overall, this proposal does more and for less money- so I think it is worth a shot!
@Jeff -
My vote is also to let the lowest bidder, Earth First, take a shot at it. Since they are a “new” company, what’s the harm in making it a short-term contract, and then evaluating the service at the end to determine if the city should continue ?
I’m speculating here, but it seems as if Serv-All thought the Fort Wayne contract was money in the bank. It wasn’t until Serv-All was informed it was underbid and in danger of LOSING the contract, did it decide to offer a two year extension at the same rate.
Had Earth First not out bid Serv-All, are we to assume Serv-All still would have offered the city such a “generous” offer ?
Jeff-
Why did you cross out “hacks”? When I saw who was on the “blue ribbon team” I instantly sided with the Tom and Jerry.
Jeff,
I agree with you somewhat; however, I am going to put up a separate post because my commencts will be too long for the comment section.
Mike