The city hired two new janitorial companies to keep its largest facilities clean for the next year, but the current contractor said the selection process itself needs cleaning.
Employees of Firato Service Company, a Morgan Hill firm that has cleaned the city’s recreation facilities for the past three years, picketed City Hall before Wednesday’s council meeting, holding signs urging the city to “Save local jobs,” and to “Keep jobs in Morgan Hill.”
A spokesman for the company said it’s not just about staying local. Nick Firato said he thinks the bid process used by the city to hire the out-of-town companies was confusing and unfair to the public and to potential bidders.
“The two companies were chosen by a technical scoring system that was unclear, had no transparency in government, and had absolutely no apparent oversight or appeals process,” Firato said after the meeting.
After a lengthy discussion in which even some council members struggled to understand the selection process employed by a committee of city community services staff people, the council voted 4-1 Wednesday to award the contracts to two different companies.
City staff sent out an RFP, or “request for proposals” letter in March for janitorial services for four city-owned facilities. The jobs were divided into two contracts. One was for the Centennial Recreation Center and the Aquatics Center. The other was for the Friendly Inn and the Community and Cultural Center.
Pacific Maintenance Company, based in Santa Clara, was chosen to clean the CCC and Friendly Inn, for an annual cost of about $36,500. Customized Performance, Inc., of San Jose, was selected to clean the recreation facilities at a cost of about $74,400 annually. Both firms submitted the lowest bids.
The total cost of the contracts will save the city about $25,500 off what it currently pays Firato, who has provided janitorial services for the CRC, CCC and Aquatics Center since 2009. Their contract expires June 30.
The Friendly Inn has been serviced by Best Quality Janitorial, with tenants of the building paying the bill. The city will continue to bill the tenants for janitorial costs, according to city staff.
Firato and 10 other companies bid for the next contract.
City staff recommended the two companies selected by the council based on a scoring system, that awarded half the points for each firm based the cost and the other half based on qualifications, experience, work methods, customer service and management practices, references and other criteria that might indicate their ability to perform the desired services.
Firato spoke to the council before they made their decision, imploring the city to give stronger consideration to the company with local employees currently cleaning the city facilities, who are Morgan Hill residents and could lose their jobs as a result of the change of contractors. Eight of Firato’s employees clean three city facilities.
“During those three years (contracting with the city) we have formed many community partnerships, and have donated our time and money back to the community which we are members of,” Firato said.
Firato also decried the bidding and qualifying process as “confusing and convoluted.”
Plus, he thinks city staff did not follow their own guidelines for the process, allowing at least two bidders to submit late proposals and one to resubmit their original proposal because their price seemed “unattainably low.”
“This process allowed the city staff to play favorites,” Firato said after the meeting.
And despite the city’s savings, hiring a company that may end up performing “substandard” work could end up costing the city a lot more money, Firato added.
Firato’s company bid a combined total of about $151,000 for the two contracts that start July 1.
Council members Larry Carr and Marilyn Librers also thought the scoring process employed by city staff was confusing at first, and asked staff several questions in an effort to figure it out.
Librers ended up voting against the recommended contractors because of this process, and to show her support for keeping jobs local, she said at the meeting.
“I do not want to see citizens of Morgan Hill lose their jobs,” Librers said.
She added the RFP process seemed “flawed” and unfair, and in the future the city should only consider the cost when awarding contracts.
During the meeting, Carr described the process as “unusual,” but it became clearer to him as staff described the scoring system and, besides, he agreed the city should consider more than just the cost when awarding contracts.
“I understand why they did it that way,” Carr said. “It’s a smart way to do it rather than just relying on price alone, but I think we can probably improve it in the future.”
Councilmember Rich Constantine added that the RFP process is in place to “protect the citizens” from wasteful tax spending, but it’s sometimes a “conundrum.”
“We want the best service and quality, but we don’t want to pay the most,” Constantine said.
Staff said they have used the same RFP process at least once before, for a landscape maintenance contract.
City Recreation Manager Nick Calubaquib said it is common for contractors to be asked to resubmit bids based on apparent errors or misunderstandings on the bidders’ part.
When asked by the council why he accepted late bids, he said the two late bidders had shown strong interest and qualifications in meetings with staff prior to the deadline.
Constantine said staff should strictly adhere to the rules in the future.
“We have to keep this process as sterile as possible,” he said.
Firato has not decided whether or not he will appeal or contest the decision, but he said the process should be improved.
“We don’t want other local businesses to run into the same problems in the future,” he said.
