I'm going to think about this before expanding on the idea...
I'm going to think about this before expanding on the idea...
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Every service a Town or Local government should be strictly on a open public bid system. No matter what it is - decide what needs to be provided - decide on the length of each contract - no cost over runs - no benefits just a reasonable hourly wage and decent profit margin for the bidding company. Set fines when work isn't done on time - set yearly % bonus for jobs done on time and as stipulated in the contract. All job specs to be posted - public reading of the specs and bids - one public input hearing per job category and the vote should be done at a public open Town Board Meeting.
Theres your starting point -
#Dems play musical chairs + patronage and nepotism = entitlement !
While public bidding works best for most items, there are times when it simply isn't appropriate. Public bidding also has to have room for selecting a responsible contractor. Thje lowest bidder is not alwqys responsible, as lots of homeowoners find out everyday.
I agree with nogods on some of the bidding process. What we have seen in the past are contractors that low ball the bid knowing that a town board will approve change orders while the project is being built. I can understand an unforeseen issue arising but in some cases I think the low ball bid was just a way to win the bid and then profit along the way.
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Bid specs are available for public review. Bid openings are open to the public. Contracts are awarded at public meetings. Stop by sometime. It's difficult to show the a bidder is not responsible because the law doesn't really define it.
A good RFP should specify that the contractor must provide proof of experience (ie, completed similar job/provided similar service, etc) and require references from the contractors' past and current customers as well as samples of their work. A competent selection committee should not only check references carefully but also check "off list" references. Discrepancies between a contractor's claims about his experience or questions about his work from clients can easily negate a low bid.
Your right to buy a military weapon without hindrance, delay or training cannot trump Daniel Barden’s right to see his eighth birthday. -- Jim Himes
Lets say the local government cuts grass - whether its parks or abandoned home - or town owned property.
The Town should present a published offer for bids - every two years(or +/-) - average out the amount of grass to be cut - acres - properties and so on. Figure out what it costs tax payers to support those who now provide such services. Make all this public and published on the website and news paper.
Then ask for bids - a thirty day bid season - open all bids at a public meeting - every bid - then have the company rep do his presentation with public Q&A period. - Then vote on who gets the contract. Renewed every two years pending new bids. All done in public.
Its easy to pretend its done that way now - it rarely is - when was the last time there was two different company reps present to discuss garbage pick and its costs - or bid openly on such services - with public Q&A period?
Every service the local government provides with the use of tax funded employees should be reviewed and possibly set for bid - or atleast a cost analyses done every two years - reviews held with prior published public notice and public Q&A periods.
#Dems play musical chairs + patronage and nepotism = entitlement !
It's a bid process; it's not an auction. Just because you say bids aren't opened in public doesn't mean it's true. Company reps show up at bid openings all the time! A good invitation to bid does ask for prior experience and references. Most require it. (Interesting question whether such a requirement inhibits new entrants into a field). As for public q&a I can't imagine a worse idea. The bids ought to be reviewed and evaluated by qualified personnel, not some disgruntled clods who just wobbled in from the neighborhood watering hole.
Grump - when was the last Board meeting in your Town you attended - when companies competing to provide a service were present, explained what there bids were based on, then the Board chose between them to award the contract ?
Just because you say it happens all the time - doesn't mean its the standard procedure followed for the bid on every service or contract awarded.
I am also quite sure that tax payers rarely show up to Town Board Meetings under the influence as you inferred.
I know a few Board Members who have shown up half lit though !
#Dems play musical chairs + patronage and nepotism = entitlement !
I didn't infer that people show up snockered at town board meetings, I said it. A board doesn't ask for oral explanations of bids at an open meeting where some bunch of rumdums who don't want the town to spend any money and then bitch because nothing gets done can disrupt the whole process. There is already a process in law to address questions with bids. You want a bunch of discontented people to be able to dusrupt the process. If you don't like the process, circulate petitions to get on the ballott as a candidate for the senate or assembly, organize and run your campaign, get elected, draft the laws you think are needed, introduce those laws, find a sponsor in the other house of the legislature, get the bill passed in both houses and get the governor to sign it. Nothing to it. By the way if a town board awarded bids based on comments made at town board meetings instead of basing it's decision on submitted bids the whole bid process could be invalidated. If your town officials don't know how to spec a bid process, sorry to hear it. My town officials know how.
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