Maggio key to ensuring good contract for BC

If Bossier City Republican Councilor Vince Maggio has any ambitions beyond his current political perch, he has an opportunity to enhance those by putting the brakes on the runaway train of a Manchac Consulting no-bid contract renewal to run city engineering and other services.

The politics and legal dubiousness of granting Manchac yet another shot at an uncompetitively-sought deal for this service are well-known. Even though the contract doesn’t expire for four-and-half-months, the existing language – technically the original contract with a half-dozen amendments to be extended by another – mandates renewal within the week or else it can’t add on an extra $26,000 monthly for additional unspecified duties, hence the rush.

Of the many legal questions hanging over this approach, all but a question about whether the contract’s limitations violate the city charter’s empowerment of the mayor to hire and fire a permanent city engineer, could be resolved by formally withdrawing from a renewal and issuing a request-for-qualifications within the next couple of months. If no action is taken, the contract automatically renews next month at the current $169,000 per month level, although the city would have to follow ordinance – which it never has done regarding the Manchac contract thereby violating its own law – in (dubiously) declaring this service subject to a single source provider for that to be legal.

In the city’s multiple violations of city procedures, ordinances, and charter that have typified the Manchac saga, Assistant City Attorney Richard Ray broached a new defense trying to explain away all of this and thereby legitimizing the idea that the city solicits just one entity, grooves it a contract, and continually adds to it and extends without any competition. At the Jan. 2 City Council meeting, Ray suggested that R.S. 38:2318.1 hamstrung the city in its ability to bid professional services due to a “recent” change in the law. He claimed that the state “does not allow bidding of professional services by professional engineers,” in that cost factors were disallowed in the letting of such contracts.

Such an opinion at best was a misunderstanding. The “change” in 2021 actually hardly altered the substance of the statute, which had been in effect since 2006 as the bill’s author noted, calling the amendment “technical” clarifying that not just design services were subject to it. And since its original enactment, there has been plenty of competitive bidding at the behest of local governments across Louisiana, including after the amending bill came into effect.

For example, in 2011 Central bid out and changed contractors who performed not just engineering services but almost every city service through a competitive process. Alexandria routinely launches competitive processes for engineering work. Each and many others do so without violating the statute because they issue RFQs, which gather information about the qualifications, capabilities, and experience of interested parties before inviting them to submit detailed proposals. Then they select what they consider the best and negotiate a contract with price. “Competitive bidding” does not have to be on price basis, but upon judgment of the suitability of a contractor to fulfill adequately or better the needs of the city

Ray did admit that the city could “research” the issue and said his advice solely applied to requests for proposals, but at no point did he surrender that a competitive RFQ was an option, sticking with the misleading line that competition was not permitted. Regardless, nothing in state law prevents Bossier City from competitive bidding through an RFQ for this contract nor mandating that it must award through a no-bid, single source process. At worst, any suggestion otherwise attempts to provide political cover to handing over a sweetheart deal to a politically-preferred vendor.

If that pricing prohibition even applies in this case. Ray alleged that statute covered public-private partnerships, even though there is no other statute nor attorney general opinion that connects that issue to R.S. 38:2318.1, which itself mentions P3 arrangements only in the context of the state’s Department of Transportation and Development. As no party Councilor Jeff Darby – a longtime critic of Manchac’s preferred position – and Republican Chris Smith noted, services under the Manchac contract went well beyond engineering services and correctly questioned Ray’s view.

Along with Republican Councilor Brian Hammons, when the matter came to a vote they opposed moving it to a final reading scheduled for this week. But the graybeards, who other than Darby had three times previously approved extensions – councilors Democrat Bubba Williams and Republicans David Montgomery and Jeff Free – held to form, joined by Maggio to pass it.

Prudence dictates that the Council decline any contract renewal now, have the city give notice that it won’t renew it, and then send out an RFQ to have a contractor in place by Jun. 1. (Besides, of course, the many legal doubts swirling over the process and contract’s validity that argue for a reconceptualization – a course which the same councilors in the majority plus Darby were all too eager to pursue when it came to them abrogating their duty under the Charter to schedule a citizen referendum on term limits.) It well could be Manchac, who in a response can point out it has a track record of performance (whether it’s all that great is another matter, as Hammons often has questioned Manchac’s penchant for frequent underestimation and considerably of project costs) with the very tasks demanded. Solicitation through an RFQ may do nothing to stop insider politics from prevailing, but at least it creates a stream of public records that citizens can scrutinize to see whether councilors really did make the best choice for further negotiation.

Maggio is the key here, being the only member of the majority not to have dealt with the issue before and not wedded to Manchac, for whatever reason, as are Free, Montgomery, and Williams. There’s no rational reason for him, or any other councilor, to capitulate to an arrangement that disserves the citizenry by failing to assure it has the best arrangement possible in appropriate services rendered at an appropriate price. And citizens can’t rely on Republican Mayor Tommy Chandler to back them up, because even though he could veto a measure passed 4-3 and unlikely have that overridden, despite almost three years ago complaining about how the previous Council renewed the deal on the cusp of his assuming office, as most recently he has made approving noises about the uncompetitive process.

So, it’s on Maggio. He either can gain citizens’ confidence that indeed he wishes to spend wisely their money by abandoning the graybeards, or he can work against citizen interests by joining the good-old-boys network that puts special interests ahead of the public interest. Either way, it’s a vote that will be remembered next year at this time, in the middle of city election campaigning.