City looks to state for bid protest reviews
The city of Cape Coral will seek a state opinion after it received complaints on its bidding process for solid waste services.
Cape Coral City Council approved forwarding two letters of protest to the Department of Administrative Hearings regarding the city’s request for proposals for solid waste, recyclables, horticulture and bulk franchise collection services.
Proposals were received from Coastal Waste & Recycling of Florida, Inc, FCC Environmental Services Florida, LLC and Waste Pro of Florida, Inc.
FCC Environmental Services, Florida, LLC received the highest score.
A contract has not been awarded. It is pending the recommendation from DOAH and council’s final determination.
City Manager Michael Ilczyszyn did not take part in Wednesday’s discussion. He excused himself from that portion of the meeting before discussion began.
“I will let you all know the reason I am doing this. There was an accusation made by one of you all — perception of bid rigging. I later learned the person that it was targeted to was me. Even prior to learning that, I reported that directly and promptly to the city attorney, auditor, and police chief and contacted FDLE,” he said, adding that the council member was called to explain the situation, but declined to answer. “Another chartered officer contacted the chief of police and went to the state attorney’s office.”
Ilczyszyn said to protect the organization related to that accusation, he would no longer be a part of any of the discussions, so city staff is not feel pressured in any way regarding discussion.
To seek the state opinion, council needed to approve four resolutions, Resolution 284-26, 285-26, 246-26 and 254-26.
Resolution 284-26 – authorizing the continuation of the procurement process, and Resolution 246-26, sending the formal protest to the DOAH hearing were for Coastal Waste & Recycling, Inc.
Resolution 285-26 – authorizing the continuation of the procurement process, and Resolution 254-26, sending the formal protest to the DOAH hearing were for Waste Pro of Florida, Inc.
The first motion was to approve Resolution 284-26, with a no vote denying the formal protest by Coastal Waste & Recycling. The vote was a tie – meaning it failed – with council members Rachel Kaduk, Jennifer Nelson-Lastra, Keith Long and Dr. Derrick Donnell voting no.
Resolution 285-26, also failed with Kaduk, Nelson-Lastra, Long, Donnell and Councilmember Bill Steinke voting no.
Both Resolutions 246-26, and 254-26, to refer the formal protest to the DOAH passed with Councilmember Laurie Lehmann the only no vote for each.
Long encouraged the council to take the DOAH route. He said the city hired a third-party consultant, so council had no direct involvement with the process.
“When they go forward, there are winners and losers. The losers in this scenario, they protest,” Long said. “We have an opportunity to do what our ordinance affords us to do. Let’s forward this to the DOAH and allow them to make the decision.”
He said with the city manager not being able to hear the discussion speaks to the magnitude of the situation.
“These move forward to a third-party to review the facts,” Long said, adding that the agency is better suited to do it anyway. “It comes back to us diluted into a recommended order. It is rooted in logic and legal reasoning.”
Councilmember Joe Kilraine said the city was fair in going through the process and executed according to their standards.
“My discussions have been we have pretty much followed the proper process,” he said. “I am not sure why the hearings will have any benefit other than prolonging the process. It will come back to us again anyway. It chews up time.”
The city has a contract with Waste Pro through Sept. 30, 2027.
Council members expressed the process , saying is was messy and caused frustration.
“Where I am struggling is it is so messy. We heard from the city manager who had to leave the room, bid rigging, and two letters of protest. It is just messy and I am uncomfortable. We hired the best consultant there is to guide us in this process and it is still messy,” Nelson-Lastra said.
Donnell said for the first time he is frustrated.
“We are under a time squeeze. We never should have been here,” he said as he does not believe they will have enough transition time at the end of Waste Pros current contract. “I am not comfortable with it. We are out of time. No way to sugar coat that. I am extremely frustrated and annoyed.”
Long said the fact that it is $400 million decision is why it is messy.
“DOAH is insurance. She confirms best in the business. We have nothing to lose,” he said.
Assistant City Manager Mark Mason said council had the option to either sit as the hearing officers Wednesday night, or make the determination to send it off to DOAH, which could be a four-to-six-month process. He said if the protests are sustained, the remedy is that the city reimburses the bidder for reasonable cost associated with the bid.
Kaduk questioned the evaluation process, as the top-ranked firm was never presented to council.
Procurement Manager Wanda Roop said general practices were followed.
“The practice was followed; the process was followed. We normally do not bring the items before council for the ranking or scoring until we bring the contract because at that time there is the ranking,” she said. “We made the determination based on the scores to bring everything to council at once.
Roop said once the scoring takes place, the city sends an intent letter and gives the opportunity for vendors to question, or protest before everything is packaged to go in front of council.
“Council awards and determines at that time,” she said.
Kaduk said the final bid had to be in by April 30 yet council was being presented with the information on Oct. 7.
“I don’t agree with that. I understand a few weeks of negotiating. It’s been five months,” she said.
Roop said the process takes time. She said they met with all three firms because they were all strong candidates and issued the intent around August.
“Public procurement takes time,” Roop said.
The firms had 10 days to bring a protest forward.
“We take every protest, intent or informal, very seriously. We get with legal. Anything we feel we should have done, or didn’t and wasn’t fair, we stop. All the discussion was let’s move forward, and we did,” Roop said. “We determined to bring it forward to council, and this is where we are.”
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