Fenty, D.C. Council bicker over $140M in contracts
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
May 4, 2009
The D.C. Council will move Tuesday to reject $140 million in construction-related contracts proposed by Mayor Adrian Fenty, charging the mayor is trying to dodge legislative oversight.
Among the contractors
Columbia Enterprises Inc.
Specialty Construction Management
Motir Services
Monument Construction
Goel Services Inc.
Rodgers Brothers Custodial Services Inc.
There are sparse details about the 14 one-year contracts, worth up to $10 million each, proposed by the Office of Contracting and Procurement.
Called Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity, they simply “establish a relationship” with the respective business. The city is then expected to issue multiple work orders with each company over the next year for as little as $500 and as much as $3 million, Council Chairman Vincent Gray said Monday.
By approving the deals, the legislative branch would relinquish its coveted authority to review every work order of more than $1 million, council members say. Fenty is “circumventing the rule,” Gray said, as the council would have no say unless a task order exceeded $3 million.
“We’re saying $3 million is just too much to say the council won’t have a role in this,” the chairman said.
Mafara Hobson, Fenty’s spokeswoman, responded that by disapproving the contracts, the council risks “needless delay” in delivering first-class facilities “as fast as we can.”
“This is an industry standard contracting procedure that allows us the flexibility we need to move quickly and so the District government can provide residents with the kind of high-quality services they deserve,” Hobson said in a statement. “At the same time, these projects are going to produce several hundred construction jobs for folks who desperately need them.”
The goods and services to be provided through all of the contracts, according to the contracting office: “All labor, supervision, tools, materials, equipment, transportation, and management necessary to provide contraction, repair, and renovation” to D.C. facilities. Gray, who joined Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh in filing the disapproval resolutions, described the work as “all construction services and renovations to District Facilities.”
The $10 million threshold, according contracting office, gives the District “the flexibility of issuing multiple task orders in a relatively short time if the need arises.”
The contract dispute is the latest tiff in the ongoing war between the legislative and executive branches over just about everything. Whether tussling over witness testimony, budget maneuvers, baseball tickets or board nominees, the two branches agree on very little these days.
