Nearby $1 billion worth of city services on the line D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray has agreed to call an emergency meeting for a vote on dozens of critical but possibly illegal contracts worth nearly $1 billion — 24 hours before a stop payment order takes effect.
Gray, in a letter to Attorney General Peter Nickles, said he is willing to have the council on Jan. 19 consider the 90 option-year contracts, none of which were reviewed by the council as the law requires. Nickles agreed last week to deliver the package for a vote on the condition that he “receive written assurance that the Council will ratify the contracts en masse.”
“The Executive Branch has taken steps to avoid an operational disaster,” Nickles wrote to Gray. “I trust the Council will join in that effort.”
Nickles contends that the council’s order to stop payment would have “potentially devastating effects on the workings of this government.” Among the contracts are the summer food service program, traffic signal construction, pavement restoration, hauling and disposal of solid waste, homeless case management, temporary staffing services, and information technology services.
The contracts are worth roughly $875 million, but that number could rise another $80 million if additional deals are added to the list.
“I appreciate the fact that you appear to have convinced the Mayor to follow the law of the District of Columbia regarding approximately $875 million in option contracts, which were not lawfully submitted to the Council,” Gray wrote to Nickles.
“I appreciate the fact that you appear to have convinced the Mayor to follow the law of the District of Columbia regarding approximately $875 million in option contracts, which were not lawfully submitted to the Council,” Gray wrote to Nickles.
“Mr. Nickles, the sky is not falling,” Gray continued. “Indeed the Council’s action would appear drastic, if someone was not aware of the fact that Mayor Fenty has ignored all requests to resolve this another way and that his continued flouting of option contracting laws left the Council with no other reasonable option.”
This bickering started more than 13 months ago over a series of employee benefits contracts, which were briefly the subject of “disapproval resolutions” that threatened to kill the agreements. The disapprovals were lifted and the contracts allowed to take effect.
On Jan. 7, 2009, Nickles e-mailed all agency contracting officers and ordered each to stop sending option-year contracts to the council for review. He reasoned then, and continues to do so, that the council had already approved the base year of each deal.
Among the specific contracts threatened
» Nutrition Inc. for meals for the elderly: $6.69 million
» Jimmie Muscatello’s for police uniforms and equipment: $2.01 million
» R&R Janitorial for facility operations at John A. Wilson Building: $1.16 million
