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Home My WebLink AboutS13-City Attorney .. . . - ME~ORANDl}~"'l1r I. e;ITY OF SAN BEef'JARDINOo- To Ralph Prince. City Attorney... CUlltodia1 Services for various public bui1dingll throughout City - Possibility of contracting'out From Subject Date Shauna Clark City Clerk . September 24. 1986 Approved M;enda Item 24(4) Meeting Date September 22. 1986 COUNCIL ACTION CORRESPONDENCE The Mayor and.COIDIIlOn Counc;il.approved in principle contracting out for cUlltodia1.services on the fo110wing.schedu1es (as listed on Report of Bids. Plan No~1021 dated 8-26-86):. . 1:'i IV Animal Shelter and Central Fire Station V Central Stores Warehouse & Central Garage VI Seven CODDDUnity Centers VII Recreation Centers & SBETA Office VIII . Police Station IX Police CODDDUnity Centers X Norman F. Fe1dhey'm Central Library 'XI Three Branch Libraries The issue of contracting out to the private sector the custodial main- tenance.at Central City Mall was continued to October 6. 1986. The custodial services bids on Schedule II {Parking Structures & Central citY Mall Parking) were.' rejected becausli City forces ean provide those services at a iower cost. and the bids on'''III (City Hall). were rejected based upon the recommendation of the City Administrator. The City Attorney was instructed to prepare the custodial maintenance agreements approved this date. . All' agreements are to include a 30 day "termination for convenience clause". provide a.provision that can ,include additional services. and include a stronger provision with respect to hiring displaced permanent and part time employees. SHAUNA CLARK City Clerk SC:pa ec: Wayne Overstreet. Superintendent Public Buildings City Administrator Personnel , el.,., ON "H.::fM~ S~t3 tu-w - - 86-RDC-452 o " o o . CENTRAL CITY COMPANY (, 295 CENTRAL CITY MALL . SAN BERNARDINO, CA 92401 . TELEPHONE (714) 884-0106 October 3. 1986 C&nfc r&ee.. The Honorable Mayor Evlyn Wil cox and Members of the Common Council 300 North "0" Street San Bernardino. CA 92418 RE: Proposed Contract for Custodial Services at Central City Mall Gentl ernen: liE) I i , Central City Company only recently learned of the details of the City's proposal , to contract maintenance services at Central City Mall. We were very disappointed that we were not afforded the opportunity to participate in this process as your partners through the provisions of the Reciprocal Easement Agreement. I also believe that it was unfortunate that the development of the specifications for ~ the contract proposal did not take advantage of our years of , expertise in the shopping center industry and our affiliation with five major shopping centers in the Southern California area. It may be interesting for you to note that . none of the major shopping centers which we are affiliated with contract for custodial services. They each find that'it is more efficient and cost-effective to proyide in-house service. . As a'matter of information to you. after many years of experience with the City custodial work fQrces at Central City Mall...I would like to campl iment the City on the excellent service that they provide with severe budget limitations. I think that this reflects well upon your leadership and in the development of qualified City personnel and their utilization in an efficient and cost-effective manner. It also reflects well on City employees as a whole. Let me add that. while in general I support the concept of looking at the feasibility of contract services where it makes sense. I am also a firm believer that one should not contract work out simply for the sake of contracting. During our years of operation we have had both good and bad experiences with private . contractors. This extends to contract, services that have been done by the City and by contract services that we ourselves have entered into. Our experience has made us very appreciative of the potential benefits of contract services. but also ve~ aware of the problems that could result if the services are not performed satjsfaftorjly. Hence our caution in the area of contract services. I believe that the City should be as cautious in this area as we are. for you are truly our partners and share in the benefits of this project in the form of sales tax revenue. utility tax revenue. area tax and business 1 icense 'tax revenue. Therefore. you also are at risk if improper maintenance would affect these income sources~ . DEVELOPERS, OWNERS AND OPERATORS OF CENTRAL CITY MAL('5 ,I.:;)' - - , . '~:o o o o (.'" ,. , t.; ,,,,; The Honorable Mayor Evlyn Wilcox and Members of the Common Council ' October 3. 1986 Page 2 Of all of the public facilities that were proposed to be let for contract. Central City Mall is the only one that is a revenue-producing facility to the City. That means that there may be considerable risk in using a revenue~produ~ing facility as a guinea pig when the City has had no'recent experience with contractors in this area. I believe that such a risk is imprudent and unwarranted fo~ the possible return to the City., In addition. I also believe that a careful analysis of the proposals will 'show that the contract services may. in fact, cost more than the continuation of existing City services. ' i . . ... You will note that the specifications only call for specific tasks to be performed in accordance with specific schedules. There is no required manpower commitment to perform these 'tasks. There also appears to be no monitoring mechanism on the part of the City to assure, that these tasks are performed. It seems to follow that when you have tasks that are to be performed at least on a daily basis and in some cases on an hourly ,basis, ,someone must monitor these functions to'be certain that contract provisions are met. Particularly in the absence of any required manpower commitment on the part of the contractor. ~"",'. ~ _ 'f. Please note one interesting affect of no manhour requirement in the contract. Most of the City forces are part-time and are not eligible for sick leave or other paid time off . This has a natural result of a substantial salary savings during the course of the year to the City due to absences of employees from the "job. This same situation will undoubtedly'occur with a contractor, but with no 'required manpower commitment and substantiations of billings with timecards or other appropriate documentation. these salary savings will accrue to the contractor and not be passed thro~gh to the City.' Consideration of this factor alone will probably 'make the contract services more expensive than the existing City services~ If you add to this' the cost of a minimum level of monitoring on the City's part, the contract ,cost will most.likely exceed the City's cost. .. . . . . '.' . Then you should also add some~dditional costs that the Ci~ is now performing but that are not shown in the specifications for the contractor.'such as the raising and lowering of the parking lot chains at the MalJ. These costs would amount to an additional $3.000 or thereabouts per year.' , There would also be an additional cost factor to Central City Company. Our years of experience with ,the City forces have familiarized us with a consistent level of performance. With contract services we ourselves would have' to intensify , our monitoring of the services to make sure they meet the provisions of our agreements with the City. This monitoring cost on our part would be significant, at least in the first year of service. This is a cost that we would prefer to avoid. . €t , .... , I, do not believe that our monitoring would substitute for the City's' monitoring of the contract. As we are not involved in the contract, all complaints, correspondence and consultation with the City over failure to meet standards'would have to be done with City officials at a potentially significant cost to the City for time spent on these ~tters. . ,..,. J- - . ..II.. - - .,>"0 . o o o c' The Honorable Mayor Evlyn Wilcox and Members of the CommonlQouncil October 3. 1986 Page 3 We. therefore. respectfully request that the City proceed in a conservative and cautious manner to protect its own interests and the interests of the businesses that they have agreements with. We feel that after a history of perfonnance ., is developed regarding custodial contract services and after we have had an opportunity to participate in the development of specifications and the contracting process that we may come to'a conclusion that contract services would be in the best interests of all. As of right now we believe that both the City and ourselves would be taking an unwarranted risk to go to contract services without such a history of performance and ,without the ability to provide sufficient back-up performance in the event the contractor does not perform properly. .. .~ ~ . 'Please be assured that we will keep an open mind on this subject and will be willing to work with you in any way that we can to achieve the, best possible services at the lowest possible cost. But we also ask you to appreciate that those two things, do not necessarily go together.' ' , Thank you very much for the opportunity to give you our input on this important matter. ~ !t.O "\ Rober . Curci Managing Partner' RDC:rlt " O. k" , , o