Different set of eyes vs. established working relationship and knowledge of City’s infrastructure the apparent crux of the disagreement
by Michael Robinson | Uvalde Hesperian
Top photo: Left to Right: Uvalde City Council Members Hector Luevano and Chip King and Uvalde City Manager Vince diPiazza.
How much additional city expenditure is worth choosing a familiar vendor?
The Uvalde City Council made the decision at the Tuesday, June 11th meeting to pass on a recommended proposal from AG3 Group for engineering services related to the development of a water system plan after an extended discussion about a previous working history with an alternate vendor. The proposal by AG3 Group was bid at $292,243
Uvalde City Council Representative Chip King asked, “Did we get three bids?”
According to City Manager Vince DiPiazza, the City did receive three proposals in response to an RFQ,
“CDS Muery tends to do a lot of our engineering work. They probably have the biggest database. Did you look at them closer?” King asked.
” I think We looked at them closely. We had a staff committee.” DiPiazza said.
“We went through the proposals and we rated them and at least in the scoring, AG3 came in first. I’ve not been shy in the last few years about spreading our work around a little.” DiPiazza said.
DiPiazza continued by saying that came in second in the bid scoring.
Mayor Pro-tem Everardo “Lalo” Zamora weighed into the discussion and said. “You take your vehicle to one mechanic, you trust them, He knows your car in and out. Why switch to a different mechanic if you are getting great service.”
City of Uvalde Director of Planning Susan Anderson said, “It’s just a study. We just felt good we had a second set of eyes looking on it.”
DiPiazza said, “CDS has a lot of knowledge of the system : they can do the job too.”
“We need to get with a company our employees are comfortable working with,” Mayor Pro-tem Everado “Lalo” Zamora said.
DiPiazza continued saying “We need to do the project. If y’all feel uncomfortable, then we’ll move to the next engineering and try to work out..,”diPiazza said.
“$20,000 here or there is real money right? But we’re not doing this on a low bid basis. I think it comes down to where you’ve had confidence in the firm we’ve worked with,” diPiazza said.
King said, “Does this guy know more about our infrastructure, than the next guy. This guy we’re talking about does not at all. The second guy know our infrastructure intimately,”
“We need to get with a company our employees are comfortable working with,” Mayor Pro-tem Everado “Lalo” Zamora said.
” It’s a different process than providing equipment. It’s negotiating for professional services. You’re not just going with the lowest bidder,” the City’s Attorney said,
The Council ultimately voted to reject the recommended bid by AG3 Group.
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