The City of Dunwoody, soon after creation started offering services by setting three, three year contracts into place with private vendors to provide Public Works, Community Development and Financial & Administrative Services. This week the City released an RFP to rebid pretty much the same City Services but we have done so into several smaller pieces, so that smaller companies and subcontractors that are currently utilized might be able to compete for the bids. On the filpside, we are also allowing a large single company to also propose a single contract to provide all City services.
The City is searching for the Contractor(s) that will be able to provide municipal services in the following service areas: Public Works, Finance and Administrative Services, Planning and Zoning, Information Technology, Building Permits and Inspections, Parks and Recreation and Public Relations and Marketing. Bidders may respond to more than one service area.
The RFP is located here and I hope as many companies as possible apply as ultimately competition among applicants will improve city services and drive the overall price down.
The City of Sandy Springs who it looks like was locked in to a 5 year contract, is now following Dunwoody's lead by looking for smaller, more specialized contractors to replace the one single general contractor who currently sub-contacts much of the work. This video which highlights Sandy Springs has a lot of similarities to the City of Dunwoody.
Whatever happens, I get sentimental and become concerned in thinking if we change contractors, we can lose their "tribal knowledge", insight and working relationships of those individuals presently serving on the staff. I'd hope that those individuals could be retained, and just get their paycheck from the new vendor, keeping any transitions seamless. I'd hate to wake up one day to see the majority of the staff replaced overnight and not having personal history and hands-on experience of all of the public meetings, workshops, and events over the past 2+ years in Dunwoody. I very much applaud the professionalism and work done so far by all of our contractors. Our police are employees and so is Warren. Maybe we should also employ (at least) the Directors / Department heads for continuity's sake?
ReplyDeleteJoe, my personal experience with select members of our contractors has been that they need to be replaced. The police employees are excellent. Community Development are not. The others are just so-so. Personally, I applaud the rebid and hope we see a change of staff to a better set of trained professionals. At present, we're not getting the best talent that we should.
ReplyDeleteLosing institutional knowledge is not a good thing
ReplyDeleteI personally think Community development has done a good job so I respectfully disagree with ANON 1130.
I think it is less about being sentimental, but more about keeping some continuity and building on the knowlege of the past.
For what it's worth, my opinion is from my personal experience of applying for and following up on permits and permissions as it relates to my business and property in the Village district. And I know I'm not alone. I'm aware of a few other users of CD who have been vocal about their unhappiness with this city interface. Retaining institutional knowledge doesn't make up for less-than-satisfactory customer service that I and others have personally experienced with CD in our businesses.
ReplyDeleteI think it is rather arrogant to speculate that Sandy Springs is "following our lead" on this issue, but that is life in Dunwoody.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I feel the services we currently have employ people who really do not have the experience to operate the city properly. Dunwoody officials do not propely enforce zoning issues and building codes in an effective manner.
Dunwoody could not even create a city logo without encompassing a legal liability for themselves.
If someone wanted to learn the ins and outs of how the City of Dunwoody operated, they should study the addendum to the RFP for Municipal Government Services Procurement which was just released. It answers in detail the 221 questions asked by potential bidders and provides policy documents to back up most of the answers.
ReplyDeleteGreat document to show how the City of Dunwoody oversees contracted municipal services.
Municipal Government Services Procurement Addendum 1