City Services Contract Option Forfeited Prematurely

By Dave Freneaux

    Last week by a 3 to 2 vote the Central City Council passed a resolution urging Mayor Watts to give formal notice of non-renewal to CH2M Hill.  The contract under which Central's "City Services" are provided ends on June 30, 2011, and the City had the right to renew the contract.  The contract also gave the City of Central until March 2, 2011 to make that decision.  In deference to the City Council's request, Mayor Watts sent a certified letter to CH2M Hill forfeiting Central's right to renew the contract.  Mayor Watts explained that the action was taken "in a spirit of cooperation with the Council."  Council Members LoBue, Messina and Washington approved the resolution which was then acted on by the Mayor.  Council Members DeJohn and Moak voted against giving up the renewal option.

    The argument against the premature forfeiture of the option is that a number of circumstances ranging from storms to national or local economic events, or even a lack of qualified interested bidders could make a renewal option financially beneficial to Central.  Absent any such circumstance, the City had an additional four months to make this decision with no penalty.  With the sending of this letter, Central has lost that option.  The only argument made in favor of the forfeiture was a desire not to miss the 120 day notice requirement.  The amended contract states: "The initial term of this Agreement shall begin March 3, 2008 and end on June 30, 2011."  and "The Agreement shall have an automatic renewal … unless either Party furnishes the other Party written notice of its intent not to renew this Agreement not less than 120 calendar days prior to the renewal term of this Agreement."

    A committee of 21 respected and qualified citizens has been assembled in a committee co-chaired by the Mayor and former Baton Rouge DPW Director Fred Raiford to determine how to proceed in the matter of contracting out Central's City Services on July 1, 2011.  This committee, referred to by Council Member Washington as the "Dream Team", began meeting just a few weeks ago and has months of work yet to do.  In the meantime, the City of Central, without the input of this committee, has given away its right to renew the current City Services contract four months earlier than was required.