After not receiving a form required by the city with the Hines/Rays proposal, the City of St. Petersburg could have easily waived the requirement. Yet the city didn’t do so, a public records request to the City shows.
Under section 20 of of its request for proposal (RFP) inviting proposals, the City could have done the proposal form requirement in one of two ways:
20.1. Modify, waive, or otherwise vary the terms and conditions of this RFP at any time,…
20.3. Waive irregularities in the proposals;
The City did neither.
We asked Mayor Ken Welch’s communications director Samantha Bequer these two question via email:
1/ Why did the City not adhere to its own procedures, as stated in the RFP?
2/ The entire RFP process now appears to have been undertaken with the foregone conclusion that Hines/Rays would be the winning bidder. How will this affect the City’s ability to attract competitive bids for other projects?
We did not receive a response. Ironically, Bequer’s X profile says “Yes, I did receive your email. Yes, I am working on a response.”
Elected officials who the Tampa Bay Guardian (TBG) spoke to said it came as no surprise that Mayor Ken Welch greased the skids for the Rays. That the Rays would be picked to carry out the stadium area redevelopment came as no surprise.
However, Welch’s efforts now look like they will have been in vain as Rays owner Stu Sternberg is expected to terminate the deal in March, while still trying to keep over a billion dollars of taxpayer money. A “surprise” announcement that a stadium instead would be built in Ybor City is expected to follow shortly after termination of the deal in St. Pete.
TBG has reported on the many twists and turns in the stadium saga since Mayor Welch tore up the deal that former mayor Kriseman had negotiated. The result of that decision now looks like the city will get nothing. In fact, less than nothing, and an expensive lawsuit to attempt to recover the public assets the city gave away to the Rays through a poorly worded contract. Vocal critics both on and off the city council have been warning about such a possible outcome from the very beginning.
TBG asked a year ago if the city’s handling of the Hines/Rays’ bid was procurement incompetence. The city’s failure to waive its own requirements, when it could have been done with the stroke of a pen, adds to that image.
Or is it instead a case of a procurement department under the thumb of an imperious mayor?
As always….the Guardian reports and the readers decide. Please like our Facebook page to find out when we publish new stories.
