Steps to fix county contract rigging just scratch the surface

Miami-Dade goods and services contracting is broken, rigged and tortoise slow, a committee said as it agreed to tweak procedures.
Members pushed to speed it up. If the county commission does what they suggest we’ll see far faster contracting. That’s a good start.

The committee got down to gritty details: how many people should be on selection committees that decide who ranks highest in bids and then how to select those committee members so that the mayor and commissioners can act on those bids. Convoluted details were debated in detail.

But while looking at the microcosm of picking winners of bids funded by an $11 billion budget, the Infrastructure, Operations and Innovations Committee didn’t unveil the big picture.

It was like looking at how a bus system runs on time but not at who the system serves, what it costs or where it goes. The debate was just how to make sure it does whatever it does on time.

County buying requires a far broader revamp. “My concern is we’re doing it all in a kind of piecemeal way,” Commissioner Raquel Regalado said in setting the stage for the in-the-weeds debate of minutia. “We’re kind of like fixing this and fixing that and it all has moving parts.”

Those moving parts occupy three levels. The highest level is in the lap of the mayor and commissioners, a level the committee never even hinted at but the most vital.

At that level, the county decides whether to buy or contract at all and, if it’s needed, at what scale it will be: Do we need to buy pencils and, if we do, should we buy a carton, or build a pencil factory, or do something in between?

At that level the county should also examine whether to use our taxes for something else entirely: Should we buy pencils or add police officers? In other words, the mayor and commission should set priorities before buying. Some of that comes in budgeting, but tying the budget to spending is a hidden step.

The key change is needed at the second level, which is the philosophy under which buying is done.

Commissioner Kionne McGhee said “procurement deals with opportunity.” County Chief Operations Officer Jimmy Morales said the rules are created to spread the money into all areas of the community so that every group gets something.

But is that how county buying should work? Should it be by the textbook, which is to buy what goods or services are needed at the lowest cost for the best value to the taxpayer? Or should county buying be social engineering, an aim to remake society step by step with every purchase because laws we have passed don’t do that?

County practices today function less on the textbook goal of making buys like a business does – good product, best price, fast delivery, best for the company – and more on aims of politicians who please constituents and donors and don’t worry much about extra costs to taxpayers who can’t see the waste.

In the meeting, Commissioner Keon Hardemon said “rigging” of bidding has been going on and later said “I guarantee you that if there’s delay [in awarding a contract] someone got paid.” Commissioner Eileen Higgins added that the county’s professional procurement team has no control over most of the steps.

Some issues arise because larded into every contract is layer upon layer of rules by the commission or mayor that tilt what should be a level playing field for all bidders to one favoring chosen groups. The issue is not whether the choices are good or bad but whether they belong in bid rules at all, because every edge for a single group raises costs.

Briefly, bid rules are skewed to aid hometown firms, minority owners, minority teams that bidders must add, small businesses, companies owned by the handicapped, military veterans, women owners, businesses with union contracts, businesses paying county-mandated wages, firms that aid county environmental aims, and more.

That’s more hoops to jump through than a circus. Bidders who can’t jump high enough need not apply – nor should businesses that haven’t hired insider lobbyists to cut county red tape.

Those consultants are important. In a meeting this month discussing bids to build and run a hotel at Miami International Airport, Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins noted that “I’m sure all of our phones have rung off the hook regarding this particular situation.”
None of that shows a level playing field – just the opposite.

The procurement session really focused on how to pick a winner fast among bidders who are playing where rules are rigged. The committee was seeking the fairest and quickest way to name a winner among bidders when rules aren’t fair or relevant. It was a valiant effort.

They talked about letting Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s team name winners on more bids that would never need commission ratification.

That’s smart. A corporate board doesn’t vote on pencil buys. Federal and state legislative bodies never get involved. Under the mayor, buying wouldn’t be better or fairer, but it should be faster and leave the commission more time to delve into policy. The county’s department of purchasing professionals should do the job unimpeded.

Note that Mayor Levine Cava didn’t create the procurement morass nor did these commissioners – nor, in fact, did their predecessors. Each, over time, just lards on more rules that make buying more costly and slower.

“It’s embarrassing that it takes two and three years” to sign a big contract, said Commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera, who is new and, so far, not part of the problem.

But regardless of who has degraded procurement, the issue is how to improve it, starting at the decision to spend and then tearing down the tower of preferences that tilts the playing field to and fro.

It’s fine to accelerate buying, just like it’s great to make sure buses run on time. But, like buses, it’s even more vital that the county dig into who procurement actually serves, how much it costs, and the routes that lead there.

That overarching program is, as Commissioner Regalado noted, overdue for a thorough overhaul after the piecemeal fix of the timetable. Start now.