BIDDING ADIEU TO COMPETITIONTHAT'S WHY PHOENIX'S NEW CITY HALL HAS SOME VERY EXPENSIVE ACCESSORIES

"You can get a Rubbermaid trash can for a lot less," she acknowledged. "Our concern was for one that would last, that wouldn't get beat up, would look like it belonged in the building."
There are also a passel of $1,000 and $1,500 conference tables in the new City Hall. I didn't bother to ask about them. I assume the same quality and durability arguments would apply.

Ordinarily, I would find those arguments worth considering. I am not the type of troglodyte who thinks public buildings should resemble Soviet-bloc housing. Within reason, a City Hall ought to be a monument, a way of telling future generations what was important to us.

But the actions of the city's pleasant, well-meaning officials have made it impossible to view purchasing for the new City Hall with anything but extreme suspicion.

Why should anyone accept $3,000 tables and $300 wastebaskets when public officials have evaded the open competition that would have guaranteed the tables were bought as cheaply as possible? Why should we accept a no-bid sign contract when a businessman who was not allowed to bid has sworn in court that he would have provided the signs for $20,000 less than the city paid?

There is no way to know whether Judge Cates will put an end to the city's surreal contention that it should be able to hand out huge public contracts without competitive bidding.

But his ruling really shouldn't matter. Whether those pleasant officials at City Hall acted within the law, in a technical sense, is irrelevant. They have acted in ways that violate the intent of major ethics laws. They have given reason for every citizen to suspect that something sleazy has been going on at City Hall.

Those pleasant public servants should, therefore, get exactly the reward they deserve for such activity: a pleasant, but very thorough, investigation by the appropriate law enforcement agency of the entire City Hall construction project.

@topq:"The problem is, even if everybody's honest, if you don't use competitive bidding, you open the door to corruption."

@topname:David Jones
@body: