Again, we're talking a collective 79 percent on Veolia's two management contracts, without any competition for the work! And while it's conceivable that harried midlevel staffers might sign off on deals like this, I can't imagine how an elected body of supposedly intelligent people could approve them both, unanimously, particularly in an election year.
Legally, they covered their tails, of course. When the city negotiated that shuttle-service contract, they gave the contractor the right to come back in a few years and renegotiate. Brilliant — and the next thing we know, Veolia managed to double its fees. (The city's assistant aviation director, Carl Newman, tells me that since the service was new a year ago, they hadn't known what to expect. "This has been fully audited, and we're confident we're doing the right thing," he says.)
Mark Andresen
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The bus-service contract was trickier. Federal regulations generally require cities to get proposals from multiple companies, not just re-sign with the same company as usual — even if that company is mighty friendly.
The feds allow an exception if only one vendor is qualified for the work. The city's deputy transit manager, Al Villaverde, admits that wasn't the case here.
"We acknowledge there are several other companies that could do this service," Villaverde tells me. In fact, two of them put in a proposal for the contract in 2002.
Instead, Villaverde says, the bus-service contract was a case of "special circumstances."
They were adding bus routes. And hosting meetings to unveil those routes. And planning a new $15 million transit center.
Basically, as Villaverde admits, "It was a very busy year, and we just weren't staffed up enough."
So.
The city transit staff was too busy to, well, do their jobs.
And the city politicians blindly followed the advice of the way-too-busy transit staffers.
No wonder the French were able to triumph!
It's pretty clear that was the city's intention all along.
Here's how I know that. If cities skip the whole multiple-proposal thing, the Federal Transit Authority strongly suggests they perform a detailed cost analysis to make sure they're not getting hosed.
Phoenix did, in fact, do one for this bus contract. But I'm not sure why they bothered.
First, the analysis compares Phoenix with only three other entities. One covers a big area in California. But the other two aren't even close to comparable size. Raleigh, North Carolina, is bad enough — but it's an enormous metropolis next to the third place on the list, Florida's Escambia County. That place barely tops Glendale in population.
Even worse, all three entities contract with the same company for bus service. And if you guessed that the vendor in question is Veolia, well, come right on down for your free Betamax.
So the city decided that Veolia's rates were reasonable compared with, well, Veolia's rates. I love it.
And I love this part even more: As it turns out, the auditors didn't finish their report until June 22.
That's two months after the thing sailed through two different committees, and more than a week after City Council formally approved the deal.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist. But the timing is clear: No one at City Hall really questioned whether they were getting the best deal. Instead, they decided to re-up with Veolia — and only after that did they bother to track down some data to support their decision.
That decision might not matter if we, the taxpayers, weren't footing the bill. Or if only tens of thousands of people didn't depend on Phoenix's bus service.
Dianne Barker is one of them.
A gadfly who's long focused on public transportation, Barker is also one of those rare Phoenix residents who really does depend on the buses. And, with two fellow local activists, she's filed a formal protest against both contracts with Veolia.
"We've got no bidding, no competition, and no oversight," she tells me. "Every time the contractor asks for a change order for more money, the city just pays it."
Barker concludes: "These contracts are ripping off the public."
I couldn't have said it better myself.
