Philadelphia Wants To Be Freed From Awarding Contracts To Lowest Bidder
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- With Philadelphia getting ready to spend half a billion dollars -- possibly the largest public works project in its history -- a city council committee on Tuesday passed a group of bills to change the way the city awards contracts. The changes would be put to voters first.
The city awards contracts to the lowest responsible bidder. It's been that way since the charter was adopted in 1951. But chief administrator officer Rebecca Rhynhart says that hasn't always led to the lowest cost for the city. Overruns, change orders and poor compliance with diversity goals have been among the problems that, she says, would be addressed by changing to an award system based on "best value."
"Best value procurement is a best practice that is used throughout the country. Best value allows departments in the city that manage complex contracts to select a vendor on criteria other than price alone, leading to more effective delivery of the projects," Rhynhart said. "Best value allows the city to get the most of every dollar we spend," she said. "This means the city can evaluate responses from vendors on criteria other than price such as on budget, on time performance and economic opportunity plans."
If the full council passes the measure, it will go on the spring primary ballot, because it requires a charter change.
