Multiple Cookeville City Council members concerned about the details of the plan to bid out the city’s lawn care work.
The plan to be considered at Thursday’s meeting splits twenty-eight locations between four companies chosen based on the lowest bidder available for each site. Council Member Eric Walker said he wants to add a performance measurement to monitor and hold contractors accountable.
“If it’s at your own home and your mower doesn’t show up twice in a row he might call you and say, ‘Hey, it rained. I got behind. I’m sorry, it won’t happen again,'” Walker said. “If it happens again, you can choose another mower that next day. You can call somebody else and get your lawn mowed. We can’t do that.”
Council Member Chad Gilbert said contractors who do poor work should be terminated as there was a contractor who had issues mowing last year who was never removed. Gilbert and Walker both said they were concerned that the contractor who had problems last year is in the plans to take care of Dogwood Park this year.
“The problem is we can’t find the people to work to come do this,” City Manager James Mills said. “So that’s where we’re hurting. We don’t have, (Leisure Services Director Rick Woods) advertises every year, we can’t fill the position. So really we, again I don’t think this saves us money, it’s probably close, but if we can’t get the people what choice do we have?”
Mills said the council should approve the bid plan with the option to use the next lowest bidder so the city is not restricted if a contractor backs out or is under performing. Multiple council members said it could take a month to find a replacement if the city has to rebid for it, plus contractors may have already filled their schedules if the city needs a new mower in the middle of the summer.
Leisure Services Director Rick Woods said the current plan would cost some $115,000, which is about $29,000 cheaper than using the lowest individual contractor. Woods said this year’s proposal also adds the Library, Animal Shelter, and Leslie Town Centre.
“That’s in the bid specification that we can call them back and say, ‘You have to come back right now and fix this,'” Woods said.
Public Works Director Mary Beth Elrod said there were issues with the system last year after a contractor skipped a week and the city had to use street sweepers to remove grass clumps from the road. Elrod said there was also $1,500 worth of damages to tree bags that were sliced with weed eaters.
“As long as we talk to the contractor up front about it and be forward about it I think we shouldn’t have a problem going forward,” Elrod said.
