Waive Competitive Bid and Award $1.4M 3-Year Landscaping Contract to Flores Builders - NO

It’s extremely rare for me to vote no on a staff recommendation, but this is one instance where I had to say no. Flores Builders has handled landscaping for the Town for years, and they’ve done a great job at what has seemed a reasonable price. However, I recently learned that our annual landscaping contract has never been competitively bid. That means we’ve never given other companies a chance to show us whether they could do the same work at a lower price.

Now, staff is proposing to skip the competitive bid process again and switch from an annual contract to a three-year contract—bringing the total commitment to nearly $1.4 million. Under no circumstances can I be comfortable awarding $1.4 million in taxpayer dollars without a rigorous and transparent bidding process.

I support investing in high-quality landscaping services for our community, but I also believe we owe it to the taxpayers to make sure we’re getting the best value for their money. That’s why I voted no on this proposal.