San Diego

In an unorthodox move Tuesday, the San Diego City Council gave up debating which of four bidders for a $500,000 disability contract should be approved and simply asked those bidders to start over. They are to submit new bids to the city manager’s office and face council review again. “Wild, wild,” one lobbyist said about the meeting, which included four deadlocked votes. The issue has been unusually controversial because last month a council committee passed over the firm that an independent panel had ranked first, recommending instead the fourth-ranked Center for Industrial Medicine. The center has used top lobbyists Louis Wolfsheimer and James Milch to claim that it will charge less than the other firms for treating work-related injuries for the city’s 6,500 employees. The city’s current provider is the Industrial Medical Group, which was ranked first in quality of care and cost control. Ranked second was the Rees-Stealy Medical Group. Third was the Industrial Medical Corp. Spokesmen for the firms said they weren’t pleased about submitting proposals again but would do so.