Mistix Wins New State Reservations Contract : La Jolla Firm Stays on Top in Rebidding for Campground, Tour Bookings

Mistix, the winner in late 1985 of a hotly contested contract to operate a reservations system for state campgrounds and Hearst Castle, has been awarded another five-year contract by the state Department of Parks and Recreation.

Mistix was the high bidder--as well as a start-up company with no track record--when it won the initial contract to operate the computerized system. During five years, the reservations system is expected to generate about $15 million in gross revenue for the operator.

However, the parks department cut the contract back to two years and rebid it after a state administrative law judge ruled that the department incorrectly awarded the contract to Mistix. The ruling was requested by Ticketron, which previously held the reservations contract and had underbid Mistix in 1985.

As part of that review, Administrative Law Judge Muriel Evans criticized the parks department for conducting a shoddy investigation of the firms that submitted bids. Evans ruled that the “people of California require an appropriate evaluation before the award of a five-year, $15-million contract . . . (and) the people did not get one.”

Information ‘Censored’

Evans reported that two members of the park department’s evaluation committee failed to share significant information with the full committee.

That “censored” information included observations made during a visit to Mistix headquarters, where the two committee members saw a small office, no mainframe computer and no software, Evans said.

Evans also said that John R. Vogelsang, head of the department’s accounting section, failed to tell committee members that Lee DeLay, a Mistix principal, had been president of another firm that had defaulted on the same parks department contract nine years earlier.

In the rebidding earlier this year, Mistix submitted the lowest of four bids received by the department, according to Darrell Duke, a parks department employee who chaired the committee that reviewed the bids. This year, Mistix underbid Ticketron, Ticketmaster and TTMC, Duke said.

Much of the controversy that enveloped Mistix in 1985 surrounded the fact that the La Jolla-based firm had no clients and could point to no similar projects. Mistix, which has continued to operate the reservations system during the rebidding, since has been acquired by Providence, R.I.-based Gtech Corp., which has supplied the 6,400 on-line computer terminals that are used by the California State Lottery.

“This time around, Mistix rated the highest,” Duke said. “It was a totally new ballgame and anybody could have come out on top.”

“The difference in (Mistix) is dramatic,” said Gtech Vice President Donald C. McCauley, who acknowledged that “two years ago, Mistix might have been a start-up company without enough (of a track record) to satisfy the state. It’s now a viable, operating company and has been for two years.”

McCauley said Mistix now “complies in every way with the bid requirement.”

Campsite, Tour Requests

The computerized reservation system will handle an estimated 270,000 telephone requests during 1987 for family campsite reservations at state parks, and 795,000 reservations for tours of Hearst Castle. The state parks reservation office is expected to funnel an additional 2,200 camp reservations and 310,000 Hearst Castle reservations into the Mistix system, Duke said.

Mistix passes along the parks usage fee to the state, but keeps a transaction fee, Duke said. In its most recent bid, Mistix proposed the lowest transaction fee in nine of 10 categories, including the family campground and Hearst Castle tours. The other fees are connected to group camp sites, cancellation fees and other charges.

Concern about the computerized reservation system grew so intense in recent months that the state Legislature ordered the parks department to have the rebidding completed by December of this year.