‘I’m. . .a Little Abrasive’ : Contractor Says Style Cost Him City Contract

Ken Handman, whose company has managed parking structures in Redondo Beach’s King Harbor for 22 years, describes himself as a local guy who has fully adopted the casual-but-upscale style of the beach cities.

He rarely appears in a business suit, preferring slacks, a white shirt without a tie--and a sports coat, if it’s chilly, he says.

Had Disputes

And, he acknowledges wryly, he hasn’t been too respectful when he’s gotten into disputes with City Hall bureaucrats.

“I’m a direct, outspoken person, maybe a little abrasive,” said the 49-year-old Handman. “I’m not a good political game player.”

Now Handman thinks that lack of spit-and-polish and his habit of being blunt with city officials may have cost him dearly. Instead of renewing his contract again this year, they want to bring in an outsider who promises more polish and a crisper performance to the operation of the city’s harbor-side parking structures.

Handman, who claims the selection process is unfair to him, has responded with threats of legal action against the city. His employees, fearing they may lose their jobs, mounted a petition drive and collected about 500 signatures from harbor workers and business people. The petition asks the council to renew Handman’s contract.

Handman insists his company, Hill Parking Systems, has been doing a good job and the city agrees that he is well-qualified to continue tending its parking lots.

“After 22 years,” Handman lamented repeatedly in an interview, the city wants to make a deal with an outsider who came in with a higher bid.

Executive Parking Inc., bid $47,400 a year to manage the Redondo Pier and Plaza parking structures, while Handman’s bid was $38,400--a total of $27,000 less over the life of the three-year contract. The city reimburses the operator for most expenses, including salaries, health insurance, uniforms and office supplies.

At Handman’s request, the City Council Tuesday postponed for two weeks its decision on selecting an operator. Handman said he will use the time to mount a defense against a city selection committee’s critical assessment of his business image and style. He did not receive a copy of the committee’s report until Monday, he told the council.

‘Satisfactory’ Rating

Meanwhile, Handman’s 28 employees at the two parking structures are being interviewed by representatives of Executive Parking. A city report says the West Los Angeles-based company wants “to hire as many of these employees as they find qualified and able to make the transition to a new employer’s system.”

In assessing Handman’s case, City Manager Tim Casey said after Tuesday’s council meeting that Hill Parking deserves a “satisfactory” rating for its past performance and he noted that Hill was among six of 10 bidders deemed qualified. More than a million vehicles park in the Pier and Plaza structures annually and the operation brings in revenues of about $1.2 million a year.

But, Casey added, Handman did not give a “strong presentation” when interviewed by a four-member selection committee last month. The committee was authorized by the council to review applicants and make a recommendation, he said.

The best presentation, according to a report prepared for the council by one of the committee members, Harbor Director Sheila Schoettger, was given by representatives of Executive Parking, who “arrived (for their interview) dressed in business suits.”

They were “well prepared for the interview and performed admirably. . . . Their proposal was complete, comprehensive and professional,” she reported.

Did His Paper Work

By contrast, Schoettger wrote, Handman placed such reliance on his “long association with the city” that in the early stages of the process he didn’t seem to feel he had to draft a proposal.

Handman said he just asked if it were necessary, and then promptly did his paper work when told he had to do it like everybody else. He conceded that his final proposal “maybe wasn’t as pretty” as Executive Parking’s.

On the question of proper dress at the interview, Handman said he was wearing his usual slacks and shirt and maybe a sweater or sports coat.

The selection committee also wanted to hear from Handman’s parking lot manager, Charlene Masterson. And she, Schoettger noted in her report to the city’s governing body, “was attired in blue jeans and a T-shirt.”

“It seems that style impressed the committee more than my 22 years of hands-on experience,” said Handman, who lives in Hermosa Beach. “There hasn’t been one word of direct criticism, so they trump up these issues of style and image.”

A Larger Company

Schoettger could not be reached Thursday or Friday for comment.

But in her report, she said the committee weighed a number of more tangible issues. Her report noted that Executive Parking is a much larger company, with 225 employees and 79 locations in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Hill Parking, by contrast, has 32 employees, including the 28 in Redondo Beach, and four locations, according to its proposal. Handman said that he has sold a number of locations in downtown Los Angeles and elsewhere in recent years in order to focus his business in the beach cities. He owns another company, Speciality Maintenance, that provides clean-up services at the Redondo Pier and other locations along the coast.

In the report, Schoettger said the committee also was impressed by Executive Parking’s “full service” capabilities, its close supervision of operations and its experience with new computerized systems that keep track of everything that goes on in a parking structure.

By contrast, Handman does not “appear to be employing state-of-the-art revenue control and reporting systems,” Schoettger wrote. Executive Parking would cost the city $9,000 a year more in management fees, the report said, but “the benefits to be gained by having a sophisticated, modern operator certainly justify” the added expense.

Handman said he doesn’t understand that. He says he is as sophisticated and modern as anybody. The city, not him, supplies and owns the equipment, he said, and he has been urging officials for years to buy a computerized system.

He has even offered to buy new equipment himself and lease it back to the city, he said, but that and other proposals to upgrade operations have been rejected.

“I guess I’ve rubbed some people the wrong way,” Handman said. “But I don’t think it’s fair to terminate me after all these years just because they like somebody else’s image better.”

Casey, who was out of town Friday, could not be reached for comment.

In an interview after the council voted to delay its decision, Casey said his staff was only following good business practices.

“The city is well served when we periodically reassess these contracts,” Casey said. “Overall, we feel that Executive Parking is the best.”