Critics of Norwalk Landscaping Contract Cite Its Council Roots

A proposed landscaping contract with a firm owned by a political supporter and personal friend of Councilman Mike Mendez is under fire.

The City Council voted 3 to 2 on May 1 to negotiate with Murray’s Landscape Inc. of Santa Fe Springs rather than seek bids. The council is scheduled to vote on the $409,000 contract when it meets Tuesday night.

Councilwoman Grace F. Napolitano, who opposed negotiating with just one company, said about 100 constituents have complained to her about the decision. Other council members also said they have received complaints.

Mendez and Councilmen Robert E. White and Robert J. Arthur voted to negotiate exclusively with Murray’s. Napolitano and Councilman Luigi A. Vernola were opposed.

“In order to get the best bang for the people’s money we need to go out to bid,” Napolitano said last week.

Napolitano and Vernola also questioned whether the city is spending too much on landscaping in general. The contract with Murray’s, combined with a significant increase in the budget for more landscaping by city workers, would drive up the city’s total landscaping bill to about $699,000, from $291,000 a year.

“I’m not opposed to increasing the landscaping services,” Vernola said. “But where is the money going to come from?”

City Manager Richard Powers has warned that the proposed additional spending could force cutbacks in other programs or draw from the city’s estimated $10.5-million general fund reserves. The extent of the impact will not be known until later this month, after the council begins budget deliberations for the new fiscal year.

But Mendez’s relationship with Murray’s owner, Tom Murray, has dominated the controversy.

The councilman said he met Murray more than five years ago as an employee of Santa Fe Springs, and they became friends. Murray’s holds the landscaping contract in Santa Fe Springs.

Murray also donated $1,000 in services to Mendez’s 1988 campaign for City Council, according to campaign disclosure statements. Mendez raised $18,099 for the election but spent just $6,507, according to the disclosures.

Mendez said he also hired Murray’s to do landscaping at his home and paid the firm $3,500.

The councilman said he favored exclusive negotiations because he believes Murray’s will do the best landscaping work.

“I wouldn’t sell the city,” Mendez said. “My whole thing was to upgrade the level of landscape in the city, and I don’t feel bad about that. He’s a first-class landscaper.”

State law does not require cities to seek bids on such service contracts. Nor does state law prohibit a councilman from voting on a contract involving a campaign contributor.

Mendez, now director of recreation services for Santa Fe Springs, said he bases his assessment on the work of other contractors in nearby cities.

“Being the director of recreation (for Santa Fe Springs), I visit all the other parks in the area and see their (landscaping) firsthand,” Mendez said. “We really want to go and do the best we can do.”

White and Arthur said they favored Murray’s because they believe the firm has done an outstanding job in Santa Fe Springs. “It was a decision based on the service that could be provided to our community,” Arthur said.

White received a $200 campaign contribution from Murray in 1988, and Arthur said he considers himself a friend of Murray. But White, who became a councilman in 1968, added: “I never yet in 22 years have sold my soul.”

The city contracts with Landscape West Inc. of Los Angeles to maintain landscaping on the city’s road medians and in municipal parks, and with Terrain Inc. of Glendale for mowing. The city pays those firms about $213,000 a year. In addition, city workers perform some maintenance at an annual cost of $78,000, according to a report by Daniel E. Keen, director of urban planning.

The council tentatively approved an increase in the overall landscaping budget to about $699,000 a year--about $409,000 for Murray’s and $290,000 for landscaping by city workers. If the council gives final approval Tuesday, the contacts with Landscape West and Terrain would be terminated.

After learning that Landscape West’s contract is in jeopardy, owner Barry L. Konier told the council that his firm would perform the services proposed by Murray’s for $80,000 to $100,000 a year below the proposed contract price. The council did not respond.

Mendez and other council members have long argued that Norwalk needs to improve its sometimes-barren median strips and other municipal landscaping to help the city’s image. The new contract would include more extensive seeding and fertilizing, among other things. Grass clippings would be picked up at parks and facilities, rather than just at City Hall.

But Napolitano and Vernola, in addition to questioning the increased costs, said they are concerned that the proposed landscaping improvements could require more water at a time when cities are being asked to reduce use because of drought.

White said that, in retrospect, he wishes he had had more information on the financial impact of the proposed contract, among other things, before he voted May 1. But he said he still believes Murray’s is the best choice for Norwalk.

“I may not have been up to par with my actions that night, but I’m not about to change,” White said. “I’m going with my horses the way they’re leaving the starting line.”

Norwalk has a mixed history of bidding its landscaping contracts.

Murray’s won its first landscape contract with Norwalk in 1984 over two other bidders, then received extensions through 1987, when the council decided to seek competitive bids. Napolitano, a new council member at the time, pushed for the bids.

Landscape West won the contract after submitting a lower bid than Murray’s. The two firms were the only bidders.

Terrain won the mowing contract in 1986 when it submitted the lowest bid. The company received a five-year contract, but the agreement can be terminated after 30 days’ notice.