COUNTYWIDE : Jury Would Change Contracting Process

Orange County’s selection process for county contractors is “cumbersome and costly” and should be streamlined, the Orange County Grand Jury said in a report released Tuesday.

In particular, the grand jury criticized a county practice involving the role of the Board of Supervisors in awarding contracts. Board members typically review a list of contractors vying for a job and choose one before negotiating a price.

That selection process “seems inappropriate or inadvisable,” the grand jury said.

Grand jury foreman Grant Baldwin reiterated that concern in an interview after the report’s release. “We think that the board ought to know, when they’re making the selection, how much the firm has bid,” Baldwin said.

But R.A. Scott, director of the General Services Agency, which supervises many county contracts, said he disagreed completely.

“I think it’s much better to select who you want to work with, and then negotiate a price,” he said. “You’re just in a much better position to work them down if you do that.”

In its recommendations, the grand jury suggested the General Services Agency be given the authority to present the supervisors with a single recommendation of a contractor for an architectural or engineering project. Under the current system, the board chooses from a slate of “qualified candidates.”

But rather than picking from three or four choices, the supervisors should have the benefit of the agency’s recommendation for the top job, the grand jury said.

Scott did not endorse that idea either. “I don’t know why we’d change this system,” he said. “It’s very effective.”