Ombudsman for City Contract Bids Proposed

Saying that the influence of lobbyists at Los Angeles City Hall must be checked, Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky on Tuesday proposed the hiring of an ombudsman to guide bidders through the city’s complex contracting procedures.

Yaroslavsky said he hopes such a bid adviser would allow outside contractors to do business with the city without the necessity of hiring lobbyists.

The proposal came in response to a Times story about a businesswoman who had the low bid for a $25-million contract to manufacture garbage cans. Catherine Bump’s company, Plastopan, also planned to build a plant to make the cans in South-Central Los Angeles.

But Bump resisted hiring a lobbyist and eventually her bid was disqualified for procedural oversights spotted by a rival’s lobbyist.

“This just adds to the perception and, more than that, the reality that it’s not what you know but who you know at City Hall,” Yaroslavsky said. “This is not unique. Unfortunately, it is more common than any of us would like to admit.”

Bump said she had hoped that Councilwoman Rita Walters’ office would help her navigate City Hall because the factory would be built in Walters’ district. But Walters’ staff told Bump it would not lobby the city bureaucracy on her behalf, and instead put her in touch with a professional lobbyist.

Yaroslavsky said Tuesday that contractors are commonly told by city officials that they need to hire one or more advocates to win a competitive bid.

“Why should someone have to hire someone just to get through the process?” Yaroslavsky asked. “It’s just not right.”

Voluminous and complex bidding requirements sometimes create obstacles for responsible companies, particularly those that have not done business with the city before, according to Yaroslavsky’s written motion.

If the proposal is approved, an administrator in the Department of Public Works would help verify that companies have met minimum specifications. Yaroslavsky’s motion will be forwarded to committee for discussion.

The fate of the $25-million garbage can contract, meanwhile, is yet to be determined by the city’s Board of Public Works. The original proposals were thrown out because of disputes that arose.

Plastopan is still in the running to get the job. But in the rebidding, the firm filed its proposal 15 minutes late, an error that has been cited by a rival bidder.

Yaroslavsky said that he has not had time to study the garbage can bidding, but that he is concerned that technicalities often are used to block qualified bidders. The Plastopan proposal is particularly admirable because it proposes manufacturing the trash cans locally, Yaroslavsky said, and would bring 37 new jobs to an impoverished community.

“The city may be the loser in this case,” Yaroslavsky said, “by putting every barrier in front of this company to come in and bring jobs with it.”