Board May Change Bidding System

The Board of Supervisors next week will decide whether to change the way the county selects contractors for government projects amid criticism that the current system is outdated and politicized.

The Orange County Grand Jury and several engineering and architectural associations have called for reforms of the procurement system.

Orange County is the only urban county in California that gives elected supervisors a central role in selecting contractors for projects. Under the system, county officials collect the bids and send a slate of two or three finalists to the supervisors without ranking them. The board selects the winner.

Many cities and other counties, by contrast, empower staff members to recommend a single firm to the board, which rejects or ratifies the selection.

Critics say Orange County’s approach gives too much influence to lobbyists hired to make pitches to supervisors before they vote. Some lobbyists also contribute campaign money to supervisors and organize fund-raisers for them.

On Tuesday, the board will consider several ideas for changing the process, including:

* Allowing county staff to select a contractor and submit the proposal to the board for approval.

* Having the staff submit an unranked slate of finalists except when one firm is obviously superior to the others.

* Permitting the staff to submit a ranked slate of finalists to the board, which then makes a selection. Professional organizations and community activists support this option.

“It’s taken seven years to get to this point,” said Shirley Grindle, a longtime government watchdog who is pushing for the changes. “This was a dead issue with the old board. We hope this is the right time for the new board to look at it.”

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In the past, the supervisors have been reluctant to change the system. Defenders say Orange County’s process ensures that supervisors receive information about the bids from the contractors themselves and that elected officials, not bureaucrats, make the final decisions.

Supervisors have said that input from lobbyists is helpful in understanding the bids and making decisions.

Last year, the Consulting Engineers and Land Surveyors of California proposed far more sweeping reforms that would have prohibited bidders from paying lobbyists at all.

“We feel what is being proposed now is [more] realistic,” said Vic Opincar, head of the association and regional vice president of Boyle Engineering in Newport Beach.

Many people in his profession believe that the county’s procurement process is so politicized that the only way to get business is to hire a lobbyist, Opincar said.

A survey completed in the early 1990s found that all but a few of the major contracts the board awarded went to firms that hired lobbyists, he added.

Opincar and others said the board that took office this year is more willing than previous ones to sit down with vendors that don’t have lobbyists. As a result, they expressed optimism that supervisors will embrace the changes.

Grindle said some critics might ask supervisors to add a few more requirements to the proposed changes under consideration Tuesday. One addition would require supervisors to provide a public explanation if they do not select the top-ranked firm submitted by the staff.