We're talking some big bucks in Mission Viejo
Five residents of Mission Viejo will cast an important vote before June 8th. I refer to the five members of our city council. We hired the consultant firm of Sloan Vazquez to assist the city council in writing the RFP and assessing four potential trash hauling bidders. They used their proprietary pro-forma to score these competing vendors for our exclusive 10 year contract for removing the next decade of rubbish from our city. That contract, worth upwards of $100 million, will be the largest contract ever issued in our 22 year city history. That council vote is scheduled for Monday, June 7th.
At the last MV council meeting the council voted to remove their self imposed gag order and lift the ex parte on communication with any of the four candidates.
Mayor Kelley made a motion seconded by vice mayor Leckness that meetings with any of the four bidders be recorded and held HERE in City Hall. The Motion did NOT mandate that Sloan Vazquez was to be present.
To repeat. The one stipulation, agreed to unanimously, was that all council member interaction with the four bidders would take place INSIDE City hall and be tape recorded. Mr. Sloan sat in the first row when that vote occurred.
Yesterday afternoon I attended one of the meetings as an observer and reporter. This meeting was with five representatives of CR&R, city consultant Joe Sloan, and council member Cathy Schlicht.
At the end of the 90 minute meeting I asked Mr. Sloan if I could ask him a question.
Have the other council members conducted similar meetings with CR&R?
CR&R responded that Dave Leckness and Frank Ury met with them together and that Mayor Kelley also had a separate meeting. John Paul Ledesma has not returned their phone calls. A CR&R representative said they would love to talk to him. Mr. Sloan’s response was that Member Ledesma feels that he has done his homework and poured over the proposals.
There will be four meetings on Thursday with Waste Management staff. I than asked about the other two bidders and was told that Judy Ware had not met with any of the council members.
Mr. Sloan volunteered that he drove Frank Ury to visit with the representatives of Athens Services this past Saturday. He also stated his taking Cathy and Dave to see the Athens facility but Cathy said it was on April 15th which predates the lifting of the gag order. I quickly reminded him that according to the May 17th city council vote all interface between the bidders and the council was to occur inside city hall and be tape recorded. Mr. Sloan defended that violation by saying the only goal that vote mandated was to have a controlled environment. He added that he tape recorded their discussions at which point CR&R representative Lyle Overby asked if Joe had the tape recorder on while driving with councilman Ury to the site.
So we have a case of councilman Frank Ury breaking the council Order and creating a large black cloud over this major Agenda item that is to be voted on this Monday.
Who knows what was said in Frank Ury’s meeting with Athens or in the car with Joe Sloan, a former employee of Athens Services. My last remark is based on his confirming that fact yesterday in front of seven witnesses, myself included.
Was Mr. Sloan’s tape recorder on all the time?
With the council meeting on Monday, June 7th, and with four similar meetings with Waste Management scheduled for tomorrow (June 3rd), when will each council member get to listen to these tapes?
While I will not report my observations of the CR&R presentation(today) there was one point in the meeting where Mr. Sloan said he basically didn’t want to air dirty laundry. He said that his evaluation of the four bidders only covered the past five years and not a more in-depth scrutiny.
In a Reason Foundation article co-authored by Joe Sloan he describes the need for providing a “Precise, Objective Evaluation.” On page 6 it reads in part: “With a little extra effort at the beginning of the process, it is possible for local governments to issue requests for proposals that will stand the test of public scrutiny and firmly establish public confidence in the integrity of the bidding process.”
Based on violating the council majority Order on the lifting of the ex parte I would opine that Mr. Sloan did not practice what he preached in that Reason report.
Let me simply say that Mr. Sloan failed to mention that Athens has had some RECENT legal issues that should have been exposed to every council member.
In the May 17th meeting Cathy asked Frank Ury if he/they would share any vendor communication. As of 4 p.m. on Wed. June 2nd neither Sloan Vazquez or any council member has offered to share their recorded vendor interface discussions.
Where is the transparency between the council members regarding these meetings?
So–Ury did not follow the rules!!!
Ury’s vote should be taken away from him–period.
In addition Athens has been cited numerous times in the last couple of years for continuing environmental violations.
Just Google Athens and see the issues:
Guilty of breaking Air Quality Laws.
Guilty of Illeal Dumping
Guilty of Union Busting
Guilty of breaking Health and Safety laws
Guilty of operating dangerous facilities.
Guilty of price fixing
Guilty of forging truck safety certificates.
Its all there for you to see Mr Ury !!!
For more information call 323 767 1004
or e-mail —- fighter@stopathens.org
Daren, you are such a looser though!!! 🙂
I wonder how much you are getting paid to do black PR against a company!
Peter. What are you talking about? Daren who?
What do you mean you were there as an observer and reporter? Is that typical in these negotiations? Is it legal? I’ve never heard of such a thing. Does that mean any blogger, like Dan Avery or the folks at Red County can sit in on these meetings?
Did Sloan Vasquez disclose that the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) recently levied its largest fine EVER on Athens? That and other Athens environmental and financial disasters are reported here: http://www.stopathens.org/
LA County and the City of Rancho Palos Verdes both recently rejected Athens bids, even when they were the lowest bidder, because each wanted nothing to do with such a dis-reputable firm. Montebello, Temple City, and Monterey Park are all trying to get out of horrible multi-year contracts that Athens bought from earlier Council members with massive campaign donations.
When Athens’s current customers are working so hard to get away from them, why would any city consider getting into a contract with them?
Wooow–interesting !!!!!!!!!!!
Larry:
Great report–and thank you for being there.
The press is the Fourth Estate and full and unfettered transparency is required and needed. Perhaps if we had more citizens who cared–rather than CARPED–we would be better off. Since this was not a negotiations and was open up the publics oversight and involvement is n essential.
LBM.
As someone who follows MV so closely you disappoint me.
At the May 17th meeting the council voted unanimously to open dialogue between the 4 potential vendors and members of the council.
No negotiations will commence until after a vendor is selected.
There were no negotiations in the CR&R meetings with council.
There was nothing illegal about the CR&R meeting in which Dennis greeted all of the participants.
However, we all know that you need to keep busy looking for something else to pick on Larry Gilbert.
Hopefully, we won’t disappoint you.
We need the “hits.”
Yes, Larry, excellent report. Thank you for your vigilance. Bob Bruchman (Little Bigshill) can pound sand.
Is Frank Ury all-in for Athens? Is his political consultant John Lewis not connected at the wallet to Athens? Ury should be on Athens’ payroll when he is acting on their behalf.
Did Athens recently add the services of Scott Taylor to lobby for council votes? If so, who has Scott Taylor spoken with?
Take out the trash. Ury violated the agreement and should not be allowed to vote as a consequence. Sloan Vasquez should be barred from further participation.
Before we watch out for black helicopters and tapped phone lines, let’s at least allow Councilmember Ury to address what he did, why he did it, and see how he votes before we hang him in effigy. Larry, I agree that Frank should have adhered to the requirements the Council laid down in its last meeting, but let the process play out before you jump to any conclusions. You know as well as I do that the political arena is small here and there are often overlapping relationships that don’t automatically mean that foul play is involved.
I also agree that Larry should be a gnat (I mean that in a good way). Larry and I don’t always agree, and I’m sure the councilmembers aren’t always happy to have him snooping, but accountability and transparency are, in my opinion, vital to all politics, particularly in municipal government. If we have nothing to hide, then why should we fear someone asking questions? So Larry, since the meeting was not specifically identified as a closed session, I don’t see any problem with you being there. By the same token, I have no problem with Sloan Vazquez being there as they would undoubtedly have a lot to offer to the discussion.
I will also say that I appreciate that Larry allows all discussions to go forward on here, whether he agrees with them or not. He has never censored any of my posts (which is more than I can say for Brad Morton and his blog), and will engage in civil discourse. I have told him (and make the same commitment to others) that I will not engage in name-calling and will keep my posts as factual as possible (alas, I am not above the occasional tongue-in-cheek and sarcastic comments) and I would encourage others to do the same so we can really discuss the issues and keep the personal attacks out of it.
Larry,
I spoke to Karen Hamman today who said council members will receive copies of the meetings tomorrow, after the Waste Management meetings are conducted today.
Niyaz.
Newbie.
Let’s not debate that Joe Sloan, in front of 5 members of CR&R, Cathy Schlicht and myself, volunteered his comment about driving Frank to the Athens facility AFTER the May 17th council meeting. That statement has been recorded on Joe Sloan’s tape recorder.
Frank Ury is no better than any other council members. He voted for the process which was a rare 5-0 in our city. There is nothing Frank can say. In fact, to assure residents and business owners who will pick up the tab for the next decade, a censor might be in order on this pending vote. He should sit this one out. That’s the penalty he should pay for his indiscretion.
If I had not raised the issue we would not have discovered that illegal field trip.
You call me a Gnat? I know you meant no disrespect but in addition to one from the Sheriff, I have Press Credentials from two U.S. presidents as an investigative reporter that you are welcome to see.
I was not snooping at this meeting. Dennis Wilberg was there as stated earlier.
And I have no issue with Joe Sloan attending the meeting. My only point is that he was there on his own. It was not part of the 5-0 vote for him or his partner to attend.
Larry,
It was definitely a compliment. I haven’t questioned your credentials, and I won’t. A lot of us don’t have the time or energy to make sure that transparency and accountability are part of our city’s government process and I appreciate the effort you put in, even if we don’t always agree. I definitely can’t wait for the marathon Council meeting on Monday to see how the saga ends (or begins).
There are two types of people in Mission Viejo, those who don’t know what’s going on and those who know Frank Ury is corrupt.
Ury will have a big job getting three more votes for Athens on the council if he is disqualified from voting.
How are the other council members lining up? Is anyone else besides Ury pushing for Athens?
Watchman.
Frank Ury has not tipped his hand as yet.
At the May 17th meeting John Paul said he was leaning to either Athens or W/M.
Well–Ury’s motto is:
” For a Nickle or a Dime–you can have my vote anytime !!!”
Long time MV Observer and other readers.
I guess our city manager now recognizes that some of us will continue to promote transparency in MV. Dennis Wilberg joined the meeting between Cathy Schlicht, myself, Joe Sloan and the Waste Management team yesterday. At the conclussion Dennis told me that the taped discussions will be provided to the council members after tonight’s interview of a third contendor.
He added that JP is now receptive to meeting with one or more vendors and that it will not occur until Monday at which point another transcript will be made. He will try to get the discussion transcripts on the city web site as quickly as possible for the public.
Nice going vendors or staff. We have had three weeks between council meetings due to a five week month yet we wait until the last minute to request an audience with the council members, or perhaps they dragged their feet in agreeing to a mutally acceptable timeframe. I did point that out before leaving.