CH2M Can Be Someone's Friend

But they probably won't be a friend to those of us in The Other Dunwoody.

Reports from Florida indicate Bonita Springs may have made a deal with the devil:

Since taking over, CH2M Hill and Bonita Springs have come under fire, mostly from the building industry, for proposing to quadruple fees to provide community development services such as building permit reviews, rezoning request reviews and inspections.

But it turns out to be a devil they should have seen coming:

East Cleveland officials last month [August] sued CH2M Hill OMI, alleging the engineering and management firm was part of a conspiracy that involved the city's mayor to improperly secure a multimillion dollar, no-bid contract to run the city's water department.

Is there a substantial difference between "no-bid" and "only accepted bid"?

Then there is the related fiasco in Houston:

CH2M Hill has also been reaping million-dollar contracts for developing a "strategic plan" for the city's water system and for a major project for the Port of Houston Authority. So it should come as no surprise that the feds are snooping around Texas.

Do we want the feds snooping around Dunwoody?

What can we do to avoid these pitfalls?

1. Do not use CH2M at all: their baggage simply isn't worth it.
2. Do not outsource all operations to a single vendor, regardless of the vendor.
   
3. Establish performance criteria for each operational area. Publish this as part of any RFPs.
4. Hire an Operations Manager to oversee all contracted services.

We also have to root out the participants in sweetheart deals on our side of the business relationship. We already know we have a City Council member with close ties to CH2M. Is this the only one, and how can we know since the CfD operated in secret? Even if these relationships are exposed and the individuals recuse themselves can we really be certain of a good faith business arrangement with no ex parte communication? Not based on the CfD's or CH2M's track record.

Finally there is the all important transparency in Government. Are we outsourcing our ethics? CfD was able to operate outside of public oversight because they were a private corporation and not required to inform anyone of their efforts (allegedly) on our behalf. CH2M has publicly taken the position that they are free from open disclosure laws in Florida:

There has been some dispute over the corporation’s adherence to public records law with people [...] saying the company must adhere to the same standards as governments [...]. CH2M Hill argues it doesn’t need to reveal this information because it is a private company.

Maybe we should take ownership of our own city instead of selling out to private interests with cozy political connections.

TOD