What Happened
Bristol, Conn., a city with approximately 60,000 residents, recently issued several “Requests For Information” from private contractors to take over numerous town functions, such as park maintenance, information technology, janitorial services, and trash collection.
The RFIs
Gov1 reviewed the town’s RFIs, and below is a synopsis of their contents:
Parks, Grounds Maintenance
The privatization of the city’s park grounds would include functions such as:
- Cutting of grass and landscaping
- Seeding and fertilizing
- Maintenance of irrigation and other water systems
- Lighting maintenance
- Road and sidewalk maintenance
- Security system maintenance
- Trash collection
The RFI assumes that, should the city pursue privatization of the parks, the selected contractor would buy some of the city-owned equipment.
Janitorial Services
Privatization of janitorial services would include:
- Cleaning of offices and rest rooms
- Cleaning of floors and building surfaces
- Window washing
- Emptying of waste containers
Information Technology
MIS operations that might be privatized include:
- Network and infrastructure support
- Desktop support
- Fiber optic cable plant maintenance
- Telecommunications support
Once existing leases expired, the contractor would be expected to migrate to contractor-owned equipment.
Waste Management
Privatization of solid waste collection would include:
- Collection of solid waste
- Collection of recycled materials
- Collection of yard waste
- Collection of bulk waste
Evaluation
Submissions were due on May 29 and vendors were requested to provide detailed descriptions of how they’d perform work, at what cost, on what time schedule, etc. Specifically, the town noted that it would designate a committee to evaluate bids on numerous criteria, including:
- Experience
- Understanding of, and approach to, the work
- Work program and schedule
- Clarity, organization, and presentation of submittal
- References
- Costs
Next Steps
To review the actual Requests for Information, use the links below:
You can also review the bids currently under review by the city: