Post by Jessie Desmond on May 23, 2016 3:24:47 GMT -9
City cemetery work goes in-house after disputed bid
Sam Friedman sfriedman@newsminer.com
FAIRBANKS — City employees will replace longtime contract groundskeeper Frank Turney as the summer caretaker of the Clay Street Cemetery after a disputed bidding process this spring.
This summer, a crew from the Fairbanks Public Works Department will be in charge of cutting the grass and cleaning up instead of Turney, said city Chief of Staff Jeff Jacobson. The decision to take the groundskeeping work in-house followed a competitive bid process in which a new business, Monzingo Mowing, submitted a lower bid than Turney.
Although it’s a minuscule item in the city’s $36 million budget, the Clay Street Cemetery groundskeeping job has been an outsized controversy because of the property and people involved. Turney lives a block away from the cemetery and has mowed its lawn and provided tours of the 2-acre cemetery for 16 years. He’s also highly involved in city politics. He attends almost all city council meetings and is a vocal critic of many city policies.
Clay Street Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in Fairbanks. It’s located near the Steese Highway bridge over the Chena River.
This year when the city put the seasonal job up for bid, new business owner Hannah Monzingo submitted a bid for $5,500, $100 less than the city paid Turney last year. Monzingo is an elementary school teacher who started the business to earn some money during the summer and to help teach her teenage son learn some business skills.
She received an email from the city purchasing department May 6 that said she was the lowest bidder and would be awarded the contract. On May 13, before a contract was inked, she received another email from the city informing her that her work wouldn’t be needed because Public Works was going to take care of the cemetery this year. The timing of the email was inconvenient because she’d already purchased a riding lawnmower for the job from Craigslist, which she won’t be able to return, she said. The Clay Street Cemetery contract was to cover the four months between May 15 and Sept. 15.
Jacobson, the city chief of staff, declined to explain the city administration’s reasoning for not awarding Monzingo the contract, except to say that it followed “significant concerns” raised during an internal review.
“To make a long story short, we had some internal issues and as a result, we canceled the award of the bid,” he said.
The decision affects only this summer. Next year, the summer cemetery work will go out to bid again, he said.
Jacobson said he has spoken to Domenic Monzingo — Hannah Monzingo’s husband — about the riding lawnmower that was purchased for the Clay Street Cemetery work.
“I certainly apologized for that and said that if there was concern or claim for possible damages, he has the ability to submit that to the city for review,” he said.
Jacobson was the top city official in Fairbanks last week while city mayor John Eberhart was on vacation in Italy.
Under Public Works, cemetery groundskeeping work will include grass reseeding and fertilizing as well as weekly mowing and grass trimming along the tombstones and fences, Jacobson said. The city will fulfill the same requirements called for in the contract, which may not be the same level of attention Turney gave the cemetery.
“I know that for the last 16 years, Frank (Turney) has been a very dedicated advocate for the cemetery, so I think he goes above and beyond and probably performs a higher level of service than is required by the contract,” he said.
For his part, Turney was initially upset at the city and the Monzingos for the way the bidding turned out. At a city council meeting on May 9, he accused city staff of encouraging Monzingo Mowing to bid just under the $5,600 he was paid last year. Nonetheless, he was resigned to losing the job.
“I just cannot fathom somebody coming out here with a lower bid and taking over my job. To me, it’s my bread and butter in the summer time. I think there was lot of underhanding going on,” he said. “But at the same time, I’m willing to help this lady with some of the ups and downs of Clay Street Cemetery.”
Turney is even more upset about the decision to move the Clay Street Cemetery work in-house. He said he plans to come to tonight’s city council meeting to ask the city to let the Monzingos do the work.
Contact outdoors editor Sam Friedman at 459-7545. Follow him on Twitter:
@fdnmoutdoors.
Sam Friedman sfriedman@newsminer.com
FAIRBANKS — City employees will replace longtime contract groundskeeper Frank Turney as the summer caretaker of the Clay Street Cemetery after a disputed bidding process this spring.
This summer, a crew from the Fairbanks Public Works Department will be in charge of cutting the grass and cleaning up instead of Turney, said city Chief of Staff Jeff Jacobson. The decision to take the groundskeeping work in-house followed a competitive bid process in which a new business, Monzingo Mowing, submitted a lower bid than Turney.
Although it’s a minuscule item in the city’s $36 million budget, the Clay Street Cemetery groundskeeping job has been an outsized controversy because of the property and people involved. Turney lives a block away from the cemetery and has mowed its lawn and provided tours of the 2-acre cemetery for 16 years. He’s also highly involved in city politics. He attends almost all city council meetings and is a vocal critic of many city policies.
Clay Street Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in Fairbanks. It’s located near the Steese Highway bridge over the Chena River.
This year when the city put the seasonal job up for bid, new business owner Hannah Monzingo submitted a bid for $5,500, $100 less than the city paid Turney last year. Monzingo is an elementary school teacher who started the business to earn some money during the summer and to help teach her teenage son learn some business skills.
She received an email from the city purchasing department May 6 that said she was the lowest bidder and would be awarded the contract. On May 13, before a contract was inked, she received another email from the city informing her that her work wouldn’t be needed because Public Works was going to take care of the cemetery this year. The timing of the email was inconvenient because she’d already purchased a riding lawnmower for the job from Craigslist, which she won’t be able to return, she said. The Clay Street Cemetery contract was to cover the four months between May 15 and Sept. 15.
Jacobson, the city chief of staff, declined to explain the city administration’s reasoning for not awarding Monzingo the contract, except to say that it followed “significant concerns” raised during an internal review.
“To make a long story short, we had some internal issues and as a result, we canceled the award of the bid,” he said.
The decision affects only this summer. Next year, the summer cemetery work will go out to bid again, he said.
Jacobson said he has spoken to Domenic Monzingo — Hannah Monzingo’s husband — about the riding lawnmower that was purchased for the Clay Street Cemetery work.
“I certainly apologized for that and said that if there was concern or claim for possible damages, he has the ability to submit that to the city for review,” he said.
Jacobson was the top city official in Fairbanks last week while city mayor John Eberhart was on vacation in Italy.
Under Public Works, cemetery groundskeeping work will include grass reseeding and fertilizing as well as weekly mowing and grass trimming along the tombstones and fences, Jacobson said. The city will fulfill the same requirements called for in the contract, which may not be the same level of attention Turney gave the cemetery.
“I know that for the last 16 years, Frank (Turney) has been a very dedicated advocate for the cemetery, so I think he goes above and beyond and probably performs a higher level of service than is required by the contract,” he said.
For his part, Turney was initially upset at the city and the Monzingos for the way the bidding turned out. At a city council meeting on May 9, he accused city staff of encouraging Monzingo Mowing to bid just under the $5,600 he was paid last year. Nonetheless, he was resigned to losing the job.
“I just cannot fathom somebody coming out here with a lower bid and taking over my job. To me, it’s my bread and butter in the summer time. I think there was lot of underhanding going on,” he said. “But at the same time, I’m willing to help this lady with some of the ups and downs of Clay Street Cemetery.”
Turney is even more upset about the decision to move the Clay Street Cemetery work in-house. He said he plans to come to tonight’s city council meeting to ask the city to let the Monzingos do the work.
Contact outdoors editor Sam Friedman at 459-7545. Follow him on Twitter:
@fdnmoutdoors.