OMI is o-u-t.
Colorado-based Operations Management International, the city's wastewater treatment plant operator for the past decade, was ousted Tuesday when the Augusta Commission voted 8-2 -- Commissioners Jerry Brigham and Don Grantham opposed -- to award the job to Duluth, Ga.-based ESG Operations Inc. The five-year contract is for a price not to exceed $5.3 million in the first year.
OMI, a division of the city's water consultant CH2M Hill, has run the plant since 1999 and has been credited with ending the city's troubles with the state Environmental Protection Division, winning numerous state and national awards in the process. Both OMI's and CH2M Hill's contracts end Dec. 31.
Before Tuesday's vote, CH2M Hill/OMI Sales Director George Cartledge appeared before commissioners and asked them to re-bid the contract, saying the company encountered irregularities in the process and wasn't treated fairly. The company has lodged a formal protest.
In his comments to commissioners and in an interview afterward, Mr. Cartledge said that in the first stage of the bid process OMI was one of six companies submitting proposals, then one of two left standing after the other four were deemed nonconforming. Among those discarded the first time around was the eventual winner, ESG.
The city wanted to have three companies on its short list, so it re-bid the job, Mr. Cartledge said. This time, OMI was disqualified for not meeting the pollution liability insurance requirement.
He said the company has this insurance and could have straightened out the misunderstanding had it been given two weeks to make adjustments as the other companies were -- or even a few minutes.
"We could have quickly clarified our response if we'd been given a chance," Mr. Cartledge told commissioners. "Please do not make such an important decision in haste."
Mr. Cartledge said OMI's bid was for $5.2 million per year. The two losers on the short list, Severn Trent Environmental Services Inc. and United Water Services Inc., proposed first-year prices of $5.1 million and $5.6 million, respectively.
Before the vote, Commissioner Joe Bowles questioned why the city needed three choices on the short list when the commission often has only one bid to vote on. City Attorney Chiquita Johnson said procurement rules, according to city code, differ depending on what kind of projects, services or goods are involved, how much money is involved and which department is involved. Both she and Interim Utilities Director Drew Goins assured the board that policy was followed.
Commissioner Jimmy Smith said he asked Mr. Goins and Utilities Assistant Director Allen Saxon every question he could think of, and they assured him ESG was their legitimate choice.
"This is not a personal decision," Mr. Smith said. "We've got friends on all sides."
Reach Johnny Edwards at (706) 823-3225 or johnny.edwards@augustachronicle.com.
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I bet the water is going to start tasting bad.
hey riverman, a question for you since you seem to enjoy the river as much as i do. how do you feel about the addition of toxic fluoride to our drinking water?
riverman do you drink the water coming out of the wastewater treatment plant?
Where is that "competition" line screamed by (R)s every time a long-time scheme is exposed? If OMI had the contract for ten yrs, it's time for someone else. It shouldn't be a career move.
I believe in supporting Georgia businesses first. The qualifiers are quality and cost. Let's give the new guys a chance before condemning them.
Be interesting to see who wins this contract. If Sams has anything to dfo with it, I already know!
We're certainly not going to recognize any savings by the time we're finished defending the lawsuits coming from this. It will end up costing us big time in the long run. Why couldn't we just take our time and do this bidding process the way it should be done?
Seems strange , ESG are all former OMI employees , many who were involved in the first contract , and started up there own company
The lowest bidder was a company called Seven Trent who appear to be a large multinational company , if they were selected the City would save over 2 million dollars over the 5 years against the ESG one .
It does seem strange that OMI made the first cut , but that was thrown out in the rebid , which they failed to qualify,
the other company UNITED were the bunch from Atlanta , we all no what happened there
This fiasco based around possible nepotism , will end in court , of this I have no doubt
Augusta shoots itself in the foot again , by putting it out to bid they have saved a lot of money off the existing OMI contract , which begs the question why did OMI continue to charge so high , then when bid drop down to 5.2 MILLION
It stinks
OMI messed up and now they are crying "unfair". It was up to them to make sure that all the documents were in place. They had two extra weeks to check it. They didn't.
true , but ESG messed up first time , and OMI did not , seems strange ,
i would have given it to the lowest qualified bidder , and banked the savings ..... 150k for yr1 up to 600k in yr 5 , almost 2 million dollars ... odd they didnt
dont throw out someone with a proven track record, just like the school EDS. shouldnt look at replacing any of its senior teaching staff. to save money. omi is a asset that needs to be kept, just like our teachers with 25 years experience. dont throw out the baby with the bath water.maybe you should lay off management at the city and EDS first.
dont throw out someone with a proven track record, just like the school EDS. shouldnt look at replacing any of its senior teaching staff. to save money. omi is a asset that needs to be kept, just like our teachers with 25 years experience. dont throw out the baby with the bath water.maybe you should lay off management at the city and EDS first.
dont throw out someone with a proven track record, just like the school EDS. shouldnt look at replacing any of its senior teaching staff. to save money. omi is a asset that needs to be kept, just like our teachers with 25 years experience. dont throw out the baby with the bath water.maybe you should lay off management at the city and EDS first.
Wonder if there is a way to check into this to make sure that no one "benefited" from this switch??? So much crookedness going on - who knows?
@Riverman1 - this is for a contract to operate the WASTE WATER plant - I for one, do not want to know what the water leaving that plant tastes like. But you are welcome to drink it. Plus, since the discharge is downstream of our drinking water intakes, it could not possibly effect the taste of your water.
Reading all of you peoples comments make me laugh. Everyone wants to act like they know what is going on just because they read the paper or watch the news. If you really want to know what is going on go talk to some of the people that work at that plant and have to deal with being in the middle of all this and get the truth. I will let you in on one little secret, the commissioners are doing what they do best. Alot of whats going on out at that plant is personal and they are against OMI/CH2MHill. The workers out there that are Richmond County voters, well they can care less about them and what they want or think.