It’s official! Philadelphia voters have voted in favor of the best value ballot question.
The Philadelphia City Charter will now be amended to add the following new subsection at section 8-200:
(5) In lieu of awarding a contract to the lowest responsible bidder, the Procurement Department may award a contract to the responsible bidder whose proposal provides the City with the best value, only when the Procurement Commissioner has determined in writing that award to the lowest responsible bidder may not yield the best value to the City because the goods, construction, alterations, repairs, maintenance or other services that are the subject of the award have qualitative characteristics that make them better suited to an open, competitive solicitation of proposals. Such characteristics may include the integration of technical or professional service elements, quality differences among proprietary products and services, incorporation of City contracting objectives, including but not limited to, participation in City contracts by disadvantaged business enterprises pursuant to Article 6-109 of this Charter (related to participation goals), or other attributes that make price alone a poor indicator of best value. In such instances, the award of the contract shall be subject to any applicable process established by City Council pursuant to subsection (1), above, applicable generally to contracts not subject to the lowest responsible bidder requirement; and the awarding decision shall be made according to criteria established by the Procurement Department by regulation. For contracts involving an expenditure in excess of the amount set forth in subsection (2), above, as adjusted, the applicable criteria shall be set forth in any solicitation for proposals
The devil is in the details, as they say, and only time will tell whether favoritism will affect the selection and award of “best value” contracts, or whether well-meaning City of Philadelphia officials and their attorneys can insulate the award of such contracts from improper influences, both inside and outside the government.
Christopher I. McCabe, Esq.
