A black businessman sues Omaha City Council over bidding practices in cleaning contract

Rodney Johnson, 49, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city and current and former Department of Parks and Recreation employees on Monday, seeking $ 5 million in compensation.

After a tumultuous 16-month bidding process for park facility custody services that was re-tendered twice, Johnson’s company, BJ’s Fleet Wash, was hired. But Johnson alleges in a lawsuit that the city tried to fire his company as soon as 45 days after work for what he considered bad faith labor complaints.

Johnson said he believes one of the reasons the city wanted to avoid doing business with him and his company is that he, as a private citizen, had filed several public registration applications, a letter of application and subsequent lawsuits in Douglas County challenging the city’s garbage contract, which was approved in 2019. (Johnson and his company were not involved in the garbage contract or bidding process; the lawsuit is now pending. present as a third party and resident in Omaha).

Johnson’s business is registered as a Level I Emerging Small Business as part of a city program that aims to stimulate the economic growth of small businesses located in areas of high poverty. According to the ordinance, these companies have priority under certain conditions in the bidding process over “Tier II” companies located in central and western Omaha.

In his applications for registrations, Johnson found that over the past decade, the city has awarded more than $ 1.1 million in cleaning contracts to non-Level I contractors. give Level I contractors about $ 15,000, he said.

Johnson said the city must “follow the rules they created. They must help foster businesses. The goal of the program is to fight poverty. We are defeating ourselves.”

“This lawsuit isn’t just about my company or the cleaning contract,” he said. “All contractors bidding for contracts in the city, black or white, North Omaha or West Omaha, should be treated fairly and enjoy the same protection under the law.”

City attorney Matthew Kuhse declined to comment on the lawsuit. He said this is the protocol for any lawsuit filed against the city.

“The Legal Department will defend this lawsuit and act in the best interests of the city,” Kuhse said in a statement.

The city first issued a call for proposals in July 2019 to request almost daily custody services for 17 parks and recreational facilities and outdoor baths for three years. The lawsuit alleges that BJ’s Fleet Wash bid of approximately $ 298,000 a year was the lowest bid that met the city’s requirements and came from the only Level I certified company.

The lawsuit also alleges that the city’s “preferred contractor” submitted a non-compliant bid that was about $ 75,000 less than BJ’s Fleet Wash, while the incumbent contractor from the previous seven years submitted a compliant bid for a total of nearly $ 497,000 annually.

Johnson said park officials “expressly set a preference for an ESB Level II Certified Contractor” and only sent the other two bids to the committee for evaluation. But Johnson pushed for his bid to be evaluated by the committee, which then gave his bid the highest evaluation score of 85.5 points at a price 4.6% lower than the contractor’s previous 12-month cost. holder, according to demand.

Despite this, Johnson said the then Parks Director, Brook Bench, approved a contract with the non-compliant offer of what Johnson considers to be the city’s preferred company. After opponents protested against the process at a public meeting in January 2020, Omaha City Council rejected the contract.

The bank and officials tried to re-apply for the proposal later that month “because of the contradictory language” of the required documents, which Johnson claims was a false premise.

Six potential sellers submitted bids a second time, but the company the lawsuit claims was the city’s preferred bidder did not file a sufficient security deposit and was disqualified. Parks officials wanted to reject all bids and resubmit the project due to “confusion about the change in bid bond requirements,” according to emails Johnson acquired through a request for public records.

A city attorney responded to an email string and wrote, “I don’t think there’s a reasonable basis for re-bidding … this seems like an effort to accommodate the only bidder who went “I don’t think that’s fair. I feel bad for him, it’s his fault for not reading the requirements.”

Bench replied, “I think we should follow the (lawyer’s) recommendation. I’m sure if we asked for it again, there would be a lot of red flags.” Bench resigned in June 2020 after 24 years in the city.

In August 2020, officials re-applied for the contract. Of the three companies that submitted bids, BJ’s Fleet Wash was the lowest. Officials approved the contract with Johnson’s company, the City Council approved it, and Mayor Jean Stothert signed the agreement in November 2020.

Although the contract was due to take effect on January 1, 2021, officials asked Johnson if it could start a month earlier. Johnson agreed.

Johnson said he created surveys and checklists for each site supervisor to get direct feedback on cleanups, but said he was unable to speak with city employees and often learned of complaints days later. . Johnson said working conditions were difficult for his employees in the midst of the pandemic and said his workers were contractually required to clean a facility on a daily basis that was not even used every day.

“It seemed like they didn’t want to work with me,” he said. “To say we didn’t do a good job, that’s what they set out to do: find all the possible flaws.”

Johnson said that while he may agree that his business is not perfect, he has had other service contracts with the city in previous years that have been renewed. The company, he said, has also had other cleaning contracts with local entities that valued his work very well.

Johnson alleges that park officials made it difficult for him to communicate with facility supervisors and asked them to search for and report adverse conditions.

Already 45 days after Johnson’s contract, a recreation supervisor wrote in an email that “we are aware of the challenges with this company and we are working to break ties.”

The lawsuit alleges that the city terminated the contract with BJ’s Fleet Wash on May 4, 2021 and awarded it to the city’s preferred company.

Johnson’s attorney, Adam Sipple, wrote in a statement that it will be widely discovered in the lawsuit.