Faced with the expiration of a multi-million-dollar-a-year engineering contract, the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority plans to write new rules for awarding sometimes-lucrative deals to professional firms.
The authority, like many other governmental entities, has no written procedure for choosing law firms, financial consultants and engineering contractors, officials said today. Those so-called professional services contracts are not governed by state rules that require that many other contracts go to the lowest responsible bidder.
"What we're trying to do is just establish some process," said board Chairman Don Walko, a state representative, at today's board meeting. "I think it is important that we get a documented procedure."
In June, the authority's contract with Chester Engineers expired, and it has been continued on a month-to-month basis while the authority figures out what to do. One of the largest city-related contracts, it paid Chester $4.3 million last year, according to documents the authority provided to the Post-Gazette.
The authority board voted to extend that contract for a year, with the provision that it can be cancelled with 30 days' notice.
Meanwhile, the board gave authority Executive Director Michael Kenney 90 days to craft a policy for awarding such contracts.
Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who appoints the authority board, issued an executive order yesterday that competing proposals be issued for all city professional services contracts, and urging authorities to do the same. The mayor also has created a panel to bring the best contracting practices to Pittsburgh.
Chester manages all of the authority's capital improvements, its professionals getting $46 to $126 an hour, and the firm receiving 0.35 percent of all capital spending and fees for attending meetings and writing reports.
More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
First Published: January 16, 2009, 5:15 p.m.