August 31, 2007
Dear Bluff City Citizens:
It’s been a very busy August here in Bluff City city hall!! In fact, I’ve been so busy that I was completely unaware that the end of August was upon us!
What’s keeping us all so busy, you may ask? Well, the contract for vending machines in Bluff City city hall is up at the end of August, so we have been deep in the selection process for a new vendor. Let me tell you, it’s hard work supplying Bluff City city hall with high quality vending goods!
An RFP (Request For Proposal) was advertised in late July for potential vendor response. We received back five RFP responses from various vending vendors and spent the last week sitting through vendor presentations. Each vendor was given a full day to demonstrate the quality of their vending services, the quality of their food, as well as the savings to city employees and citizens using the services. I must inform you, however, that no vendors were allowed to actually bring in vending samples for our consumption. We wanted to make the selection process as fair (and unfattening) as possible!
All five vendors presented compelling cases and one vendor, Stromby’s, even presented a case whereby the City could receive a percentage of the income generated by vending sales. On Friday, the selection committee spent six hours deliberating the presentations and proposals.
In the end, we chose Vendini’s Vending Varieties as our new vending vendor. And I must inform you that Vendini’s did bring donuts to their presentation Tuesday (which were quite delicious, by the way). However, those donuts, while appealing to the committee members, did not in any way affect the outcome of our selection. And the donuts supplied are not actual products that will be sold by the vending company in Bluff City city hall. The vending donuts are not as tasty.
So Vendini’s was chosen to be our new vending vendor on Friday, August 31. On Saturday, September 1st, I received a panicked call from the city attorney informing me that the city was going to be sued by the other four vendors who did not receive the contract! Needless to say, this news concerned me greatly, since much care and deliberation was put into the selection process. So I questioned the city attorney on what legal grounds the other vendors had for making such a suit.
Well, it seems there was a typo in the original RFP that we submitted for solicitation. So, based on the city attorney’s advice, we are starting the whole RFP process over again. Although this will extend the selection process by another three months, it will also allow us to avoid any legal action, which the city does not need right now. However, the downside to this is that there will be NO vending available in Bluff City city hall for the next three months while the new vendor is re-selected.
My apologies to those of you who, like me, were in love with the Honey Buns from the vending machine in the basement. It looks like we’ll have to find our snacks somewhere else for the time being.
Sincerely,
Percy J. Brown
Your Honorable Mayor
Civil Servitude by Jackson Press 