Two companies on tap to clear disaster debris in Jefferson Parish will keep those duties for another two years, but the Parish Council decided Wednesday to wait to pick a third company to oversee those operations. The council chose the Ceres Consulting and the DRC Group to spring into action should a hurricane or flood leave behind welters of...
Two companies on tap to clear disaster debris in Jefferson Parish will keep those duties for another two years, but the Parish Council decided Wednesday to wait to pick a third company to oversee those operations. The council chose the Ceres Consulting and the DRC Group to spring into action should a hurricane or flood leave behind welters of debris.
The Jefferson Parish Council awarded two contracts Wednesday to collect debris after disasters.Council Chairman Elton Lagasse said the two firms were chosen because an internal evaluation committee ranked them highest among six competitors. Council members also said the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which often reimburses parishes for the cost of post-disaster clean-up, requires the council to hire the top-ranked companies. Ceres and DRC's previous contracts expired in February.
DRC gave $1,000 to Councilman Chris Roberts' campaign fund last year. Cerese didn't give to any of the sitting council members, according to campaign finance reports.
But for a second time since May, the council postponed choosing a third company to monitor the debris removal work. Lagasse said council members had questions about the evaluation committee's scores for each proposal. He said one member of the committee was scoring proposals on their technical and financial merits far lower than the other committee members. He wouldn't identify that person.
"There was some scoring that we had some concerns about, and we just wanted to work this out somehow before we get sued," he said.
Environmental Affairs Director Marnie Winter said that she, interim Finance Director Lena Stockstill, council Research Director Alan Gandolfi, Purchasing Director Brenda Campos and landfill engineer Rick Buller comprised the evaluation committee. Assistant Parish Attorney Lexi King, a non-voting member, served as the secretary.
Winter said she hadn't heard complaints about the scores for the monitoring proposals. The council is expected to take up the issue again June 27.
The current monitoring contract is held by CDM and Shaw Coastal Inc. That deal expired in September, but the council extended it through 2012 to let the companies work on clean-up projects from past disasters.
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Richard Rainey can be reached at rrainey@timespicayune.com or 504.883.7052.