Proposed Jefferson Parish contracting reforms hit a major bump Wednesday, as the Parish Council shelved for six months a drafted ordinance that would curb political discretion in awarding some no-bid work.
Proposed Jefferson Parish contracting changes hit a major bump Wednesday, as the Parish Council shelved for six months a drafted ordinance that would curb political discretion in awarding some no-bid work. With a unanimous vote and no discussion, council members deferred to Sept. 18 a vote that had been postponed three times in the past five weeks.
The delay came a day after Councilman Mark Spears had said he would seek more time to review concerns from the New Orleans Regional Black Chamber of Commerce, which has said some of the proposals would limit the ability of minority-owned businesses from getting contracts. Spears, however, suggested Tuesday that he was seeking a relatively short delay.
Spears was not immediately available after the meeting. Council Chairman Chris Roberts, who authored the ordinance including the contracting changes, said Spears asked for a six-month deferral to avoid the meeting-to-meeting delays the council has been experiencing. But Roberts said he expects the ordinance to come back for a vote before September.
"It's not going to take that long," Roberts said.
Reform advocates had already said that they were disappointed even with a short delay, and urged the council at Wednesday's meeting to adopt the proposed contracting changes.
The contracting proposal aims to curb the Parish Council's discretion to hand out some parish work, by requiring that they select companies ranked near the top in technical evaluations and by mandating that price be included in the criteria to score proposals from vendors. The ordinance would also remove parish directors from the evaluation committees.