By: Ryan Gibson
Submitted: 2010-09-02 11:27:19 | Word Count: 584
The board of directors that look after the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks voted Wednesday to cancel its search for a corporation to handle its golf cart rental concession, ending a seven-year bidding process that was derided as both heavily politicized and painfully slow.
The commissioners, appointed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, voted unanimously to allow the department's unionized workforce to rent out the carts at seven 18-hole courses.
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Parks officers have tried thrice to go out to bid. After an organization was finally recommended through the department in 2008, the City Council refused to sign the contract, saying instead that parks officials should limit yourself to the incumbent concessionaire, J.H. Kishi Co.
Commission President Barry Sanders said canceling Kishi's contract - and turning the task over to city employees - would give the department flexibility if it decides in coming years to bid out the four city's golf course operations to an individual company.
Still, he acknowledged the city's lengthy search procedure, originally deliberate to avoid cronyism and insider deals, is becoming cumbersome and costly for all sides.
"If I were a potential contractor under these rules, I'd think twice" before submitting a pitch, he said.
Wednesday's vote was a victory for Service Employees International Union Local 721, whose representatives have pressed since 2003 to possess city workers run the golf cart space leases. The concession can be held since at the least 1975 by Kishi, which was criticized by City Controller Wendy Greuel last month for having underreported golf cart sales.
"Anytime you'll find an from doors contractor at any department, we always have to return and redo their work," said Andrew Ortiz, a Recreation and Parks employee who can be a union steward.
A lawyer for Kishi said his client is comfortable while using the city's decision. The corporation will remain over a month-to-month contract until the transition to town workforce is complete.
Parks officials hope to consider over the operation to the town workforce within 60 days.
Michael Bernback, the owner of Ready Golf, which was slated to get the contract two in the past, said he believes Kishi will hold onto the work for for much longer as city officials struggle to look at over the concession.
"They don't have the budget to lease out the carts," he said of beginning a city. "They don't have the experience. As well as the union employees are a great deal of dearer than the nonunion employees."
Parks officials recommended a private contractor twice in 2008, partly and they may be affected because the department was unable to get insurance for those carts. At when, the department warned that hiring freezes would create tougher to deliver the service.
Jon Kirk Mukri, the top with the parks department, said his agency would seek to accumulate the golf cart lease owned by Kishi. Repairs of these carts are made by city employees or perhaps a city contractor, he said.
Commissioner Jerome Stanley said he hoped the town also could find one way to shield Kishi's human resources from losing their jobs during an economic downturn. Mukri said he cannot assurance that those 40 employees can be spared.
"My first responsibility is looking after my own employees," he said.
Author Resource:-
Ryan James is a leading Golf retail expert with vast knowledge in golf trolleys and the golf cart sector.
