Stantec has been dropped as third party reviewer for the Town of Londonderry, and the process will start over again, due to the Town Council’s displeasure that cost was not a factor in making a selection. “Based on the concerns of the council at the last meeting (May 6) to include the issue of cost, and the issue of the number of bids that were submitted, my thought was to go back to the beginning, and the beginning is ‘what was the parameters outlined by the Request For Proposal (RFP),’” Acting Town Manager William Hart said at Monday’s Town Council meeting.
Hart said he discussed the situation with town counsel Michael Ramsdell, who said the town had three options.
“The RFP allows the council at any time prior to awarding the RFP to withdraw the RFP,” Hart said. “Secondly, the council can reject the recommendation of the planning board and send it back to the beginning, or thirdly, it can accept the recommendation of the planning board.”
Hart said that based on his conversation with Ramsdell and the concerns of the council, he thinks it wise to withdraw the RFP and to give him guidance as to how the council wished to proceed. “One of the ways to proceed obviously is a new RFP, and during the pendency of that, the town can use other services which would include cost as a determining factor,” Hart said.
Hart also said the new RFP would be rewritten to include cost as a potential factor in what the council is seeking.
Town Council Chairman John Farrell summarized that the council wanted to see at least two vendors used and wanted to see cost.
Councilor Joe Green said that they wanted to see three vendors. Regarding the issue of bids, Hart said there were initially four bids but one dropped out and another did not meet the qualifications. That left two. Farrell said he understood the RFP was flawed in the way it was written and what it wanted to accomplish. “I think what we’re saying is to withdraw it and write it properly,” Farrell said.
Councilor Tom Dolan said he didn’t think the citizens were served well “if we spend this large amount of money in these critical areas without cost being a factor. Evidently we issued an RFP that was flawed in that regard and we have to pull it back and start over again.”
Farrell asked for a consensus, which was determined to be that the RFP would be withdrawn and a new one written that would include cost, and with at least two vendors from which to select.