City of Tallahassee changes vendor on deferred compensation and defined contribution without completing process

There are some rumblings in the Capitol City this week about an RFP process which seemed to not be much of a process as the City Commission is set to meet later this month and approve or deny the recommended new vendor.

In November, the City of Tallahassee announced that it had decided to award its Administration of the City’s Deferred Compensation and Defined Contribution Plan with more than 4,000 participants and $500 million in retirement assets, to Great West Retirement. Reportedly, after the first round of bids, Great West Retirement was ranked number one, assumedly taking into account a myriad of factors such as cost and execution.

But that was it, end of process.

No call backs. No negotiation on best and final offer. No top three bidders offering better deals to see who can come to the table and win the brass ring. No discussion with the existing bidder to see if they can match the winning bid.  No open process and hand ringing.

This is like buying a car without test driving it or asking the salesman what he can do for you.  This is like buying a product at the store based solely on cheapest price but not doing a comparison on quality or side by side analysis of the others on the shelf.  This is like … well, strange local city politics which has me wondering if there weren’t more factors at work here.

Now, we have all seen these meetings where someone gets grilled by the ones held accountable to the taxpayer on RFP, new and old. It goes something like this, or it SHOULD go something like this:

“Is this best deal for our city?” someone usually asks.

“Did we negotiate to the best extent possible to make sure the program is in good hands and our people are taken care of,” someone else will intone.

“Why are we making the change?  Did the provider before do something wrong to call for this costly and cumbersome change?” The next person asks.

“Was the process transparent and did we follow the right protocol to ensure the integrity of the bid?” Hopefully, someone asks….

All of these are questions that should be asked at the next commission meeting and before the final decision is made.  But I think some of the questions that should be asked may be the ones someone does not want to answer publicly.  My team of reporters are doing more digging and we are waiting on numerous calls to the city to be returned. And I am sure the Tallahassee Democrat is looking into this and maybe even Preston Scott, the city’s watchdog of common sense.

At the very least the commission should ask why a best and final offer was not asked for and why the process came to a screeching halt.  If not now, at the next commission meeting when the bid is slated to be approved or denied.