Thursday, June 25, 2009

"DON'T STEP ON THE GRASS, SAM"

The process for determining who will be chosen for mowing for the City is as follows:

1) Assistant City Manager directed Community Development staff to solicit proposals for mowing.
2) Staff looked in phone book and assessed companies that had ability to mow commercial/municipal properties.
3) Letters were sent to five (5) contractors to request quotes on specific properties.
4) Responses received and reviewed. Two of the five contractors responded. A third contractor presented proposal with no bond insurance after hearing about it at the City Council meeting.
5) Assistant City Manager reviewed proposals and contacted each of the contractors to request additional information. Met with Yardmaster.
6) Assistant City Manager compared proposals and met with City Manager McMahon to review.
7) Assistant City Manager recommended use of J.D. Skytta as primary contractor and Yardmaster as secondary contractor if primary was unavailable, could not mow within 24 hours, or too many lawns for one contractor.
8) Assistant City Manager prepared terms to be presented to primary and secondary contractors.
9) Award letters and terms prepared by Community Development staff.
10) Both contractors chosen were notified.
11) Lawns assigned to mowing contractor by Housing Inspections. In most instances, Ms. Noell Sivertsen coordinated the lawns that needed attention. However, both Ms. Sivertsen and Mr. Michael Dobrzeniecki identify, post and submit lawns in violation of property maintenance ordinance.

I think it is important to understand that the lawns that the City of Painesville has to mow are 6 inches or over in height. Therefore, the contractor must have proper equipment to complete in a expedient manner. In order to minimize the expense, the properties are mowed as low to the ground as possible and the Housing Inspectors do not submit properties to be mowed a second time until they are over 7 inches in height. A contractor or young person with a regular lawn mower would, most likely, destroy their mower on grass this high. In addition, few contractors are willing to provide the $100,000.00 insurance liability bond and mow as directed. There are also large parcels and commercial lots that require a brush hog to mow due to size, height of grass and topography.

FYI. The primary contractor was chosen years ago by the former City Planner, Brian Fanz. The contractor has done a very good job and is responsive when notified. This was also taken into consideration. Please understand that we are more than willing to work with any landscape contractor that has the ability to mow in accordance with the terms developed.

Sincerely,

Douglas L. Lewis

Douglas L. Lewis
Assistant City Manager/Director of Community Development
City of Painesville
7 Richmond Street
Painesville, Ohio 44077
E-mail: dlewis@painesville.com
Phone: (440) 392-5802
Cell: (440) 653-7764
Fax: (440) 639-4831

16 Comments:

At June 25, 2009 at 6:55 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

The question is when was this done and when were people notified, or called on the phone?
Is this really the process?

 
At June 25, 2009 at 7:34 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

You all should be ashamed of yourselves.

Please posts apologies for accusations of wrong-doing here:

 
At June 26, 2009 at 3:35 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer

 
At June 26, 2009 at 3:38 AM , Anonymous TERM>> said...

The city will never apologize for wrong-doings? [pun] When did they start this process this year, in May? Who dropped the ball this spring?

 
At June 26, 2009 at 3:41 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

What about the horse? Has anyone asked the city employee?

 
At June 26, 2009 at 8:50 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Term, you are the one that needs to apologies.......

 
At June 26, 2009 at 9:39 AM , Anonymous TERM said...

5 contractors contacted? There must be over 112 listed in the phone book? about 4 pages, The city brags we own our own utilities, electric,water, and sewage. ... But we need contractors to cut a few lawns in town.
Bid the Job?
Who knows if that other 107 landscapers would have been a better deal for the city?
Somethings wrong here?

 
At June 26, 2009 at 11:37 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

The one that got the contract isn't even listed in that part of the phonebook? Go figure where that number came from?

 
At June 26, 2009 at 11:43 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

107 landscapers

You CANNOT tell me all of those are capable and meet the requirements of the contract. You are grossly overstating the number of available landscapers and you are doing it with full knowledge that it is BS. You are trying to mislead people.

 
At June 26, 2009 at 11:48 AM , Anonymous TERM>> said...

I CANNOT tell you anything except this is a very poor way to find someone to do a job for you "5" Who's misleading who? B.S. is located on the west side of the square!

 
At June 26, 2009 at 12:26 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Councilmen should be asking questions about subjects like this, instead of "How do you make cement red". What a clown!

 
At June 26, 2009 at 2:04 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree with Term on this one..five landscapers randomly picked by the "community development".. Wait and lo and behold the primary contractor is some construction guy I have never heard of..but wait..has a horse at the barn of the same person who you have to contact..gimme a break.

No apologies on this one needed Term..this just smell of horse manure and deceit... Typical city politics and word games by the city administration...something else to be shuffled under the rug.

 
At June 26, 2009 at 2:19 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Hey Brian..I know your looking someone to mow the properties in the city..I know this guy..a good friend..that can do it for us". Wait did you leave out the part that "yeah he boards a horse at my barn to". If I recall correctly, the city employees are required to complete some sort of "conflict of interest" agreement.

I think JD "John" may have responded on one of the previous postings about being anonymous. I'm not that stupid to identify myself so I can start being harassed for "zoning violations" by one of the involved parties. What a joke.

 
At June 26, 2009 at 3:31 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I knew of a councilman that everytime he was up for re-election would have an inspector right up some violations in his ward. When the resident called him he would take care of it for them. What a great guy!

 
At June 27, 2009 at 5:15 AM , Anonymous TERM>> said...

This whole post was started because a Painesville Landscaper felt he was not given the proper notification on securing this job. As the answer shows if his name never was picked out of the FIVE he would not even know about it. Is this the best way to pick outside contractors? I think a better process should be in place. To get a better price for the city and a more open field for contractors.

 
At June 27, 2009 at 7:24 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

J.D. Skytta..good choice..hopefully he has the equipment available to do the job since he filed for bankruptcy...or will he go back to hiding his equipment from repossession at the houses of his friends. JD..you brag too much for your own good sometimes.

http://www.pmcourt.com/cgi-bin/mdocket.cgi?pre=CVF&num=0800777&sub=&type=CV&acc=

 

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