A Chicago firm which was the apparent winner of the lucrative contract to operate the barges on the San Antonio Riverwalk says it will rebid the contract, and expected to be the winner again, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Entertainment Cruises was the selection of a review committee for the 10 year contract, which was scheduled to be awarded last week. But City staffers pulled the deal from the agenda at the last second, after Mayor Ivy Taylor had raised concerns about potential 'favoritism' in the review process.
Entertainment Cruises Vice President Paul Sinett says it is confident that 'the selection committee conducted a robust and transparent process using a rigorous set of objective criteria to evaluate bidders and, according to media reports, we came out well ahead of our competitors.'
And Sinett says a new review will find the same thing.We respect the decision of the Mayor and City Council and are confident that our proposal to elevate the river barge experience through state of art innovations, a Community-first approach and to provide more revenue to the City of San Antonio, will again be selected," Sanett said. "We look forward to competing in this process and to serving the people of San Antonio for many years to come.”
One City official told News Radio 1200 WOAI that, since Entertainment Cruises is an out of town company, it hired as its local counsel, a common practice in bidding, Phil Hardberger to represent it in the review process. But the City official said the concerns were raised when, out of deference to Hardberger's status as a 'Mayor Emeritus,' he was allowed to address the review committee, a privilege that was not extended to the other three bidders, all of which were San Antonio companies.
There is no allegation of any wrongdoing on Hardberger's part.
A final decison on the contract is expected by late May. Rio San Antonio Cruises, the firm that currently holds the contract and which was among the three local bidders, has agreed to continue operating the cruises until a new contract is awarded, the official told News Radio 1200 WOAI.
Entertainment Cruises operated barge and riverboat contracts in areas ranging from New York City to Washington DC, and offers a wide variety of activities, including luxury dining cruises and skyline tours to speedboat excursions.
The snafu marked an embarrassing week for City Council, which is facing re-election in a little more than two months.On Thursday, the League of United Latin American Citizens called out council and threatened an 'investigation' into whether City Council is truly committed to awarding contracts to locally based minority owned companies.
This controversy was sparked when City Council was asked to award a contract to buy defibrulators for the Fire Department from a Japanese conglomerate, bypassing a locally based Hispanic-owned company.
A City official said the Japanese contract was significantly cheaper and the bid of the San Antonio company would have required paramedics to learn an entirely new system.
But LULAC and other officials say City Council approved an ordinance favoring local, small, minority, and women owned businesses in contracting, but then alleged that the percentage of contracts awarded to Hispanic owned businesses is just 14%, and the percentage awarded to African American owned companies is 0%.
City Council agreed to send the issue back to a committee for further review.
WOAI PHOTO