2012-0821 Special City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes:Special City Commission Meeting August 21,2012 Sunny Isles Beach,Florida Brian Silverio,Esq.,representing SFM Services, said SFM Services was performing all the landscaping services for the City since January 2011. He stated that in January 2012 it was opened up for a bid process,and SFM was determined to be the lowest and most responsible bidder at that time. Mr. Silverio further stated that unbeknownst to SFM, that bid process was thrown out for no reason explained to SFM,and to this day they don't know the reason. A second bid process was ordered and at that time SFM came in second and Lukes-Sawgrass came in first. The bid process required the parties to submit a Public Entity Crimes form which Joe Palazzolo, President of Lukes-Sawgrass Landscaping, submitted. Every person submitting a bid has to swear and affirm under oath that neither the entity submitting a sworn statement as officers, directors, shareholders, employees, any affiliate of the entity has not been convicted of a crime against public entities since July of 1989. They brought this issue to the attention of the City Attorney's Office because back in January of 2010,the then CEO and President of Lukes-Sawgrass was charged,convicted,plead guilty to charges stemming from the bribing of Miramar public officials for the awarding of construction contracts. According to Mr. Silverio,this is a falsification or misrepresentation of a sworn statement to the Commission as to the prior existing relationship of its former President and CEO at the time who committed the acts which are a glaring contradiction to the bid process. If you are bribing public officials to get contracts it is very relevant in their opinion to the process to get a landscaping contract to the City of Sunny Isles Beach. They believe that the bid process,at least in part,was tainted by this misrepresentation,and they believe it was a relevant factor. They have not heard why it has been addressed and they don't believe it is simply an employee or an affiliate of Continental. Mr. Silverio stated this was before, and he printed out the articles and the reports from the courts of the Southern District of Florida where the former President and CEO of Lukes was convicted in federal court and plead guilty. Mr. Silverio submitted these documents to the City Attorney's Office. He further stated there is no debate that this gentleman was the President and CEO of Lukes-Sawgrass Landscaping, the very entity to which the Commission is about to award a contract to. Mr. Silverio said he does not understand why the landscaping job was rebid and taken away from them. There was a letter written in July 26,2012 that outlines a problem with some tree trimming,and his client responded numerous times saying that they will do whatever it takes to trim the trees. As a matter of fact,he claimed that his client trimmed trees at no cost to the City,in addition to performing the contract that he was entitled to. The trimming of the trees aspect of the overall contract was a mere less than 10%of the actual contract itself, and his client was more than comparable of performing the entire contract. It was the lowest bid in the original bid process and looks at the very least, to cast a dark cloud over the process itself. The relief they are requesting today is the following: 1)review the original bid process to determine why it was thrown out in the first place,and why the original lowest responsible bidder was not allowed and not awarded the bid;and 2)to either, if SFM is not awarded the contract under that review of the original bid process,to open up to another bid process,and have people confirm and swear again under oath that their former President, CEO, employees, any affiliates of any entities were not responsible in such an act of bribery of public officials, and that the City of Sunny Isles Beach wants to be associated with in the awarding of its contracts. City Attorney Ottinot said as a point of clarification of our Code, staff was not aware of the 5