Atlanta City Council’s Committee of the Whole approved two on-call electrical services contracts for the Department of Watershed Management on Oct. 6 but not before members voiced concerns about timing and transparency around an internal post-award review.
The body voted to approve two agreements: a three-year contract (with renewal options) for on-call major electrical repairs with Brown Electrical JV, not to exceed $2,250,000, and a second three-year on-call services contract with Ruby Collins JV, not to exceed $17,100,000. Both contracts were explicitly conditioned on adoption of the fiscal-year 2027–2028 budgets and carried a recorded vote of 10–0 to approve.
Council member Alex Juan pressed the administration for an explanation about an IPER (internal performance and evaluation review) report he said was provided late to the committee. Juan told the council he expected post-audit documents to arrive at least 24 hours before committee consideration and said the late submission made members uncomfortable given the size of the awards.
“I'm gonna hold my nose on this and support it,” Juan said, but he said the delay should be an exception rather than a new standard.
Procurement and department responses
Quentin Fletcher, identified in the meeting as a Department of Watershed Management official, said the user agency and procurement had worked together to respond to IPER observations and that the items had been held in committee for two cycles. Shaundry Kapole, assistant director for the Department of Procurement, said the delay resulted from obtaining and validating the agency’s responses to the IPER observations and routing the completed packet through the procurement leadership chain for approval (including the chief procurement officer and the chief operating officer).
Brandy Stanley, director of Implementation in procurement, said staff had to verify formulas and supporting documents for the IPER findings and work with the user agency before resubmission, which added time.
Council member Alex Juan and others said they accepted the explanations for this meeting but urged a better timeline and earlier distribution of audit findings when high-value contracts are considered.
Why it matters: Contracts for emergency or major electrical repairs at watershed facilities support critical infrastructure—pumps, treatment plant controls and safety systems. The combined contract values exceed $19 million and the council sought assurance that internal reviews and corrective observations had been addressed before final approval.
What the council did: Following the exchange and procurement’s explanation, the council approved both items in Committee of the Whole and then formally enacted the approvals during the meeting’s final votes. The approvals were recorded as 10 yays, 0 nays for the committee action and later confirmed when the council approved committee actions during the full-session engrossment vote.
Speakers in the discussion
- Alex Juan, council member (asked for audit/timing explanation)
- Quentin Fletcher, Department of Watershed Management (user-agency representative)
- Shaundry Kapole, Assistant Director, Department of Procurement (procurement response)
- Brandy Stanley, Director, Implementation, Department of Procurement (procurement response)
- Theo Pace, Deputy COO (briefly referenced and present during responses)
Clarifying details extracted from the meeting
- Contracts under consideration: Brown Electrical JV (on-call major electrical repairs) not to exceed $2,250,000; Ruby Collins JV (on-call major electrical repairs) not to exceed $17,100,000.
- The legislation was explicitly contingent on adoption of FY27–28 budgets.
- Committee approval votes: reported as 10–0 in Committee of the Whole; full-council engrossment later confirmed committee actions.
Meeting provenance: The exchange about the IPER report and the contracts occurred during the City Utilities section of the Committee of the Whole; the topic thread began when Chair Antonio Lewis introduced the items and continued through questions by Council member Alex Juan and responses from procurement staff before the polity approved the contracts.
Next steps: Procurement and Watershed staff said they would continue to validate IPER responses and that the procurement office had routed the documents through executive review. Council members requested earlier IPER distribution for future high-dollar procurements.
Sources: Committee exchanges as recorded in the Oct. 6 council transcript; direct remarks from procurement and Watershed staff.