Mayor’s Council pulls abandoned-vehicle work from its recycling fund, cites procurement, market and vendor-payment problems

The Mayor’s Council of Guam voted to remove itself from handling abandoned vehicles under the Recycling Revolving Fund after council members and staff described procurement thresholds, market limitations and unpaid invoices that hindered vendor participation.

Why it matters: The Recycling Revolving Fund provides about $1,500,000 annually for island recycling and bulky-item disposal. Mayors said procurement rules, vendor market capacity and a backlog of unpaid invoices made it impractical for village governments to run the abandoned-vehicle work.

Executive Director’s procurement timeline and legal threshold: The council’s executive director told the meeting that the council followed procurement rules for the abandoned-vehicle procurement and outlined the timeline of the recent effort: the memorandum of understanding was signed Jan. 6 and monies were deposited Jan. 10; bid specifications were signed Feb. 25; the bid packet was sent to the attorney general’s office on March 23; the packet was published June 4; a pre-bid conference was held June 12; bids opened July 7 (eight registered, five participated); notice of intent to award went out July 31; and a stay of procurement (protest) was…