The Pembroke Pines City Commission approved a multi‑year operations and management contract with Operations Management International (doing business as Jacobs/OMI) on Wednesday after receiving an audit and a separate operational assessment that flagged customer‑service and billing process gaps.

Why it matters: The contract governs day‑to‑day water, wastewater and customer‑service operations for the city’s utility system. Commissioners debated whether to run a competitive procurement or extend the incumbent’s contract, citing the city’s upcoming PFAS treatment design and major capital projects.

Audit highlights and staff recommendations
City audit consultants (Forvis Mazars and the city commission auditor’s office) presented a focused assessment of OMI’s billing operations, customer service, vendor monitoring and internal controls. Key findings included:
- Vendor performance monitoring: Recommendation to formalize service‑level agreements and key performance indicators (KPIs) and to maintain internal standard operating procedures for KPI review and escalation.
- Billing controls: Suggested formal review and approval processes for the “high/low” billing report and formal monitoring of manual billing adjustments restricted to a few authorized users.
- Reconciliations: Bank reconciliations had lagged (management reported work through January during the audit week); consultants recommended process fixes and vendor cooperation on system issues.
- Customer service: The vendor was manually compiling call metrics in Excel and averaged about 2,800 calls per month; consultants recommended call‑center software and baseline KPIs (average speed of answer, abandonment rate, handle time) so the city can validate vendor reports.

Commissioners praised the report’s depth but said improvements identified will have cost impacts; several asked staff to incorporate recommended KPIs into the vendor contract.

OMI contract discussion and vote
Utilities Director Tim Welch and procurement staff recommended continuing with OMI, citing continuity and the firm’s institutional knowledge as the city designs and implements PFAS removal and related capital improvements at the water plant. Welch said switching vendors midstream would risk disrupting large multi‑year projects.

The commission debated length and procurement approach. Commissioner Tom Good urged competitive bidding, noting public‑procurement and transparency concerns; others cited operational risk tied to the PFAS work and the need for continuity.

Final action: The commission approved the agreement with OMI by unanimous vote after amending the motion to require annual performance reporting: city staff will present contractor KPIs and a performance report to the commission during the annual budget process. The approved contract term retained the five‑year initial term with a potential renewal term but added the annual KPI reporting requirement. Commissioners recorded concerns about future procurements and asked administration to schedule a workshop on procurement policy.

Contract value and scope: The administration said the initial fee in the proposed agreement was about $11 million and that the new contract included additional services (for example, a dedicated sewer vacuum truck and cleaning 20% of sewer mains per year, among other operational responsibilities). Staff emphasized that some services that were gaps in prior years are being added to the scope.

What the auditors said residents should expect
Auditors told the commission that resident complaints about billing often reflect true issues — leaks, misreads, double payments — but that better internal controls and a vendor call‑center system would allow the city to validate volumes of calls and speed corrective action. Management agreed with audit observations and reported it will incorporate many of the recommendations into the contract and vendor oversight procedures.

Votes and next steps
- Outcome: Commission approved the OMI agreement as amended (annual KPI/performance reporting at budget time); vote was unanimous.
- Follow up: Staff will implement a KPI framework, pursue call‑center software implementation with the vendor, and provide the commission a performance update at the annual budget hearing.

Quotes
Utilities Director Tim Welch: "To change horses midstream while we have major plant projects and PFAS remediation design underway would, in my opinion, create a risk and a loss of important momentum." (paraphrased from sworn testimony)

Commissioner Tom Good: "I don't like the appearance of repeated no‑bid extensions; fairness and transparency require procurement scrutiny and competitive bids where feasible."