San Antonio council approves new contracts for vacant‑lot and dangerous‑premise abatements amid procurement concerns

The San Antonio City Council on April 10 approved two ordinances awarding multi‑vendor contracts for vacant‑lot abatement and dangerous‑premise (vacant structure) work, after a presentation from Development Services and a lengthier council discussion about vendor scoring and oversight.

Development Services Director Mike Shannon told the council the two one‑year contracts — each with four optional one‑year renewals running from May 1, 2025, to April 30, 2026 — will keep crews available to remove weeds, rubbish and hazardous conditions from vacant lots and to board or secure dangerous vacant structures. "These are contracts that we use in code enforcement to really ensure that we get quick compliance when we have vacant lots out of compliance," Shannon said.

The ordinances authorize multiple vendors to perform the work. Item 17 (vacant‑lot abatement) lists nine recommended contractors including Big Tex Contractors LLC; Ida Ponce; Jeremy Powers; Legacy Vision Preservation LLC; Morrow Monita; Michael A. Ramirez DBA Top Notch Services; MJC Contracting LLC DBA Alamo Utility Service; Raul M. Seda; and Sylvia R. Mendoza. Item 17’s estimated annual cost is $791,678, with a possible total through renewals up to $3,958,390. Item 18 (dangerous‑premise abatement, lot clearing and securing structures) lists five recommended contractors (including Legacy Vision Preservation LLC; Morrow Monita; Michael A. Ramirez DBA Top Notch Services; MJC Contracting LLC DBA Alamo Utility Service; and Raul M. Seda) with an estimated annual cost of $1,017,396 and a total through renewals up to $5,086,980. Both items are funded from the Fiscal Year 2025 general fund adopted budget; funding for subsequent years depends on future council budget approvals.

Councilmembers pressed staff about the procurement scoring. Councilmember White said several of the selected vendors scored ‘‘very, very low’’ on experience and proposed plan in the scoring matrix and told the chamber, "I don't believe I can vote to approve this, these two items," citing concerns that awarding contracts to vendors with low scores could invite problems in performance and legal exposure. Shannon and other council members responded that the solicitation drew a healthy field — staff notified about 800 vendors, held a pre‑submittal conference attended by seven firms, and received 15 proposals for vacant‑lot work and eight proposals (one nonresponsive) for dangerous‑premise work — and that the evaluation committee recommended a pool of firms to allow faster response times across the city.

Shannon said the department typically handles roughly 1,000 vacant‑lot abatements annually and another roughly 1,000 dangerous‑premise work orders, with about 10–15% being repeat properties. He described controls designed to protect the city and neighborhoods: contractors are not paid until work is verified to meet standards; the city can pause or remove vendors that fail to perform; and contracts are one‑year awards with annual renewals rather than long‑term guarantees. "If they don't do it, they won't be with us long," Shannon said.

Councilmembers who represent districts with high demand for abatements urged the council to approve the items to reduce wait times for neighborhoods. Councilmember Castillo and Councilmember Core noted constituent demand for quicker responses; Councilmember McKee Rodriguez asked staff for clarity about how experience and capability were weighed during scoring and sought better documentation in future memos so council members can see whether lower‑scoring vendors were limited by years in business versus material capability. Mayor Ron Nirenberg emphasized that the scoring categories and local‑preference points can make a direct numerical comparison misleading: "I don't want anybody to walk away from this conversation and feel like there's a certain threshold at which companies pass or fail the scoring matrix," he said, noting that additional non‑committee points (price, local/MBE/SBE credits) affect final results.

After debate the council voted to approve item 17 and then item 18 separately; both motions carried. The ordinances direct Development Services to proceed with the selected multi‑vendor pools, and staff said work orders will be assigned to vendors as needed — often grouped geographically to increase efficiency.

Clarifying details provided during the meeting included: staff notified over 800 potential vendors; seven attended the pre‑submittal conference; 15 proposals were received on the vacant‑lot solicitation (nine firms recommended), and eight responses (one nonresponsive) were received on the dangerous‑premise solicitation (five firms recommended). Staff said the city averages about 100 abatements a month and that contracts will begin May 1, 2025. The ordinances specify that funding for subsequent renewal years is contingent on council budget approvals.

The council discussion also included requests for future procurement improvements: several members asked for clearer breakdowns in scoring memos (for example, explicitly separating years‑of‑experience deductions from other capability evaluations) and for continued use of performance oversight and a ‘‘bad actor’’ pause list to prevent repeat poor performance. Development Services said it would continue current verification practices and that the one‑year award structure provides opportunities to remove underperforming contractors during the term.

The contracts are administrative actions (ordinances approving contract awards) rather than policy changes; no statutes or other legal authorities beyond the FY2025 general fund appropriation were cited during council debate. Work under the contracts will be billed to property owners when the city abates a nuisance and can result in administrative fees and liens if not paid.

Votes at a glance: Item 17 — ordinance approving multiple contracts for vacant‑lot abatement, effective 05/01/2025–04/30/2026 with four one‑year renewals; estimated annual cost $791,678; approved. Item 18 — ordinance approving multiple contracts for dangerous‑premise abatement/lot clearing/securing of structures, effective 05/01/2025–04/30/2026 with four one‑year renewals; estimated annual cost $1,017,396; approved.

The council's decisions keep the city positioned to respond to neighborhood complaints about overgrowth, dumping and unsecured vacant structures, while prompting an ongoing internal conversation about procurement transparency and how to balance opportunities for smaller businesses with performance guarantees.