West Covina council awards $3.7M tree-maintenance contract to West Coast Arborist after heated debate over procurement

The West Covina City Council voted 3–2 on Nov. 18 to award a multi-year tree trimming and maintenance contract to West Coast Arborist following a contentious public hearing that focused on procurement transparency and evaluation procedures.

Council members and multiple bidders spent more than two hours scrutinizing the Request for Proposals (RFP) process, the evaluation forms and whether the city’s staff and legal advisers properly handled a post-evaluation negotiation with the incumbent. Councilmember Ollie Cantos moved — and Councilmember Gutierrez seconded — a substitute motion to reject all bids and reissue the RFP; that motion failed on a roll call vote (Contos and Gutierrez in favor; Diaz, Lopez Viado and Mayor Tony Wu opposed).

The council then approved the staff recommendation to award the contract to West Coast Arborist by roll call (Aye: Diaz, Lopez Viado, Mayor Wu; No: Contos, Gutierrez). The procurement staff’s presentation described the procurement as a multi-step evaluation in which interview panel scores were averaged and the purchasing manager separately reviewed the price proposal, which carried 20% of the total weight.

Councilmember Gutierrez criticized the process as…