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Oklahoma City council orders RFP cleanup after protests over Zone 4 towing award
Summary
After months of protests and competing public comments, the City Manager recommended rejecting the current towing/record-service proposals and reissuing a clarified RFP; council directed staff to move quickly and return early next year with a revised solicitation.
The Oklahoma City Council on Dec. 2 directed city staff to revise and reissue a troubled towing and record-service request for proposals covering Zone 4 after formal protests, public comments and council concerns about unclear RFP language.
City Manager Craig Freeman told the council that several formal protest letters and inconsistent bid responses made it “cleaner” to reject the current proposals, correct the RFP language and re-advertise. “There was a protest, a formal protest came in, several other letters that came in, and it was clear that there was a lack of clarity in some of the RFP,” Freeman said during the council discussion.
Business owners who currently serve towing or record zones urged the council to consider service continuity. Todd Reed of Carcab Record Service said his company has covered parts of the city for years and asked to be allowed to bid under clarified terms. “We serve the Southeast District…we still stand ready to serve Oklahoma City,” Reed told the council during public comment.
Metro Towing owner Azar Al Zubi told council members he meets the RFP’s stated location and equipment requirements and said reopening the competition would be unfair to companies that complied. “Rejecting our bid and giving opportunity for the other bidders to come back and fix their bid packet…would not be fair for us,” Al Zubi said.
Council members wrestled with speed and fairness: some urged immediate award to address winter response needs, while others favored rewriting the RFP to reduce future protests. Several members ultimately supported the manager’s recommendation to clean up the solicitation and return to council with the revised RFP early in the new year; staff estimated the process would include a 4–6 week advertisement and a review and scoring period.
The council did not record a separate formal award vote on this item at the meeting; it was handled as part of consent with direction to staff to expedite the reissue. City officials said police have been satisfied with current coverage but emphasized they would bring clearer scoring rubrics and requirements for evaluation to avoid subjective confusion in the future.
What happens next: City staff will revise the RFP language, publish the solicitation and return to council with a recommendation after the evaluation committee scores proposals.
