West Palm Beach commission finds procedural errors in tennis RFP; rejects procurement official's denial of protest 4-1

The West Palm Beach City Commission on Feb. 17 voted 4-1 to reject the procurement official's decision denying a protest filed by local operator Let's Play Tennis over the award of operations contracts for the city's tennis centers. Commissioners said the record shows evaluators applied scoring considerations that were not included in the request for proposals and relied on financial figures not expressly tied to the project.

Let's Play Tennis cofounder Cameron Lickled told the commission the appeal turned on a single question: "Was the RFP applied as written?" He argued evaluators considered non-RFP factors — including brand recognition and an organization's net assets — and cited an unexplained scoring anomaly in which a reviewer gave a high score for a park despite no proposal being submitted for that site. Lickled asked the commission to deem the USTA Florida proposal nonresponsive or to reject the procurement official's denial and…