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Council postpones award of towing contracts after firms challenge solicitation language and distance requirements
Summary
Following public comments that a towing solicitation may have mis-specified the number of vendors and a 10-mile location requirement, the council postponed action on a three-vendor towing and storage contract to allow procurement to review the record and return with clarifications.
The Riviera Beach City Council postponed approval of three continuing-service towing and storage contracts after two proposers raised concerns about the solicitation’s requirements and scoring.
Procurement Director Latonya Ammons briefed the council on the RFP process and said the solicitation closed with three responses. A long-time city provider, Coffs Towing, told the council its firm had been ranked highest but that the solicitation stated the city intended to retain two vendors while staff proceeded to recommend three. The company also flagged a 10-mile radius facility requirement that appears multiple times in the solicitation and said one proposed awardee’s storage facility appears outside that radius.
“Allowing a proposal that does not satisfy a mandatory distance requirement to receive the contract would undermine the integrity of the procurement process,” Coffs’ vice president, Sean Loscalzo, told the council.
A second commenter representing another proposer said Priority’s storage facility is 27–31 miles from City Hall and therefore outside the stated 10-mile requirement.
Procurement acknowledged the concerns and said its department has discretion to waive irregularities but needs time to review whether an error occurred. The council voted to postpone the award until the next meeting so staff can provide the procurement record, confirm rankings and clarify whether mandatory qualifications were correctly applied.
Council directed staff to return with documentation of the evaluation, the advertised requirements, and any justification for deviating from written qualification standards. The item was continued to the next meeting.
