Carla Pritchard of Chattanooga Presents
The City Council on Tuesday night narrowly voted not to approve a contract for Chattanooga Presents for management of events at the 21st Century Waterfront after a controversy about the selection process.
Chairman Ken Smith, faced with a 4-4 tie, voted against. He said, "Half of this council is not comfortable with proceeding with this contract and I am going to side with them."
Councilman Chip Henderson had earlier moved to table the matter. That ended in a 4-4 tie and with Councilwoman Carol Berz abstaining. So that motion failed.
Maura Sullivan, city CEO, said upon legal advice it is not planned to go out for a rebid.
She said, "We will probably do the work inhouse. It is long hours and very hard work and we don't have the staff to do it. But we will work on it in the morning."
City Councilman Darrin Ledford said it was a good idea to have citizens take part in the evaluation process for a contract for managing events at the riverfront. But he said it was "a horrible idea" to get input from a person who gave a reference for the recommended firm, Chattanooga Presents.
He said, "I got an earful all weekend about equity, transparency and fairness."
Councilman Henderson said with council members "perception is often reality." He said in awarding city contracts, "I would want our process to be above reproach."
He said since the choice of Chattanooga Presents over the longtime vendor, Friends of the Festival, "We have been grilled continually."
Councilman Henderson said, "There is a cloud of suspicion over this - especially since the recommended vendor was also the highest bidder."
Chattanooga Presents bid $70,000 and Friends of the Festival $55,000.
Ms. Sullivan said community members sign statements that they will be impartial. She said, "We rely on that."
Councilman Henderson said the council had floated the idea last August of allowing knowledgeable citizens to sit on bidding review panels. However, he said the council was not told that the process had been implemented with the riverfront proposal.
He said, "We're the one who came up with the idea, but we're just finding out that it's been implemented."
Ms. Sullivan said the staff had been trying the idea out on this caser as a "pilot project" and was going to report to the council on how it went.
She said, "I believe our process was handled appropriately."
Ms. Sullivan said she did not want "a cloud of suspicion" over the person who was mentioned as being a reference, saying often people are listed as references.
Chattanooga Presents has long been operated by Carla Pritchard.