A man after mine own heart. Mrs. Z actually appeared as the maid in Barber of Seville at Washington National Opera five years ago, and 7 years ago we were married in Georgetown at the Episcopal church, and took our guests for a ride in the Tahoe coach after our lunch. . .
For the marvelous job they did hosting us and our guests, I am grateful to the Greska's and Ashby's; and for the most part have only read this stuff and not commented. And my comments are not based on any "special" knowlege from GLR management.
I would heed Mr. Richter's comments about the large lady's aria. Until recently, I worked for a state government as a project manager for the repair and overhaul of commuter pasenger equipment. I have a fair notion of boilerplate and what actually comes back in in the brown sealed envelope (always due by 10 am on some Tuesday). What comes back in those envelopes is not necessarily "compliant" with the published specifications. Now, if at least one bidder (and the Board of Public Works always hopes for more than one) is "fully" compliant; well then, they "apparently" win the bid, subject to approval. If no one is compliant, and a savy potential operator feels that it is "impossible" to achieve compliance, that bidder will then prepare an offer that will try to achieve what they feel will get the job done, and modify the terms so that they feel they will not loose their shirt. I assume that this is a public bid and will be a public opening. If the savy "non-compliant" bidder puts up a well crafted bid that still achieves the goals of protection of the public and the public assets, (and perhaps pays some ROI and profit) then who is going to look foolish in the newspaper?
Another feature of the state bidding process is the ever popular "bid protest". I was under strict rules after we put out an RFP to limit contacts with all prospective bidders to a specified protocol that was listed in the Specifications. If CHS already thinks they have someone waiting in the wings to pick this up, they had better be scrupulous in their contacts with all prospective bidders. Otherwise, all other planholders will have a basis to file protests, which will keep the Loop closed for a very long time.
Steve
