When the City of Kent sought to continue contracting out janitorial services, members of Local 2617 wasted no time in demonstrating that the work could be done more efficiently and more cost-effectively in-house.

As a result the City withdrew the contracting-out proposal. The work will be done by union members from May 16.

The situation arose when the City of Kent bought a building next door to City Hall that they had previously been leasing.

In doing so, they also bought the janitorial services, explains Rob Sprague, Staff Representative for Council 2. The previous owner had a contract with the janitorial company.

“They renewed it without even considering any alternatives,” Sprague says.
The Union questioned the action at the time but, after discussion, agreed to raise it again when the contract came up for renewal.

The contract came up for renewal in December 1999 but Council 2 and the Local began talking with the City in the summer and early fall.

“We asked the City to add positions so we could do the work,” Sprague says.

To prove that the Union members could do the job as cost efficiently as anyone, members calculated how much it would cost to use in-house employees. They concluded that it would take the equivalent of 2.5 full-time employees.

“The estimate was based on the bid parameters,” Sprague explains. With the assistance of Rex Tippery, custodial supervisor for all the City of Kent buildings, Rosalie Givens, who serves on the executive board of Local 2617, and Debra LeRoy, who works in the Police Department, he put together a cost analysis and presented it to the City.

When a couple of prospective contractors underbid the Local estimate, Local members examined the bids and found problems with them. Tippery, who keeps extensive records on the custodial services provided by the City, found the bids were not comparable to the work that the Union members would provide.

“It was not apples to apples; it was more like apples to bananas,” says Givens. Also, she added, the City had received many complaints from people who rented space in the building about the quality of the contracted-out janitorial services.

“None of the bidders really complied with the specifications on the requests for proposals,” explains LeRoy. “They had left out costs and that’s why we did the analysis — to show a fairer representation of all of the bidders.

“Also, we noticed that some of the required specifications were requesting a set amount for work that our employees already do; they were not singled out as separate costs.”

They raised the issue once more with City Hall who decided to add the 2.5 FTEs.