City must take bids for new pool filter
By Jeff Gallatin
North Olmsted
Published Jan. 30, 2008

City officials are preparing to bid out a contract for replacing a 30-year-old pool filter for the outside swimming pool in the hope that they can still get the facility ready in time for the summer recreation season.

Administration officials had planned to just replace the part without putting the contract out for bid. Because of the age of the filter, they believed only the original manufacturer could replace the part.

However, Law Director Jim Dubelko ruled that City Charter provisions require the city to place it out for bid.

City officials hope the extra time involved in putting the work to bid, approving a contract and then getting the new filter installed will not delay the opening of the pool for the summer recreation season.

“We still hope to have it open in time for the summer,” said Mayor Thomas O’Grady. “We’re aware that it’s getting close timewise, but the law director has said we have to do it this way to be proper, so that’s what we will do. We think we can still get it done.”

Recreation Commissioner Ted DiSalvo reiterated his previous belief that the filter can only come from the one source.

“It’s a 30-year-old part,” DiSalvo said. “We’ve done well to keep it functioning this long. It’s unlikely that another company is going to be able to duplicate it. So we’re likely going to get it from the Whitmer Company again. We do need this to get the pool open this year.”

Community Life Services Director John Dailey said the city did attempt to fix the problem again.

“We tried some in-house repairs in an effort to keep it going until we got the new part in, but they didn’t work,” Dailey said. “We still have plenty of time before the pool is scheduled to open. It’s 18 or 19 weeks until June, so we should be able to get this done.”

Dubelko said he was aware his ruling is adding time to the process, but said the City Charter indicates that the work should go out for bid.

“It doesn’t fit the criteria for an emergency purchase, which would not require putting it out for bid,” Dubelko said. “It’s not something like not having power or sufficient police cruisers or something which impacts the public safety. It’s a swimming pool, which, although it has a big impact on the community, isn’t a health or safety issue. And we don’t have provisions in the Charter for a single provider.”

Dubelko noted that ironically enough, there was discussion a few years ago of getting an exception to bidding when there is only a single provider clause in the City Charter.

“It didn’t get out of the City Charter review commission, and council also decided not to put it on the ballot,” Dubelko said. “We had several Charter amendments which were under consideration. Some of them passed with the voters on the first try and a few didn’t.”

City Council members said they’re aware of the situation and want to move ahead as quickly as possible.

“We know that it’s a tight time frame,” said Ward 2 Councilman Paul Barker, who was the council recreation commission representative in 2006 and 2007. “Ideally, it’s something where if we could do it another way, we’d certainly do it that way. But our law director is telling us we have to place it out for bid, so we are placing it out for bidding. The administration is telling us they can still get this done in time to open for the summer, so ideally we can do that.”

Michael Gareau Jr., chairman of city council’s Finance Committee, said council understands the need to move quickly but legally.

“We certainly hope that we have allowed ourselves enough time and that we can get it done in time,” Gareau said. “We have to do things the right way.”

Although many recreation expenditures come out of separate accounts than the city general fund, Gareau said council would certainly consider using general fund money to make sure the new filter is installed and working properly.

“This is something which is important to the proper operations of the pool and the city recreation program,” Gareau said. “It’s something where we’ll do it if we have to.”

O’Grady said the administration also would be willing to use general fund money if necessary.

“Unfortunately, this is an original piece of equipment, so we don’t have the flexibility in replacing it that we’d like,” O’Grady said. “This also points out the problems we have in this area. We’ve had to replace a number of old parts, and things like this is why we’re looking at putting some kind of recreation issue on the ballot later this year.”

O’Grady and administration officials have said they are considering a recreation issue, most likely in November.