State (CA) skirts bid process in PR deals

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 06/07/2002 | Bill Wallace

[Pokey78]

Sacramento -- California government agencies have signed more than $70 million in contracts for public relations and advertising services in the past three years without using the competitive bidding process typically required by state regulations.

The 13 no-bid deals ranging in size from $318,000 to $30 million were let by eight state agencies under circumstances usually reserved for emergencies or for products that can only be obtained from a single supplier. State agencies are otherwise prohibited from signing contracts over $100,000 without competitive bidding.

[gubamyster]

How many of these deals need to be uncovered before somebody calls for a formal investigation?

[heleny]

The accompanying chart, below, lists about $70 million in no-bid public relations deals. Given the Oracle no-bid contract, the prison phones no-bid contracts, etc., awarding huge no-bid state contracts must be integral to Gray Davis' fund-raising strategy! How many of these companies donated to Davis?

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Awarded without bids
No-bid public relations and advertising contracts awarded 
by California in the past three years:
Agency                             Date     Company               Amount
Trade and Commerce                 2/24/99  Key Concepts          $950,000
Trade and Commerce                10/26/00  K2 Communications      519,120
Cal Expo and Fair                  4/11/00  Mering & Associates    923,051
Cal Expo and Fair                  4/28/00  Mering & Associates    97,448
Consumer Affairs                   2/16/01  Grey Worldwide         30,000,000
Health Services                    1/24/00  Runyon Salzman         1,525,000
Education                          6/25/99  Deen & Black           318,000
Employment Development            12/05/01  Mering & Associates    8,500,000
Business, Housing, Transportation  2/25/00  Western International  7,000,000
Children & Families First         11/03/99  Runyon Salzman         7,000,000
Children & Families First         11/03/99  Asher/Gal and Partners 7,000,000
Children & Families First         11/06/99  Rogers & Associates    1,686,000
Children & Families First         12/15/99  Rogers & Associates    3,000,000
CalTrans                           7/31/01  Glass/McClure, Inc.    2,384,562
Total:                                                           $70,903,181
.
Source: California Department of General Services