The day before Denver City Council members publicly vetted a proposed $70 million contract for parking at DIA, three council members along with labor leaders privately grilled the firm scheduled to get the contract in a meeting that one participant called “troubling.”
Council members Paul Lopez, Chris Nevitt and Doug Linkhart attended the meeting, possibly in violation of Colorado’s open meetings law.
Also in attendance were four members of the Service Employees International Union, which has raised concerns about Standard Parking, the Cleveland-based firm that Denver International Airport officials have said offered the lowest price and is best qualified to handle the work.
“I found it to be a little bit troubling, to be honest,” said Jack Ricchiuto, executive vice president of Standard Parking.
He said that his firm does business with more than 60 airports across the nation, including O’Hare International in Chicago, and has never encountered such detailed involvement in contract negotiations by council members.
The council members asked Standard about health care reimbursement and pay.
“We weren’t going to dole stuff out of the cookie jar to satisfy what the union might think would be a fair reimbursement of health care or their hourly rates,” Ricchiuto said.
Colorado’s sunshine law requires “all meetings of a quorum or three or more members of any local public body, whichever is fewer, at which any public business is discussed . . . to be public meetings open to the public at all times.”
Trio believe meeting was proper
Nevitt, Lopez and Linkhart said that under Denver’s home-rule provision, they believed they could hold the meeting without public notice because fewer than seven council members attended.
Labor leaders and airport parking employees have raised concerns over Standard’s bid because the proposed management fee is significantly lower than one submitted by Ampco System Parking, which has held the contract since 1997. Ampco’s proposal included an annual management fee — money that would be paid to the company by DIA — of nearly $1.3 million. Standard’s fee was for $510,000 each year.
Ricchiuto said Standard’s bid was based on the salaries and health care reimbursements the airport set in the request for proposals. He said Ampco’s management fees included a bonus pay program and health care reimbursement, while his firm’s management fees do not.
Labor leaders were in the midst of negotiating a new contract for the employees when the airport put the contract out for bid. SEIU fears the new contract could increase health care costs for workers.
Employees support Ampco
Parking employees submitted petitions last week urging the council to stick with Ampco and have threatened to strike during the Democratic National Convention.
Nevitt, who organized the meeting between Standard and union officials, said nothing improper occurred.
“Part of our job of being City Council members is to reduce conflict,” he said. “And we faced a potentially huge conflict between the bidder, about which many questions were raised, and the union, which has a legitimate concern that the low bidder is controlling costs on the backs of the workforce.”
The $70 million contract is for five years, with two one-year extensions.
The contract was scheduled for initial consideration before the full council this past Monday but was postponed for two weeks so airport officials could review the proposed bids.
Councilman Charlie Brown said the meeting concerned him.
“There’s a separation of powers that must be followed,” Brown said. “The executive branch negotiates a contract, and we vote up or down what is presented to us. We can’t modify that contract.”
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com
