CLEVELAND, Ohio – Sometimes, when Cuyahoga County tries to buy goods or services, it’s lucky if even one business responds.

It could be because the item or service is so specialized that there are a limited number of businesses that can even produce it. Or it might be because inflation, supply chain shortages or catastrophic events, like the pandemic, make it harder for companies to take on new clients or get what they need to meet demand.

But increasingly, companies say they aren’t even trying to contract with the county, their silence answering a rhetorical question that County Councilman Dale Miller has asked often over the last two years: “Doesn’t anybody want to do business with the county?”

Glen Shumate, executive vice president of the Construction Employers Association and executive director of the Contractor Assistance Association, works with hundreds of trades businesses whose owners tell him, “They just don’t view the county or public (contracts) as something they would chase.”

The reasons companies give for not pursuing county work are varied and sometimes complex, a review of 260 “no-bid” sheets in 2022 shows. The county asks businesses to fill them out explaining why they chose not to respond to requests for proposals, bids or qualifications.

For some, the answer was simple: the business does not provide the goods or services requested.

Other times, businesses said they didn’t see the county’s request, or at least not in time to respond by the deadline. The county releases a six-month forecast to help businesses anticipate upcoming projects they might want to bid on and when the paperwork will be due, but owners say it’s more useful for companies that sell goods, like toilet paper or office supplies, not those working in less predictable service and construction industries.

Businesses can also register with the county to receive notifications about available work. But some owners, like Ariane Kirkpatrick with The AKA Team, a commercial construction and facilities company, say it hasn’t been reliable or effective – “I have filled that out so many times,” she said of the online registration.

AKA pursued and won a $1 million job to outfit county buildings with safety equipment during the coronavirus pandemic because they saw the opportunity posted in the media, and they partnered with Gilbane to win a piece of constructing the new jail, Kirkpatrick said. But otherwise, they aren’t tracking county work.

“I don’t know when they have a job open,” she said.

What companies say

Companies shared other incidental reasons for their decision not to pursue county business, such as being too busy to take on new clients, staffing limitations, or being too small to qualify as the primary provider, though they’d be willing to subcontract on a portion of the work.

But sometimes, companies said they just didn’t want to work with the county. They blamed payment or pricing issues that make it hard to make payroll, the time-intensive application process, or the belief that the county plays favorites.

According to some of their no-bid responses:

• One contractor did not apply for a road resurfacing project because he said the county engineer “grossly understated” the estimated cost of the project, which the company could not match. Several other businesses also said they had trouble offering competitive bids within the county’s price range. One company said their estimate exceeded the county’s expectation by $1 million.
• A construction company complained that “the amount of paperwork required to turn in a bid seems excessive” and recommended a faster process that would make it easier for smaller companies with limited staffing to apply. Shumate confirmed it’s a complaint he hears often from businesses seeking less paperwork and quicker returns: “If I feel I have to go through multiple steps to get there, is there somewhere less onerous that I can seek business?”
• Meeting the county’s small-, minority-, or women-owned requirements for projects has also been burdensome, some businesses said, especially when so few of businesses choose to get certified because the application and renewal process is also cumbersome and requires annual renewal.
• “We would not be able to meet payroll for the entire contract period, and knowing that, it can become very stressful,” one staffing agency said. “When Cuyahoga County is able to help small businesses with bi-weekly payments instead of net 30 days payments, that incentive would increase our bidding options.” Others noted problems with prolonged retainers and the county’s documented struggle to provide prompt payments over the years.
• At least two businesses said they weren’t confident that the county would fairly consider their bid over other companies the county had contracted with in the past. “Assumed a competitor would win the project, based on their past experience in the area,” one owner responded. Another said they submitted a bid to print and mail out tax bills at a cost of eight cents per copy, but never heard back. “We have been in the print mail business for 30 years, (and) have 7 facilities around the country,” the owner wrote. “If .08 a copy doesn’t warrant a call back, we just don’t know how we can help you all.”

The county may not be able to control or fix every issue that businesses raise, Miller told cleveland.com, but “sometimes things can be done.” He continues to question contracts with few bidders to find out why interest is low and highlight potential areas for improvement.

Bidding on contracts takes time and money, Miller said, so companies won’t submit them unless they believe they can win. If the county can increase their confidence, it could help increase competition.

“Anything to simplify bidding or make it clear that new bidders will get fair consideration would help,” he said.

What the county is doing

Historically, the county has always had trouble generating interest in many of its routine, low-dollar purchases, but bigger projects don’t tend to have the same problem, Paul Porter, the county’s director of purchasing, told cleveland.com. In August, he could recall only a few contracts with only one bidder.

Still, he said the county recognizes the benefit in making the entire contracting process easier and more efficient and is taking steps to do that.

“We would rather have multiple proposals for bids so that there’s a little bit more competition rather than choosing from one vendor that submits a response,” Porter said. “I think it gets taxpayers the best value.”

To that end, Porter said county departments are proactively reaching out to new potential vendors about projects they may be interested in and hosting educational events to get more businesses registered in the county’s database. While companies don’t have to register to view contract opportunities on the county’s purchasing website, it does make it easier to receive notifications about jobs in their industry.

The county is also encouraging more small-, minority- or women-owned businesses to certify, which helps with increasing diversity in contracting. Certification can be a cumbersome and lengthy process, Porter acknowledged, but being on that list can increase business opportunities and help facilitate subcontracting partnerships.

Currently, there are 464 businesses that are certified in the county, nearly all of them carrying the small business tag in combination with one other designation. There were 204 companies registered as minority-owned and 200 as women-owned.

Kirkpatrick is registered under all three titles, but her sister, who runs a smaller commercial cleaning business, hasn’t wanted to go through the steps. The lack of certification and the inability to increase the business’ line of credit are issues that keep her sister from competing for more jobs, Kirkpatrick said.

“We have to figure out how to help small businesses with those access points to be good contributors to these projects,” she told cleveland.com. “In order for us to be great businesses and sustainable businesses, we need to make it not so hard to be part of the projects.”

There has been talk of streamlining the process by allowing businesses to certify once with the state and have it apply in their home county as well, but it’s unclear if and when that will happen. In the meantime, Porter said the county has created how-to guides to make it easier to apply by walking businesses through each step of certification.

Shumate isn’t convinced that will be enough. The county has to prove that it’s worth the trouble, he said, meaning it increases job opportunities.

“Of those certified in the county, how many have ever done any work?” he asked. “Just because you’re certified, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be awarded anything.”

Not every problem has a solution, though.

On requests for bids, for example, the county is required to use the vendor that can provide the good or service for the lowest cost, Porter said. That can often discriminate against small or unionized businesses, like AKA, that intrinsically have to charge more.

“Very rarely are we the low bidder” Kirkpatrick said, adding that she believes they only won the coronavirus contract because the county was able to factor in their quality of work, support of local jobs and small business certification.

“If they used that same concept (for other contracts), we would feel more comfortable bidding,” Kirkpatrick said.

The county is trying to use more requests for proposals or qualifications where it can, Porter said, which allows it to score businesses on more than the price of their goods and services.

It’s also been working to provide more timely payments. Departments are approving contracts sooner, tracking invoices more closely and ensuring businesses have the right county contacts to address their questions and concerns, Porter said.

But even that may not be enough to entice companies, according to Shumate. He gave the example of a $30-million company bidding on a $50,000 project with a profit margin of 5%, or about $2,500. Weighing in the time and effort it took to put together a response, the often-slow payment schedule and the low profit margins in the end leaves most businesses questioning, “is that appealing enough to me?” he said.

It’s a “chicken or the egg” conundrum, Shumate said. The public wants oversite and high standards in government spending, but those standards can make it harder for businesses to participate and limit diversity in contracting.

“I’m not sure there’s any one cure-all that says if you change this it will help everybody,” Shumate said. “There’s a bunch of things we need to work on.”

The county has already been making adjustments to improve the process, which Porter said he hopes will encourage more businesses to consider working with the county. There is opportunity, he said, for those willing to try.

“We don’t play favorites with particular vendors,” Porter said. “If you’re a vendor that’s never done business with us, but you come in with a quality proposal or bid that’s going to meet our specifications, chances are that you’ve got good odds of potentially doing business with the county.”