Pot calls kettle black in Tri-Rail bid protest by MCM’s Munilla

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In a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black, Pedro Munilla of MCM has complained that another building company got the recommendation for a government contract because of an inside deal and political palanca — in other words, because of who they know.

Yes, this is the same Munilla who is related, by marriage I think, to Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos “Cry Wolf” Gimenez and who gets millions of dollars of work through the county and the Miami-Dade School Board, where the mayor’s wife works as a top level administrator.

The $40 million Tri-Rail bid in question went to Gulf Building and Munilla says MCM provided a lower estimate, by $700,000, and has more experience in that kind of work. Munilla also indicates that Gulf Building only got the bid recommendation from staff because of the board’s connections to the firm.

Gulf’s president and CEO, John Scherer, is the son of GOP powerbroker William Scherer, a Gov. Rick Scott confidant. Company VP Chip Derrer, is the son of Rick Derrer, president of James A Cummings Inc. general contractors. Cummings himself, the company’s chairman and founder, sits on the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, or the board that governs Tri-Rail and makes the final decision.

In a three-page letter to the authority’s procurement director, Pedro Munilla rips Gulf Building while he provides a detailed technical analysis of what he calls “serious errors, oversight and shortcomings of this procurement process,” which “could cast a shadow over the fine work” of the regional board.

“MCM would not normally request a reevaluation of a recommendation, but we are dismayed that a firm that lacks the required qualifying experience and submits a bid $700,000 more expensive than MCM would be ranked the highest,” Pedro Munilla wrote in the Nov. 24 letter. “While we understand that personal relationships may on occasion provide one company an advantage over another, this recommendation is alarming in our comparative analysis and unfairly distorts this competitive procurement.”

And he should know a thing or two about personal relationships that provide an advantage.

And not just at the county it seems.

Because Munilla got Sen. Anitere Flores and State Reps. Jeanette Nuñez and Manny Diaz Jr., to pen a letter of protest expressing “disturbing concerns” about the bid process. In a letter Monday to Miami-Dade Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, who chairs the regional transportation authority, they seem to overly promote MCM’s qualifications and they ask the board to skip the staff recommendation and hear oral presentations by both bidding firms themselves. Ladra has quoted it in its entirety, so you can see what I mean by overly promote.

“We write this letter to urgently bring to your attention and that of your fellow SFRTA Board members some disturbing concerns that have publicly surfaced as enumerated in the attached letters from MCM, the lowest price bidder on the above referenced project by $700,000. The concerns relate to the Evaluation Committee’s recommendation of award, without conducting any form of oral presentations, to a firm that is not only $700,000 higher, but which appears to not have demonstrated the requisite experience in similar scope and size projects. We ask that this matter be considered and given the highest level of scrutiny before approving a recommendation to award a contract on this RFP.

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  bid protests, Carlos Gimenez, Munilla Construction, Tri-Rail