Bidding Process

The U.S. Olympic Committee has extended the deadline for the eight U.S. cities bidding on the 2012 Summer Games, giving them almost nine additional months to submit paperwork. The delay was prompted by recommendations stemming from the Salt Lake City bribery scandal.Under the timetable announced yesterday, Washington-Baltimore and its seven competitors will have until Dec. 15, 2000, to prepare bids. The original deadline was March 31, 2000."We needed to add some time to the schedule for several reasons," said Dick Schultz, the committee's executive director.

The arduous, three-year effort by Baltimore City Community College to develop one of its valuable Inner Harbor properties hit a major roadblock yesterday when top state officials refused to endorse the college's building plans.During a meeting of the three-member Board of Public Works in Annapolis, Gov. Parris N. Glendening and Comptroller William Donald Schaefer agreed to postpone a decision on the proposal while a state agency examines how the college handled the bidding process.The vote was at least a temporary victory for the Cordish Co., a Baltimore development firm, which was passed over by college officials 18 months ago when they selected a team to build on the 500 E. Pratt St. site.

The Baltimore County Council is expected to award a 10-year, $82 million health care contract tonight without formally checking whether other companies could do the work better or cheaper.On advice from a consultant, the County Council likely will approve a pact with CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield to administer medical claims and provide other services for most of Baltimore County's 22,400 teachers, police officers, public works employees and other workers.The county is bypassing the competitive bidding process designed to ensure that taxpayers get the best deal.

The Baltimore County Council is expected to award a 10-year, $82 million health-care contract tonight without formally checking whether other companies could do the work better or cheaper.On advice from a consultant, the County Council likely will approve a pact with CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield to administer medical claims and provide other services for most of Baltimore County's 22,400 teachers, police officers, public works employees and other workers.The county is bypassing the competitive bidding process designed to ensure that taxpayers get the best deal.

The Inner Harbor paddle boats are back.After an 11-day shutdown of the tourist attraction caused by a legal battle over ownership of the docks, the 50 brightly colored boats were back in action Thursday under the management of the Living Classroom Foundation, a nonprofit educational organization.The owner of the boats, Ed Kane of Harbor Boating Inc., donated them to the foundation after losing a public bidding process for the franchise off the city-owned waterfront.Although Kane on Thursday filed a $1 million claim against the city for damages caused by what he called an unfair bidding process, he said he decided last week that the public should no longer suffer from the shutdown.

A Friday Opinion * Commentary page article about a community forum last month on regionalism, which was sponsored by The Sun, incorrectly attributed some remarks to ++ Ioanna T. Morfessis, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Baltimore Alliance. The statement concerning a trip to Stockholm during the bidding process for the Olympics should have been attributed to Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke. The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 12/06/98

Orioles owner Peter Angelos said yesterday he has declined to increase his bid for the Washington Redskins, but hasn't received any formal notification that he's no longer in the running to get the team.Angelos said he assumes he's no longer in contention, but he dislikes the blind bidding process being conducted by the investment banking firm of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in which he doesn't know what the other bidders are offering."Let's just say the whole process and procedure is not one that we find appealing," Angelos said.

A local firm seeking to provide bus service for the elderly, disabled, and impoverished in Howard County is protesting a decision by a group managing the bidding to allow other companies to submit proposals 16 days after the bid deadline.In a formal complaint, Urban Rural Transportation Alliance (URTA), a private, nonprofit corporation in Columbia, charged that extending the bid deadline from May 7 to Friday will hurt its chances of getting the contract -- as well as those of another firm that met the deadline.

The County Commissioners -- vacillating and deeply divided about how to dispose of Carroll's trash -- failed again yesterday to move toward solving a looming garbage crisis.The one thing the commissioners agree on is this: They don't want to open another dump site at the county's Northern Landfill near Westminster.But they can't agree on an alternative.Meanwhile, one dump site has been closed and a second dump site is nearly full -- so full that the county must begin exporting trash by July 1, or open a third site at the landfill at a cost of $3.5 million.

IT'S BAD ENOUGH that the Columbia Association -- pseudo-government for what would be the second-largest city in Maryland if Columbia were incorporated -- played games with its bidding process.CA President Padraic M. Kennedy now acknowledges procurement procedures are a bigger mess than he suggested three months ago.Worse, though, is that both the problems and the president's admissions happened outside the public's view.Improprieties in CA's process for obtaining goods and services remained hidden from the public until an investigation by The Sun earlier this year.

Ciena Corp.'s offer to acquire Nortel Networks Corp.'s optical networking business for $521 million would create the largest maker of network equipment in North America and position the technology company to compete more effectively on a global scale, experts said Wednesday. Ciena, based in Linthicum, said Wednesday it has signed agreements to pay $390 million in cash and 10 million shares of Ciena common stock, valued at $131 million based on Tuesday's closing price, to acquire Toronto-based Nortel's optical networking and carrier Ethernet assets in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia.

The manufacturer of Maryland's medevac helicopters is protesting the state's effort to replace the aging fleet, alleging that the bidding process favors another company and would add to the program's cost. State officials have budgeted more than $50 million to buy new helicopters, and bids from manufacturers were due last month. American Eurocopter has filed a formal protest with the state Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the procurement of the aircraft, and wrote a letter to Gov. Martin O'Malley.

A year ago as the professional indoor soccer championship game approached, Blast officials and fans were fuming. This year they were beaming. Simply put, a change of venue made a world of difference to everyone. Saturday night, when the Blast hosts the Rockford (Ill.) Rampage at 1st Mariner Arena for the National Indoor Soccer League title, the biggest event of the indoor season is finally where they believe it belongs - at the home of the top seed and regular-season champion. That was not the case in 2008 when the Major Indoor Soccer League held its finale in Milwaukee (which had won a bidding process)

Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller called on a slots commission yesterday to consider tossing out all bids submitted to build casinos around the state and starting over. The startling suggestion from a powerful lawmaker underscores frustration in Annapolis with the outcome of this week's bidding process, which resulted in six proposals to install fewer than half of the 15,000 slot machines authorized by voters last fall. Two of six bidders failed to put up more than $20 million in required licensing fees.

As they prepare to open bids for slots licenses today, Maryland officials are casting a wary eye on Kansas, hoping that recent history will not be repeated. In Kansas, two gambling development companies won the rights to build "destination casinos" near Kansas City and in the southeastern part of the state - projects that the state was relying on for an economic boost. But in the face of the recession, the companies have withdrawn their bids, leaving Kansas officials hanging, and delaying the flow of gambling dollars.

Baltimore's Board of Estimates awarded a $4 million contract for the Uplands redevelopment yesterday to a firm that did not meet city women- and minority-owned business guidelines, passing over two firms that followed the city's policies and causing some elected leaders to ask whether the decision compromises the honesty of Baltimore's bidding process. "It changes the rules," said City Comptroller Joan M. Pratt. "It appears that we don't want to give it to the person who followed all the rules.

Anne Arundel County did not err in awarding a $10.8 million artificial turf contract to a politically connected landscaping company with no experience working with turf despite "deficiencies" in the firm's bid, according to an audit released yesterday. But the report criticized the county for signing contracts with a second company, AmDyne Inc., to oversee the bidding process and supervise the construction, saying that the deals were made outside county guidelines. County auditor Teresa Sutherland also found that the director of central services, Fred Schram, spoke on his county-issued cell phone 15 times to the president of the winning company, Sunny Acres Landscaping Inc., before, during and after the bidding process.

GREENBELT -- A former private security company executive admitted yesterday that he bribed a government official to secure $130 million in contracts as part of what federal authorities call one of the largest public corruption operations ever prosecuted in Maryland. Michael B. Holiday, 50, of Silver Spring pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt to bribery and tax evasion in connection with rigging three federal government contracts awarded to his Montgomery County company for private security guards at federal buildings in California and Maryland.

The high-stakes bidding for Japanese pitching star Daisuke Matsuzaka could begin as early as today, though the Orioles still haven't decided whether to be a part of it. The Orioles have gotten great reports on Matsuzaka and are interested in the 26-year-old right-hander, who was 17-5 with a 2.13 ERA for the Seibu Lions this past season and was the Most Valuable Player of the inaugural World Baseball Classic. However, the pitcher's price tag - the cost to earn just the right to negotiate with Matsuzaka could be more than $30 million - has certainly made the Orioles' decision whether to get involved in the process a difficult one. "We are considering putting in a bid," said executive vice president Mike Flanagan, declining to offer any more details.

Public Service Commission Chairman Kenneth D. Schisler offered yesterday to provide a confidential briefing to key legislators who have raised questions about the bidding process that resulted in the pending 72 percent increase in BGE electric bills. Schisler made the offer to Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael E. Busch in response to questions they sent last week to officials at BGE and its corporate parent, Constellation Energy Group. Schisler said he wanted to assure them that the bidding process that resulted in the higher rates was fair and designed to produce the lowest possible prices for consumers.