Curiouser and curiouser

“Curiouser and curiouser!” Cried Alice in Alice in Wonderland. The same exclamation seems to apply to our own Marina City Council when it comes to round three (or is it four) with a new Cypress Knolls request for qualifications (RFQ).

A brief look at the recent history and things simply do not seem to add up. After a two year process of extensive review and financial vetting the majority on our City Council decided to scrap the entire process and start over with a new RFQ. Then they decided to reconsider that decision and a very qualified developer was chosen (Coastal Rim Properties, CRP), then another reconsideration and they voted to scrap the entire process once again.

Throughout this process the Mayor has been for a second developer (Peninsula Housing Partners, PHP), Councilman O’Connell claimed that neither developer was qualified, Councilman Ford and Councilwoman Amadeo supported  (CRP) and Councilman Brown has wavered between starting over and supporting CRP.

So now we find our City Council wrestling with the creation of a new RFQ. The Mayor and the Mayor Pro Tem now want an accelerated process to choose a developer as soon as possible (they had one). And in the process, they want less information about the potential developers. Rather than require a certain amount of qualification, history and financial backing he prefers that they meet a base level of these qualifications.

So here is my question. If after a two year process of extensive review requiring multiple submittals of massive information, two developers were deemed unqualified, how can you ask for less information over a substantially shorter timeline and come up with a different outcome that’s credible?

Here are a few more questions that would make sense to ask as well. At what point in an accelerated process do you get this information? How far down the road do you go before you discover a potential developer is not qualified? How much staff time and money do you spend before you have the critical answers necessary to make a qualified decision? Isn’t it better to spend the time and effort up front and determine who is in fact qualified before proceeding with a project worth tens of millions of dollars?

As Alice said… curiouser and curiouser!

More later