- 4 Council members are asking Mayor Andy Schor to redo the RFP process for a new city hall.
- This all comes after allegations of unfairness and lack of transparency in the process came to surface.
- Watch video above to see how Mayor Schor is responding.
Resident Claire Healey is fed up, with what she's calling a lack of transparency in the search for a new Lansing city hall.
“Us as residents, we had a lot of questions and they weren't being answered,” Healey said.
The city of Lansing received $40 million in state funding for a new city hall.
From there, Mayor Andy Schor put out a RFP. We’re told, there were 2 developers who applied and Schor ultimately chose the Boji Group to convert the Masonic Temple.
But some residents say they wanted more details around the selection.
“All we wanted to see was what the Boji group’s proposal looked like,” Healey said.
“You as a council member, you're claiming you still hadn't seen the proposal,” said FOX 47’s Larry Wallace.
“Correct,” said councilman Jeffrey Brown.
That response is one of the reasons Brown said he a long with 3 other council members sent a letter to schor on Monday, asking for a new RFP process.
“If the Masonic Temple is truly the best bidder, let that stand against another bidder in a fair and transparent way,” Councilman Ryan Lost said.
We reached out Schor and his team provided the statement below:
“RFPs are a common part of the public development and bid process. The City does them all the time. This one was done legally, with reviews by the City Attorney’s Office throughout, and with transparency throughout the process including putting up a website documenting this at lansingmi.gov/cityhall. The City does not put RFP’s with winning bids out for rebid. This would be unprecedented in any city, and certainly in Lansing. This would make all future RFPs the City issues and awards worth little, and would greatly discourage people from bidding in the future. The RFP process provides for a winner if all requirements are met, and the others are losing bids. Allowing a losing bid to later come back and disrupt the process and undercut the winner would have a chilling effect on future development RFPs. Council has a resolution before them with a project identified. It is based on a legal process that was done under city ordinance. At this time, the City of Lansing is not planning to reissue an RFP City Hall.
Recent polling shows that 58% of Lansing residents support this project, and the Mayor has heard significant support from residents. These Councilmembers have indicated new concerns about the winning project in their letter and the Mayor will review these new concerns. City Council has the decision in front of them on whether or not to purchase the Temple Building to be used as a new City Hall. If these four members are remaining opposition votes, as indicated in the letter, then the Mayor will begin to look at alternative options. Once he fully reviews the letter, he will provide them a response and share it with the media and public.”
-Scott Bean
