Brookhaven has negotiated final contracts with the companies that are providing services for the city, lowering projected costs by approximately $1.4 million.

After bids were awarded, city staff worked with vendors to refine what the city will need in its first year of operation. In most cases, a request for proposals outlined work that would not be necessary during the city’s start up.

By narrowing the scope of work, city officials said vendors were able to lower their costs.

“We negotiated substantial cost savings with the selected contractors in order to maintain tight control of the FY 13 budget and also to serve as responsible stewards for our citizens’ financial interests,” said Interim City Manager Marie Garrett in an email.

Like other new cities in the metro Atlanta area, Brookhaven runs on a public-private model. The new city outsourced most of its functions to private corporations through a competitive bidding process.

The Governor’s Commission on Brookhaven, a quasi-governing board appointed to help set up the new city until a mayor and council members were in office, issued requests for proposals and wrote a report of recommendations for the city.

After reviewing all of the submitted bids, Brookhaven City Council selected five vendors to operate city departments.

Brookhaven was set up on a task-order model, similar to the city of Sandy Springs. The system lets the city select a main vendor to perform the work, but awards bids to multiple firms for each service. This creates a runner-up system that allows the city to switch companies without rebidding the contracts if the contractor is no longer doing a satisfactory job.

Cutting costs

Final prices for the city of Brookhaven’s 2013 service contracts

Department                                         Vendor                                                             Fixed Price
Information Technology               InterDev                                                           $815,601
Communications                              Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.              $173,000
Municipal Courts                             Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.               $244,864
Community Development           Clark Patterson Lee                                   $1,145,934
Public Works                                     Lowe Engineers                                             $598,000
Finance and Administration      UHY                                                    under negotiation

Source: city of Brookhaven