A company under investigation in connection with a multimillion dollar garbage cart contract with the city supplied thousands of carts that were smaller than specified, the Daley administration said Thursday.
The city paid more than $1.2 million for the undersized plastic bins on wheels that were provided by Urban Services of America, said Jennifer Hoyle, a spokeswoman for the city’s Law Department.
In March, Urban Services notified officials that the model it had been supplying was no longer available and switched to another brand that the company said met the city’s specifications, Hoyle said.
But a check now has determined that the carts that were delivered, which were supposed to hold 95 gallons of refuse, were smaller, she said.
City Hall sources familiar with the check said the replacement model had a capacity of about 90 gallons.
A spokesman for Urban Services said in a statement that the company hadn’t been aware that the new model was smaller. “This represented a small portion of the overall product provided,” the spokesman said.
The Tribune reported last month that Urban Services was supplying the carts to a minority-owned firm called Urban Systems Inc., which, in turn, sold them to the city under a contract valued at about $5 million. That firm’s owner died in November 2002 and Urban Services supplied the city with carts and, records show, cashed the checks the city sent to the minority company.
The city has withheld $500,000 in payments after officials last month announced the city’s inspector general was investigating.
Eric Griggs, the city’s purchasing chief, has said he has seen no evidence that the minority company was a front for white-owned Urban Services. The investigation centers only on the matter of the payments, he said.
More Top Picks Best Travel Makeup Bags For Women
Urban Services has won about $28 million in city business over the years. The firm was selected by the city to clean up after city festivals and partnered with another company, Chicago Contract Cleaning and Supply Co., last year to do that work.
Meanwhile, city officials announced Thursday that a new contractor has been selected for the garbage cart contract after a new round of bidding.
The firm, Rehrig Pacific Co. of Pleasant Prairie, Wis., will supply the carts for $34.62 each, a 3.3 percent increase from the $33.50 under the old contract.
The city buys about 110,000 carts a year, distributing them to homeowners.
Rehrig wanted the city’s business earlier but apparently was unaware of bidding for the previous cart contract, awarded in 2002.
In a March 2002 letter to David Malone, then the city’s purchasing chief, Rehrig municipal sales manager Scott Lukach complained that the company had not been notified about bids that were due weeks earlier. The Tribune has obtained a copy of the letter.
Lukach said he left two messages with the Department of Streets and Sanitation about the status of the city contract, but the calls were not returned.
In the recent round of bidding, three other firms sought the city’s business but were rejected. One of the firms, Chicago Contract Cleaning, was turned down because it listed Urban Services as one of its suppliers. Urban Services cannot participate in any new contracts pending completion of the current investigation, officials said.
A bid by Chicago United Industries was rejected because the carts it proposed did not meet city size specifications, while Root Brothers did not submit required test results of its product, officials said.