DuPage jail food costing you more

It's going to cost at least $150,000 more to feed inmates at the DuPage County jail this year because the county board is re-bidding the jail's food contract for a fourth time in less than a year.

Minnesota-based A'viands Food & Service Management is serving three meals a day under a temporary contract first awarded in June. The contract has been extended three times now, most recently Tuesday. It runs until the end of May.

The county board agreed to pay A'viands a little more than $1 million for the 11 months it has served food in the jail. The price is based on A'viands' original bid, county officials said. The company's most recent bid -- its third -- was going to cost the county $850,000 a year.

That difference is "a substantial amount of money, and our job is to keep the cost of government down," board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom said. "It's certainly not the best way of issuing a contract, and the longer we put it off the more it's going to cost taxpayers."

The original bids were tossed after another company, Aramark, which had held the contract for 21 years, threatened to sue the county amid complaints about the bidding process. The second round of bidding was discarded after the county decided neither bidder had matched nutritional standards.

In the third round of bidding, Aramark's bid was lowest, but it was rejected because the company substituted items on the mock menu. The state's attorney's office upheld the rejection.

"The Aramark bid offered a price for a menu other than what was specified," assistant state's attorney Anna Harkins wrote. "A menu was provided and both bidders were advised that alternate menus would not be accepted."

Aramark officials said the menu the county provided in the bid package was filled with impossible portion requests. The nutritionist who devised the menu admitted there were mistakes in the menu's measurements.

The board's judicial and public safety committee voted to re-bid the contract a fourth time earlier this month and give Aramark another shot. That's despite arguments from county staff members that Aramark never expressed concerns about the menu and made changes without consulting the county's procurement division.

"The committee felt that the staff incorrectly found that Aramark was unresponsive," said committee chairman Michael McMahon. "The decision was based on the fact we're spending more money."