Carol Stream hires new landscaper in light of ‘inconsistent’ work
Carol Stream officials say a landscape contractor they hired to maintain rights of way along village roadways performed inconsistent work that’s led to overgrown grass in many spots.
But the contractor says it was just following the village’s own contract, which only requires grass to be cut every two weeks in some areas.
The village’s one-year agreement with Alaniz Landscape Group of Elgin expires at the end of the month, and as a result, the village is hiring another contractor and signing a new deal that would require landscaping services as needed.
“In my experience in 20 years, it’s easier to supervise and for the contractor to simply bid all the work out in one lump sum,” said Phil Modaff, the village’s public works director. “We established specifications and said, ‘Give me your price for doing it all year. If you’re cutting grass twice a week in the spring because of the rain, then you’re cutting it twice a week. But in the fall if the grass is not as high, you don’t have to do it.’”
On Monday, the village board approved a $97,475 contract with Jameson Landscaping of Streamwood for landscape maintenance services beginning in May. The one-year deal runs through April 30, 2013, with the option of two one-year extensions, should the village so choose.
The low bid, from Alaniz, was $54,344, though Modaff and village staff say they didn’t recommend the firm for renewal because of “inconsistent” quality of service, “unreliable” responsiveness to staff, and invoicing that has been difficult to administer.
The current agreement with Alaniz is for $35,215.
It’s not the first time the village has been involved in a dispute over landscaping. The previous village-hired landscape contractor, TLC Group of Clarendon Hills, accused the village of not paying its bills on time — perhaps the result of a “personality conflict” with village staffers, a company official said last year.
Miguel Alaro, Alaniz’s president, said all landscaping services were performed according to the contract. For example, he says the contract stipulates that edging is to be done only once a year, and the village wanted it done more than that.
“It’s not fair for them to say we did not provide services when we did,” Alaro said. “The result of the service was based on how the contract was written. You can see the results there plain.”
He says his firm’s relationship with the village soured after they had a meeting to renegotiate a lower price for mulching.
“It was written in the contract. We’re not going to be more than what is in the contract,” Alaro said. “Then they said we didn’t return calls or emails, and that we didn’t do our job. There were lots of issues they started to throw at us.”
Modaff said the village doesn’t take issue with how often Alaniz mowed, but with the quality of the work when they did do it. For example, he said one time they mowed around a large log without removing it.
“When they performed the work they were supposed to, they didn’t do it well,” Modaff said.
Alaro said he also had difficulty dealing with various village departments who oversee the landscape contract. That may be because the assistant village’s manager’s office is responsible for certain rights of way in town, and the public works department is responsible for others.
So under the new agreement, all duties will be handled by public works, Modaff said.
He says he took an in-depth look at how the village handles landscaping after receiving complaints last year from residents that the “program was not up to the same quality as it was in prior years.”
While funding for landscaping has been scaled back, Modaff said he hopes centralizing supervision of the contract within his department — among other changes, such as bidding for one lump sum — will lead to a more successful program.
The village handles 70 percent of landscaping work in house, and contracts out 30 percent.