Rohnert Park's disabled park crew may lose job

For the past seven years, Sandy Burell, who is developmentally disabled and gets around with the aid of a walker, has cleaned the restrooms at Rohnert Park city parks.

“I do good bathrooms, I do it fast,” Burell said last week at Sunrise Park. “I don’t want to stay home and do nothing.”

Dan Surber, who is also developmentally disabled, walked the park picking up trash.

“I love doing this, I like doing it a lot,” Surber said.

They were two of five clients of Rohnert Park Services who were working at the park, where they have been a common sight for years.

It is part of a program in which 24 Rohnert Park Services clients clean parks, get paid $8.25 a hour, and then just like anyone else would do, go to the bank and go out to eat.

The contract, however, is now in jeopardy.

The city put it out to bid and the nonprofit was underbid by $12,000 a year by ABM Janitorial, part of New York-based ABM Industries, which last year had 100,000 employees and $2.8 billion in revenues.

Last week the City Council, with one council member absent, split 2-2 on how to award the contract.

Mayor Jake Mackenzie and Vice Mayor Pam Stafford both said the work should go to the lowest bidder.

“It is fiscally responsible for the city to take the lowest bid,” said Pam Stafford, the city’s vice mayor. “We are supposed to award the contract to the lowest bidder.”

Councilmembers Tim Smith and Vicki Vidak-Martinez contend the city should take a socially conscientious position.

“I don’t want this vulnerable population to lose their jobs,” Smith said. “I want to be morally responsible. I don’t want to lose my soul for a few dollars.”

It is not unusual for the City Council to take moral stands where dollars are at stake, however.

At the same meeting when bids were presented, the council had a presentation from the Boys and Girls Club, which rents a building from the city for $1 a year. Mackenzie endorsed a local nonprofit that raises funds to aid East Africa. And the council supported waiving city fees for a Rancho Cotate High School student activities program.

“If the city can give the contract to an organization that also provides the service we are looking for, but also is working for disabled populations, it is worth looking at,” said Vidak-Martinez, whose foster son is disabled. “There is an element of social good to be considered here as well.”

Quality of work is not an issue.

“These guys do a good job, and it has nothing to do with the challenges they have,” said Teresa Mwangi, assistant director of Rohnert Park Services, who has managed the parks cleaning program since it started 19 years ago. “They also teach the public a lot ... they are part of the community like everyone else.”

Councilwoman Amie Breeze, who was absent at the meeting last Tuesday, said she will recommend keeping the service by taking the $12,000 difference out of the council’s own travel and meeting budget when the bids come before the council again Aug. 27.

“It’s important for these individuals to keep their jobs,” Breeze said. “It’s important really to support these kinds of services.”

Rohnert Park Services is part of Old Adobe Developmental Services, a Petaluma-based nonprofit that serves 160 developmentally disabled.

Old Adobe executive director Nicky Boyette said the Rohnert Park program also provides transportation, counseling and placement services, but began having its clients clean city parks as behavioral therapy 19 years ago.

Many of the 24 workers in the program have issues, such as short attention spans or the need for extra supervision, that make it difficult to hold regular jobs.

Boyette said the city saw the work they were doing and came to the nonprofit with a contract offer.

“The purpose of Rohnert Park Services is to work on these behavior issues. Jobs provide incentive, it is money, they like what they do and it provides a service,” Boyette said.

ABM Janitorial, which also has a contract to clean some city of Rohnert Park buildings, was the low bidder at $52,482, with Old Adobe next at $64,044.

ABM Industries spokesman Tony Mitchell confirmed the New York-based company had submitted a bid, but declined to discuss its terms, including the pay for workers.

Judy Hager, Rohnert Park Services director, said her program should not get the contract just because it serves the developmentally disabled.

“We have a thoughtful, experienced group of people who take pride in their work, and get the job done. We weren’t the lowest bid, but we know how to clean parks,” Hager said.