Irony of who does the contracting...

Earlier this week, the DC Auditor released a report giving a negative review to the contractor that manages DC's Eastern Market, according to "Eastern Market manager accused of violating lease" from the Examiner. If you read the letter of default (I am on the oversight board for the Market), most of the transgressions involved not getting competitive bids for contracts under $25,000. I am not saying this isn't important, it is. And like most everyone else, I am not impressed by the management capabilities of the contractor.

But still, I find it incredibly ironic that the New Towns master developer was imposed by DC Council legislative fiat -- no RFP, no competitive bids, no independent evaluation of bids (because there were none). As I keep saying, if any DC Government agency other than the City Council had executed a similar no-bid sole source contract worth tens of millions of dollars -- it would have been illegal! Why is City Council "above the law"?