http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbcointoss0711sbjul11,0,3127676.story
Davie officials say it's legal to toss a coin to award a contract
Davie The flip of a coin can swing
the fate of so many things. A childhood bet. Who kicks off the game on
Super Bowl Sunday.
And in Davie, it can determine who wins town business.
A selection committee of town staff resorted to a coin toss to break a
3-3 tie over which vendor would win a one-year contract to run the
town's aquatics program.
The deadlock was between the Boca
Swim Academy, which had offered to pay $18,000 a year for exclusive use
of town pools, and the Florida Swim Academy, which had offered to pay
$14,400. Contract price was not driving the decision, but rather which
company was better qualified.
The Florida Swim Academy lost.
Company owner Karen King has vowed to complain to council members before
they approve the contract on July 18. Her Coral Springs company, whose
contract ends Sept. 30, has provided swim lessons at Davie's two pools
for more than a decade.
"I'm so stunned," King said. "Thirteen years of work went to a coin
toss."
Gayle Frechette, vice president of the Boca Swim Academy in Coconut
Creek, thought the whole thing quite fair. "It certainly could have gone
either way," she said.
Leaders in other cities were both amused and astounded over the coin
toss decision.
"That's Davie," quipped Deerfield Beach Mayor Al Capellini.
Weston has never flipped a coin — or had a tie, sniffed
city spokeswoman Denise Barrett.
"You're kidding," Lauderhill Mayor Richard Kaplan said between hee-haws.
"They did a coin toss?"
With the selection committee's seventh member absent on June 22, and no
one to break the tie after a second vote failed to change the outcome,
Town Clerk Russell Muniz flipped a coin — a quarter, to be exact.
Neither of the rival companies was present for the coin toss.
"On the surface it may sound a little hokey," said Herb Hyman, the
town's procurement manager and chairman of the selection committee. "But
it is a fair and impartial way to break a tie."
Davie Mayor Tom Truex said it was the first he'd heard of the coin toss.
"I don't know why they wouldn't report it as a tie," Truex mused.
Councilman Michael Crowley didn't approve, calling it unprofessional.
But the procedure is legal, town spokesman Braulio Rosa said, noting it
is part of the Broward County code.
Still, Davie may be one of the few cities in Broward to flip a coin to
award a contract.
Fort Lauderdale has never used that method to decide a contract, said
city spokeswoman Shannon Vezina. But in 1998, the city tossed a coin to
decide a personnel matter. Jessie Oliphant had applied for a promotion
to senior parking security guard. He didn't get the job after calling
"heads" during a toss that came up tails.
Susannah Bryan can be reached at
sbryan@sun-sentinel.com or
954-385-7929.