It was a breakdown in communication between the city of Trenton and the firm contracted to manage lifeguards that caused the near-closure of the city's pools for the summer.
By Ted Quann
It's blistering hot with enough humidity to wilt and entire city. A nice dip in a cool swimming pool would be just the ticket, particularly for the kids out of school for the summer.
But anyone seeking relief from the heat on July 20 in Trenton would have found the city's public swimming pools padlocked.
The closure resulted from a classic clash of two sides not seeing eye-to-eye.
The city had contracted with USA Management, a Georgia-based company specializing in pool operations, to run the city's four public pools for the summer at a cost of $185,188.
Kids tossed in deep end in pool debacle | Editorial
That was a good deal, or so the city thought, because it was $71,299 less than the only other bid submitted by the YMCA of Trenton, which ran pool operations for the city the previous two summers.
It didn't take long for the city to discover it was penny-wise but pound foolish. The pools opened two days late on June 29 because, the city says, USA Management failed to do drug tests for its lifeguards in a timely manner.
After that, the wheels fell off the wagon. The city claims USA Management failed to live up to its contract obligations, citing problems with lifeguard-to-swimmer ratios, the company's attempt to charge residents for swim lessons and its refusal to withhold state and federal withholding taxes.
The rift came to a climax when lifeguards walked off the job on July 20 when they learned that their paychecks would be delayed because the city was delinquent in its payments to USA Management.
Trenton officials said the city decided to withhold its July 8 payment of $41,790 because of the contract deficiencies. But when the city was forced to close the pools because of the lifeguard walkout, the city immediately wired the money to USA Management.
So much for playing hardball; the city got burned.
For its part, USA Management had had enough of Trenton. Elle Anderson, a company spokeswoman, said there were some discrepancies that its contracting department was working out with the city, but it had nothing to do with the way they bid the job.
"It has everything to do with the city changing after they selected USA Management as the contractor," she said. "They had no problems with the job that was being done. This was all caused because they didn't pay their bill and the guards walked off because of an internal communication."
At this point, both sides were more than eager to part ways.
USA Management chose to opt out of its contract, calling the city too much of a "high risk." City Council in turn voted 5-0 to terminate the contract.
In its termination letter, the city said that, all told, it had to incur at least $58,500 in additional costs. That essentially wiped out any savings the city hoped to realize by going with USA Management.
In the end, the city had to turn to the YMCA to pick up the pieces. The Y will be paid $158,560 to run the pools from Aug.1 through Sept. 12.
The lesson to be learned here is that both sides needed to be clear on what to expect from each other. It's all about communication.
YMCA to run Trenton pools for rest of summer
One other telling point was revealed in the Y's bid to run the pools. In a letter included with its proposal, CEO Sam Frisby said an extra hour per day had to be charged for cleaning up the mess left by people who break in overnight.
"When the pool closed, they would come in around midnight and party," Frisby said. "We would have to come in to repair the fences, clean up the condoms, beer bottles and other stuff, and then get ready to open up the pool for camps at 10 a.m."
There obviously is a security issue that needs to be addressed when trespassers can trash the city's community pools with impunity.
Ted Quann is a member of the Times of Trenton's editorial board.