Spurred by an apparent “unfair advantage” of a member of the Horse Racing Commission intending to submit a response to an RFP for a new operator at Rillito Park, Pima County has canceled that process and will review the condition of the track before asking for proposals for a new track manager.
Because of the tainted bidding process, there won’t be any racing horses circling the track for the February through March season in 2025, officials said.
The county had issued a request for proposals on July 1, with responses due by August 1, “in an effort to secure a new horse racing operator” for the track on Tucson’s North Side, Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher wrote in a memo Monday.
But because a member of the Pima County Fair Horse Racing Commission had inside knowledge of the discussions as that RFP was prepared, and the commission’s associated nonprofit (the Pima County Fair Horse Racing Foundation) intended to apply to run the track, county officials determined the “procurement process is compromised.”
“To preserve the integrity of the competitive procurement process, the solicitation must be cancelled and may be re-solicited at a future date,” Terri Spencer, the county’s procurement director, wrote in a memo to Lesher on Monday.
Timothy Kelly, a member of the commission, “assisted in the drafting of the RFP and was appointed as an Evaluation Committee member. After the RFP publication date of July 1, 2024, the Procurement Department was informed that the foundation intends to submit a response to the RFP. On July 11, 2024, Mr. Kelly recused himself from the RFP Evaluation Committee confirming the foundation’s intent to submit a response to the RFP,” Spencer wrote.
Because Kelly “received an advance copy of the scope of work, participated in the RFP drafting process, and was an Evaluation Committee member, he and the foundation as a potential respondent to the RFP have access to information that was not equally provided to all potential applicants,” Spencer wrote.
“The cancellation of the current RFP allows Pima County to fully assess the current condition of Rillito Racetrack,” Lesher wrote in a memo to the Board of Supervisors on Monday, noting that the chair of the commission has said the track does not meet Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority standards.
Citing JoAnn DiFilippo, the commission’s chair, the county administrator wrote that the track at Rillito Park at North 1st Avenue and East River Road may need a new rail system, and recent storms have caused “significant damage” at the site, including “the destruction of roughly half the temporary barns.”
“When the county has an understanding of the repairs and renovations that are required and a timeline for completion of these modifications, a new RFP will be developed and issued. Given the possible magnitude of issues to be addressed, racing will not occur at Rillito Racetrack during the 2025 season,” Lesher wrote.
Kelly, who the Board of Supervisors appointed to the commission in 2017, “stated that he was unaware that the foundation was intending to bid,” Lesher wrote.
That group — the nonprofit arm that fundraises to support horse racing — was not the only one that expressed interest in competing to become the track operator.
The commission “operates county fair horse racing days and may request that the Board of Supervisors officially designate specific days in 2025 for” those days, she wrote. The commission may contract with another Arizona racetrack to provide those days, and did so with Turf Paradise in 2024.
The county issued the RFP because the previous track operator, Rillito Racing, Inc., did not provide required financial audits in 2021, 2022 or 2023, Lesher told the board. That company had run the track since 2014.
Source link : https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/072224_pima_horse_racing/conflict-interest-hitch-rillito-park-horse-racing-rfp/
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Publish date : 2024-07-23 01:42:49
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