Yesterday's post about the no-bid contract shenanigans in progress at the Wilsonville transit agency got us thinking about the many other "sole source" (that is, no-bid) deals that go down in local government around here. Here from the City of Portland website are eight such transactions that Portland's entered into over the last four months:

1. Water Bureau - Boyle & Associates - $40,000 for "facilitation" of Labor Management Committee meetings for 18 months.

2. Fire Bureau - System Planning Corporation dba TriData - $100,000 to prepare a report to City Council "comparing PF&R staffing and deployment levels to like metropolitan fire and rescue departments. Particularly, the report shall address efficient and innovative methods of recognized service delivery. The report shall also provide data to assist Council in determining whether the new response vehicles being purchased with funds from the 2010 Fire Bond shall be staffed utilizing existing or new personnel."

3. Bureau of Environmental Services (sewer) - Northwest Control Co. - $102,978 for an HVAC control system upgrade at a "water pollution control lab."

4. Office of Emergency Management - Online Business Systems, Inc. - $60,000 to "complete the Enterprise Service Bus side of an interface between the Versaterm Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system and the Portland Office of Emergency Management’s WebEOC utility."

5. Bureau of Internal Business Services - Foursome of Woodburn, Oregon - $8,322 for a "Club Car Carryall 1" (apparently, a golf cart).

6. Vehicle Fleet - Brattain International Trucks Inc. - $475,000 for parts for International vehicles.

7. Bureau of Development Services (permits) - Case Associates, Inc. - $20,000 for "for the pre-planning and contracting phase of... migration and integration of the City’s permit system to a statewide system being implemented by the State of Oregon using Accela software."

8. Bureau of Transportation - Alsea Geospatial - unspecified amount for "Trimble Nomad handheld devices with T-Ticket software installed, as well as support and maintenance services for the hardware and software."

Would any of these deals have benefited from competitive bidding? We'll let knowledgeable readers debate that one. But it might be worth our while to check in on this a few times a year to see what else pops up on the city's list.