Surprise bid postpones buggy-tour selection
BY BRANDON HONIG -
The Beaufort Gazette, South Carolina -
October 20, 2006
BEAUFORT -- The winners of Beaufort's first sealed-bid auction for the right
to operate buggy tours in the city are undetermined as officials consider an
unexpected proposal that offers a percentage of the company's annual revenue.
Beaufort allows two companies to run horse-carriage tours. The City Council
decided last year to hold a sealed-bid process for those two slots after the
city's attorney, Bill Harvey, said competition laws mandate companies be given
an opportunity to gain entry into the market.
The winners of Tuesday's bidding process will gain the right to operate in
Beaufort from 2007 through 2011. From 1995 through 2006, the city's two
carriage-tour companies paid $10,000 annually.
Of the three companies that offered bids, two proposed flat payments while
the third offered a percentage of its annual revenue as an option.
Sea Island Carriage, which is trying to gain entry into the market, bid
$26,106 per year. SouthurnRose Buggy Tours, which currently runs tours in
Beaufort, bid $26,113 annually.
The city's other tour company, however, submitted a bid that assistant city
manager Matt Horn said "did not fall into the format we anticipated." Carolina
Buggy Tours offered to pay either $10,000 or 4 percent of its annual ticket sales, whichever is more.
"Because of that one, we're having to step back and look at the process,"
Horn said. "We have to consider how to value that."
City manager Scott Dadson will make the final decision on the bids.
A Carolina Buggy spokeswoman declined to comment, but SouthurnRose owner
Peter White said 4 percent of his company's annual sales is about $10,000.
White said he thinks Carolina's bid should be thrown out.
"There were instructions in the bidding process online, and those did not
include the description of the bid that came out of the Carolina Buggy Tours
business," White said. "To have it not rejected immediately ... we were left
with our mouths open and no answer."
The online request for sealed bids said only, "The minimum bid for each slot
is $10,000 per year."
Horn said the city hopes to have a decision within the next week, especially
because the carriage companies need to begin planning for next year.
"If (Carolina) displaces one of the other two companies, we want to give that
company a chance to plan for not doing business next year," Horn said. "That's
the end of their business."
If Sea Island is awarded a slot, the company will have 30 days to prove its
horses and equipment meet city standards.
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