Richmond is preparing to outsource maintenance of the city's vehicle fleet, a move expected to both save millions of dollars and set the stage for construction of a new baseball stadium next to The Diamond.
Outsourcing those services to a private contractor, first proposed by City Auditor Umesh Dalal in a scathing audit of the city fleet maintenance operation four years ago, would help clear the way for a stadium to be built at the 30-acre Parker Field Maintenance Facility property on North Boulevard.
Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones, who has endorsed the Boulevard site for a new stadium, issued a request for information in October on outsourcing fleet maintenance and conducted environmental tests on the entire Parker Field site this year.
"The highest and best use of the Boulevard (property) is not a fleet maintenance facility," Richmond Chief Administrative Officer Byron C. Marshall said Friday. "Ideally, we would move our fleet operation off of Parker Field."
Marshall said the city is trying to save money by making fleet maintenance more efficient, but it also is considering the economic development of the entire Parker Field property.
"The ballfield is part of that, but not the totality," he said.
The request for bids, expected in the next three weeks, comes as the Richmond Flying Squirrels' management is calling for the region's local governments to move faster in replacing the deteriorating Diamond in time for the 2014 baseball season.
"There does have to be more of a sense of urgency because this place is literally falling apart," Lou DiBella, president and managing general partner of the minor-league baseball franchise, said in a series of interviews.
DiBella said he's not blaming anyone for the delays in reaching an agreement on a new stadium. "But the truth is, everyone has to sit down and try to arrange a deal," he said. "That's the city and counties and the Squirrels and everybody."
The outsourcing proposal has been long-awaited by city officials and private vendors who say Richmond could save millions of dollars a year by turning over the operation, now budgeted at about $21 million a year to maintain more than 2,400 vehicles, to a private contractor.
Dalal estimated in a 2007 audit that outsourcing the fleet maintenance operation could save Richmond $2.6 million a year.
"I think it needs to be outsourced. … It has not operated efficiently," said 9th District City Councilman Douglas G. Conner Jr.
Conner, who owns an automobile body-repair business based in South Richmond, visited an outsourced fleet operation in Harford County, Md., in 2007 with Dalal and then-City Council President William J. Pantele.
"Reform of the city fleet management operation is in my opinion critical," Pantele said last week. "It's just been dragging on far too long. … The issue is a lot bigger than the baseball stadium situation."
But the fleet maintenance facility has bedeviled attempts to develop a new stadium or other uses along North Boulevard for almost a decade. Three years ago, then-Mayor L. Douglas Wilder issued a request for information from companies interested in running the operation.
The request gave contractors the option of doing the work at the Parker Field facility, which Wilder had balked at moving because of a price he estimated at $30 million.
First Vehicle Services, the company that runs the Harford County operation and maintains Richmond's school bus fleet, responded to the request in 2008 and has been waiting for a chance to bid since then.
"For more than a decade First Vehicle Services has been providing excellent repair and maintenance services, at substantial financial savings, for the 250 Richmond school buses transporting students every day," said Jason Stack, vice president of the Virginia region for the Cincinnati-based company.
"We are encouraged the city of Richmond is about to move forward with its own fleet management privatization plan, and we would welcome the opportunity to work with them," Stack said.
Marshall said the city is trying to determine what services to outsource, as well as what services it can share with the Richmond school system. Those decisions will determine what type of facility, if any, the city would need to create.
"It helps us right-size our operation," he said.
Richmond will expect bidders to say where they would provide the services, but the city needs to move the Parker Field operation to solve the long-simmering dispute over upgrading or replacing The Diamond.
The Diamond's condition and lack of a firm plan to replace it influenced the Atlanta Braves to relocate their Triple-A franchise to Gwinnett County, Ga., after the 2008 season. Richmond was without professional baseball in 2009.
The Double-A Eastern League and owners of the franchise that was based in Norwich, Conn., transferred the club to Richmond in September 2009 with the understanding that if they provided a product that was well-received and well-supported, a new ballpark would follow.
The Flying Squirrels invested more than $2 million in ballpark renovations before their inaugural season last year, and they led the Eastern League in average home attendance (6,626). This season, they again lead the league in that category (5,838) and spent about an additional $250,000 in stadium upgrades.
Richmond has made clear to the Flying Squirrels that it's not interested in keeping the fleet maintenance operation at the Parker Field site, which sprawls from North Boulevard to Hermitage Road.
"They have given us assurance that the fleet maintenance facility will not hinder them," said Ralph L. "Bill" Axselle Jr., a lawyer who is representing the Flying Squirrels in discussions with the city and surrounding counties about a new ballpark.
Axselle would not give details on those discussions, but he said Friday, "I think good progress is being made. I think we will ultimately have an understanding."
Richmond has conducted environmental tests on the entire property, which includes repositories of road salt and sand, a traffic control operation and a radio shop. The city has put particular emphasis on the portion of the property that is likely to be used for the new stadium.
"It's not an extensive cleanup that's required, based on the data that we have," Marshall said.
The movement comes at a good time for the Squirrels, who are getting restless in their current nest in The Diamond.
DiBella commended the city for taking steps to move forward on a long-term plan for a stadium and said he empathizes with all localities in the region as the lingering effects of the recession continue to squeeze municipal budgets.
However, he added, "we need a sense of urgency here because it's not going to be getting any better."
Henrico County Manager Virgil R. Hazelett said he understands the concerns and praised the Flying Squirrels' organization for drawing large crowds and creating excitement over minor-league baseball. He said the stadium remains a regular topic in meetings among the region's local government administrators.
"The real questions from a regional perspective are, Are we going to participate (in financing a new stadium), and when are we going to do that?" Hazelett said. "The question is timing. I just don't know when that is."
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