New Orleans - Governor Bobby Jindal says he doesn't have enough information to respond to council members concerns over the awarding of a contract for mid-city's planned teaching hospital to an out-of-state firm.
Councilman Arnie Fielkow wants to know how much effort the state made to award the multi-million dollar contract to a local company.
The state awarded the $11.6 million contract for project manager of the planned Mid-city teaching hospital to Jacobs Engineering, a California-based company.
A spokesman for the state says Jacobs has an office in Baton Rouge.
Fielkow wrote a letter to the state outlining his frustrations.
"If we're really gonna try to grow this city economically we've gotta keep the recovery dollars in our community, because that $12 million will circulate many times within the community and will be beneficial to everyone that lives here," says Fielkow.
Fielkow is asking the state to re-open the bid process with more aggressive advertising. A spokesman for Governor Jindal says that's not likely to happen.
The governor wasn't prepared to answer questions about the contract.
"We haven't seen the letter. I encourage you to contact the Division of Administration. They handle all the the contracting and I'm sure they'd be happy to talk about the process," said Jindal.
Jindal's office says Jacobs Engineering was awarded the contract because of its expertise in managing hospital projects.
"There are local firms that are eligible for the job to have them be considered for this contract. If there are local firms that did not bid then I would like to have a reopening of the RFP process to advertise a little more broadly," said Fielkow.
Six other companies put in bids on the contract. A state spokesman was unable to say how much those bids were. The contract was awarded through what's called a Request for Proposal, which means the state was not required to accept the lowest bid.
