A Catering Tale

Miami commissioners want their parties catered locally, or not at all

By Angie Hargot

Catering for the City of Miami Mayoral Christmas Lighting and Holiday Celebration. Photo courtesy of 2Taste Catering.

It was at the March 13 city of Miami commission meeting that Commissioner Tomas Regalado banned city parties.

Well, all right. He didn’t exactly ban city parties.

But he wasn’t too happy about the catering. Regalado was reacting to a request from Procurement Department Director Glenn Marcos to approve a list of 44 catering vendors that didn’t include any Miami caterers. The companies would serve as approved businesses to cater city parties and events.

Marcos explained that no Miami caterers seemed to want the gig. But Regalado and several other commissioners became irate at the idea of handing city business to non-Miami vendors.

“When you finish this list, come back. Until then – no parties!” Regalado challenged.

Goods and services costing $25,000 or more must go through a bid process. Regalado flippantly suggested that parties should just be kept under that amount, and, to make the point, he inquired if the pastelitos he brought to the city Christmas party violated the procurement law.

Then ill-informed Commissioner Angel Gonzalez (he said he didn’t realize that money expended from his district account still had to go through the procurement process) asked Marcos to complete some homework. In addition to finding Miami caterers, providing a list of every party held in the city last year and the amount of funds expended on each, he wanted a list of auto paint and body shops. Auto body shops?

“I have a lot of shops in my district. And I never see city cars in any of them,” Gonzalez said. “We’re here every day complaining that there’s not enough jobs for people.”

“The purchasing department will be issuing an invitation for bid for the provision of auto body repairs and painting services,” Marcos said. “And similar to our last contract, [it] will only allow for city of Miami vendors to compete for the city’s business.” Marcos also provided a list of seven body shops that do or have done work for the city.  

Also during last week’s discussion, Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones instructed the Economic Development Division of the Department of Community Development to reach out with Marcos’ team to bring in additional catering companies to participate in the process.

Although the city cannot force Miami businesses to become vendors, the item was continued unanimously to the commission’s April meeting to give Marcos and his staff more time to lobby Miami caterers to apply.

Although Marcos doesn’t think the lack of catering vendors has affected the city yet, commissioners noted that local businesses often feel the pain of doing business with the city.

“It is very hard to do business with the city,” Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones said. “They don’t want to wait 60 to 90 days to get paid.”

“Catering companies like to get payment advances, deposits and to be paid in cash as soon as the services are rendered. Typically most municipalities will not provide for payment advances,” Marcos explained. “Also, municipalities will pay for services via a check [not cash] and payment may take up to 30 days, if those are the terms of the contract. However, municipalities can be proactive by decreasing or shortening the time frame or number of days for payment.”

But Marcos said he expected an influx of vendors ready to do business with the city “because our past experience has been that when the economy weakens, suppliers’ interest in doing business with government increases.”

The resolution to the catering dilemma may not be far behind. The city has so far qualified six caterers for city business; the next step is just more Miami-based vendors. “It is the desire of the City Commission to reach out to small, local and minority businesses,” he said. 

To that end, “the purchasing department has conducted market research on local caterers,” Marcos said, adding that part of their outreach involves contacting local companies and getting the word out that the city seeks their services.  

Julie Mansfield, who serves on the city committee charged with evaluating the caterers, said she has evaluated about five vendors for the city, including Bleu Flame and Catering by Les. The evaluation process assesses the caterer’s food quality, presentation, skill and cooperation.

“We have a good rapport with the city,” said Bleu Flame Catering Manager Leroy Reynolds, whose company works with the city, catering Christmas parties and barbecues. “Occasionally it does take that long to get paid, but sometimes it’s quicker.”

Reynolds said he supports the city’s outreach to local vendors. “I always think that way,” he said. “If we’re local, we’re closer, and we know what the city is about. It shows support within the city.”

One company that the committee gave high marks to is 2Taste Catering, located in Miami. 2Taste Catering founder John Rossetti said he welcomes competition for catering gigs. He agreed that red tape could be to blame for the small pool of catering applicants for city business, and added that limited resources also play a role.

“The city sends out the request for proposal, and then they issue the approval to the lowest bidder — we lose a lot of [bids] that way,” the 20-year catering business veteran Rossetti said, adding that he has seen payment time frames in the 90-day range. 2Taste has catered events like the city’s Green Day celebration and office mixers.

Rossetti said the vendor requirements for doing business with the city are quite stringent in terms of insurance requirements.  

“It’s an expensive endeavor” to work with the city, Rosetti said. “But my experience has been pleasurable because of the people I work with there.” He said in order to work with the city, he cut his pricing structure to a third of what he would charge a private individual or company. “I look at it as giving back to my community.”

Rossetti noted that the lowest-bidder requirement does often end up compromising quality. “We’re a world-class city,” Rosetti said, asserting that higher-quality events contribute to a city’s reputation. “New York City has Shakespeare in the Park, we have Art Basel … and that’s not speaking as a businessman to make more money, but as a representative of the city.”

Comments? E-mail angie@miamisunpost.com