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Carefully organized facility design and construction programs too often give way to fragmented, poorly documented operations and maintenance programs. This is particularly true for correctional facilities, which experience continuous use under severe conditions of operation and are costly to repair under occupied conditions. Recognizing this, the
city of Philadelphia engaged Gillan & Hartmann Inc. (G&H), an engineering and operations management consulting firm in Valley Forge, Pa., to develop procedures for operating and maintaining large, existing, new and/or newly renovated public facilities.
The first step of this initiative was instituted in 1995 for the new 2,000-inmate, state-of-the-art, maximum security Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility (CFCF) under the
direction of Andres Perez, commissioner of the Department of Public Property. Perez expressed his concern that "the original, minimal approach to facility operations and maintenance does not make economic sense when capital investments in the millions of dollars result in shortened life, and countless additional millions of dollars spent to replace inadequately maintained systems, equipment and finishes under extremely difficult occupied conditions." Perez' sentiments were echoed by then First Deputy Managing Director Joseph Martz, who suggested the city hire a facility operations management consultant.
In July 1995, as a result of these resolutions, Philadelphia issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to outsource the operations maintenance and support services (OM&S) functions for CFCF. The OM&S specification included implementation of a state-of-the-art computerized building maintenance system designed for the correctional facility. The basis of the award was specified on a three-step, "qualm ifications-based, best-value" selection.
The foundation of the OM&S RFP was a detailed specification of the precise responsibilities of the successful contractor, including provision of: operation of the entire physical plant; locksmith services; preventive maintena nance; maintenance and repair; general maintenance; direction of house-keeping, inmate janitorial services; supply and replenishment of attic stock and consumables; support services (facility administrative); incidental construction; maintenance shop control and operation; direct tion of the inmate site maintenance program, including snow removal; specialty sub-contractors; computerized work order programming; construction fit-up; and operational control of local and remote attic stock storage warehousing. As a result of...