The appeal made by the owners of Alki Crab and Fish to be the vendors at Seacrest Park was rejected today by the Seattle Parks Department. As we reported on Dec. 5, the lease was opened for bid and Marination Mobile won that bid.

Eric Fiedli who is the Deputy Superintendent for Parks stated today:

"We have completed the appeal process for the operation of the Seacrest Boathouse Facility. The original decision to award the operation to Marination has been affirmed following the appeal for reconsideration filed by Alki Crab & Fish Company (ACF).

After a careful re-examination of the ACF proposal, including their letter of appeal, the evaluation questions and the raters’ scores for each question, we did not find any compelling facts or reasons that would warrant or justify a reversal of the original decision. The RFP appeal committee consisted of Kathy Nyland of City Councilmember Sally Bagshaw’s staff, Roque Deherrera, of the City of Seattle’s Office of Economic Development, Terry Holme, Seattle Park Board Chair, and Eric Friedli, Parks Acting Deputy Superintendent.

The appeal committee evaluated the ACF protest by raising several key questions related to the overall RFP decision making process:

· Was the RFP solicitation process conducted in a fair and transparent manner?

· Were the questions posed in such a way that the respondents could reasonably be expected to respond within the context of the RFP?

· Did Parks and Recreation use a reasonable evaluation process and practices, including rating instruments?

· Were directions to raters given in such a way that raters could make consistent decisions on scoring from respondent to respondent?

· Did the respondent provide confidences and assurance based on historical performance and future business models that the respondent could reasonably be expected to meet department objectives?

Another key element of the reconsideration process included a thorough review and assessment of the quality, completeness, and depth of answers provided by the top two respondents’ proposals in response to the evaluation questions. It was clear to the appeal committee that the unfortunate omission of financial information and projection of future revenues and expenses for the operation of the facility weakened the ACF proposal. The strength of the business model provided by each RFP respondent is an important factor in assessing the ability of an operator to finance their day to day operations with little or no direct financial support from Parks.

The RFP appeal committee concluded that Marination provided a stronger set of responses to these and other questions.

It was the unanimous decision of the RFP appeal committee that the process that led to the selection of the Marination was conducted in a fair and open manner. They found that the evaluation team operated within a “best practice” framework, and that the evaluation criteria and direction to evaluators were clear and did result in consistent scoring by each rater.

Christopher concurred with the decision of the appeal committee and ACF has been informed that Parks is keeping with the decision to award the operation to Marination."

This throws into question the fate of Alki Kayak Tours, owned and operated by Greg Whittaker since 2005, also owner of Mountain 2 Sound Outfitters on Alaska Street. Whittaker said he has had limited conversations with the owners of Marination Mobile, including a brief email exchange so he is unsure what their plans may be since much of what they might choose to do was based on the final outcome of today's decision. Whittaker shared this statement:

"With the announcement of the concession at Seacrest Marina awarded to Marination, Alki Kayak Tours hopes to be able to begin discussion the option of collaborating with the new operators. We have worked hard over the last 7 years developing sustainable tourism at the facility, and hope to be able to remain as the boatyard operators of the concession.

Sincerely,
Greg Whittaker "

Marination Mobile will transition into the space between April and June of next year. Alki Crab and Fish is owned by Eric Galanti and his father Rick.
No statement was available from the Galanti family regarding the news.

The full Parks Department review including the proposals from Alki Crab and Fish and Marination Mobile can be found here:
http://www.seattle.gov/parks/partnerships/rfp.htm