An expensive no-bid contract is deferred by the Board of Estimates
Underground utility marking is a surprisingly big business in Baltimore, with a controversial $6.55 million contract taken off the BOE agenda at the last minute
Above: Color-coded markings along the 5700 block of Falls Road. Red stands for an underground electric line, orange for a city-owned conduit and yellow for a gas pipe. (Mark Reutter) .
The Baltimore Board of Estimates was set to approve tomorrow a single-source contract for utility locating and marking services that was 50% higher than when the contract was competitively bid.
The Department of Public Works had designated the contract an exclusive “non-construction consultant agreement” with One Call Concepts Locating Services, a Hanover, Md.-based company.
As a consultant rather than a contractor, One Call Concepts would receive the $6.5 million award without going through the city’s RFP (request for proposals) and competitive bidding process.
Late today, a spokesman for Council President Zeke Cohen, who chairs the spending board, confirmed that the contract had been deferred until the board’s June 18 meeting at the request of DPW.
The Brew had been preparing a story about the contract, reporting that when the same type of work was competitively bid – and won by a One Call Concepts rival – the price was 54% less.
In 2021, the Department of Public Works (DPW) handed back the contract to One Concepts as an “emergency authorization,” which not only avoided competitive bidding, but did not require approval by the Board of Estimates.
The initial authorization to One Call Concepts was for $4.3 million. But in 2023, then-DPW Director Jason W. Mitchell authorized a $1,250,000 increase.
Former DPW Director Jason Mitchell (left) and Baltimore’s current public works director, Khalil Zaied.
Justifying an Emergency
In a February 28, 2023 memo obtained by The Brew, Mitchell justified the increased price because “this event is an emergency of such a nature that the public welfare would be adversely affected as there is insufficient time to obtain Board of Estimates approval in advance.”
Mitchell wrote that the contract’s purpose to mark utility lines prior to street excavation was “to protect and maintain vital utilities owned and operated by the city, including the sewer system, water distribution system, electrical conduits and fiber optic ring. Interruption of this service would have dire consequences for the city.”
The emergency authorization was approved by Finance Director Michael Moiseyev, as required by the city charter.
Comptroller Bill Henry has since questioned the notion of routine city contracts being processed as “emergencies,” a practice that increased during and after the Covid pandemic.
He estimated that at least $41 million in emergency spending took place – without BOE approval and outside public view – between 2021 and 2024.
A February 28, 2025 memo shows the One Call Concepts award at $6 million. It was later increased to $6,5551,250, apparently at the request of the company’s president, Daniel J. Sheehan.
A Promise to Bid
In his February 2023 memo, Mitchell asserted that DPW agreed that the contract should go through normal bidding channels in the future. “However, the bidding process has not started yet. DPW needs an extension while the new request routes through the procurement process,” he wrote.
Mitchell left DPW in the summer of 2023, and his successor, Khalil Zaied, did not get the solicitation process going,
Zaied ignored the entreaties of Robert Fulton Dashiell, an attorney representing Pro Comm ELS, the former holder of the contract, to start the bidding process as well as gentle reminders by Adam Manne, the city’s purchasing agent.
Dashiell provided The Brew with a stream of emails he sent to Zaied and others that went unanswered.
“The record strongly suggests a deliberate attempt to award the contract without competition” – Attorney Robert Fulton Dashiell.
“This clearly reflects the city’s intent to bypass competitive bidding and continue the ’emergency’ declared years ago,” Dashiell wrote in a letter sent to the Board of Estimates yesterday.
“My emails reflect Pro Comm’s persistent efforts to participate in a fair bidding process, and DPW’s refusal to provide updates or justifications for not issuing an RFP. The record strongly suggests a deliberate attempt to award the contract without competition. Equally troubling is the fact that the sole-source contract will provide One Call approximately $2 million per year, significantly higher than the amount previously paid to Pro Comm.”
According to an internal DPW information sheet, the agency had planned to pay $2 million a year to One Call Concepts over the next three years to locate, map and photograph the city’s public utilities.
Sometime between February 28 and March 28, 2025, however, the price was raised from $6 million to $6,551,250, reflecting the price sheet sent to DPW by One Call Concepts President Daniel J. Sheehan.
The two main cost items to be charged to the city were “utility field re-marking” ($4,275,000) and “utility investigation ($1,228,500), followed by “emergency tickets” (45,000 x $14.95 for $672,750).
It was the $6.55 million figure that appeared on page 270 of the June 4 BOE agenda, set to be ratified tomorrow.
Zaied, who sits on the board, did not respond to questions about his role in placing the contract before the panel.