After numerous postponements, a resolution authorizing Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins to execute a $1.9 million contract for recycling services with C. Edwards Concepts was voted on and approved with an amendment requiring a performance bond be provided by the contractor. Council members spent some time during a three-hour City Council meeting discussing whether that performance bond stipulation was fair to Charlette Edwards, owner of C. Edwards Concepts, as a condition of the contract especially since it was not part of the request for the proposal she responded to.
A performance bond is essentially a way to guarantee against the failure of meeting obligations specified in a contract and is usually provided by a bank or an insurance company. Councilmen Grayson Boucher and John Nickleson, as well as some citizens, voiced concerns as to whether Edward’s company was equipped with trucks and staff to handle the city’s recycling collection. With a 4 to 3 vote, the resolution was approved as amended.
Councilman James Green told the council he would vote for the resolution but against the amendment requiring a surety bond. “In the City of Shreveport at this particular time, there are no other contracts that requires surety,” Green said. “We have a clause in the contract that if she does not perform all of her duties, we have the opportunity and the right to withdraw it.”