Four Points by Sheraton v. United States

63 Fed. Cl. 341, 2004 U.S. Claims LEXIS 357, 2005 WL 44440
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedDecember 23, 2004
DocketNo. 04-1589C
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 63 Fed. Cl. 341 (Four Points by Sheraton v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Four Points by Sheraton v. United States, 63 Fed. Cl. 341, 2004 U.S. Claims LEXIS 357, 2005 WL 44440 (uscfc 2004).

Opinion

ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFF’S MOTION TO SUPPLEMENT ADMINISTRATIVE RECORD

WILLIAMS, Judge.

In this post-award bid protest, Plaintiff, the Four Points by Sheraton (Four Points), challenges the Army’s award of a contract for meals and lodging for aimed forces applicants to Command Management Services, Inc. (Command). Plaintiff contends that the bid evaluation process was unfair, that the Army unduly delayed a reevaluation after agreeing to take corrective action following an earlier bid protest and that the Army was biased against it. This matter comes before the Court on Plaintiffs motion to supplement the Administrative Record (AR) and for discovery. Specifically, Plaintiff seeks to take the depositions of the contracting officer (CO) and three evaluators on the bias issue.2 Because Plaintiff has not made a threshold showing of either motivation or conduct giv[342]*342ing rise to a suggestion of bias, this request for discovery and supplementation of the record is denied.

Background3

The Army initially awarded a fixed-price requirements contract to provide meals and lodging to armed forces applicants at the Detroit Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS) to Command on January 23, 2003. Four Points filed a bid protest with the General Accounting Office (GAO), alleging that the agency failed to consider that the awardee’s facility was undergoing renovations. On March 31, 2003, Four Points voluntarily dismissed that protest because the Army agreed to conduct a revised source selection.

On May 20, 2003, the Army issued an amendment to the solicitation with a revised statement of work and a closing date of May 29. On July 11, 2003, the Army awarded the contract to Command. Four Points alleges that the Army took an excessive and unreasonable amount of time, three-and-a-half months, to reevaluate revised proposals and make this award. Four Points alleges that the only reason for this delay was to permit Command to complete its renovations — rendering the renovations, which had been the basis for the corrective action, a “nonissue.” Complaint 1125.

Four Points filed a second GAO protest on July 18, 2003, alleging bias, undue delay and an unfair evaluation. GAO denied the bias and delay claims, and dismissed the unfair evaluation allegation as untimely.

In the instant action, Plaintiff contends that the evaluation process was unfair because inter alia:

• “Four Points was unfairly criticized during the site inspection for many things that were untrue, taken out of context, and that were only half truths.” Complaint 1136.
• Bidders were not evaluated in a consistent manner.
• Although the CO stated that the onsite evaluations were for verification only, they were used to evaluate bidders and make awards.
• After corrective action was taken, the evaluators unfairly and with apparent hostility criticized Four Points’ written proposal and ignored its supplemental information.
• The Army unduly delayed taking corrective action after dismissal of its first GAO protest by taking two months to issue an amendment to the solicitation and over three months to evaluate revised offers and make an award, so that Command could complete its renovations and be eligible for award.
• The Contracting Officer was biased against Four Points and was determined to make sure that Command was awarded the contract.4

With respect to undue delay, Defendant asserts that there was an agency moratorium on issuing both new solicitations and amendments for MEPS meals and lodging requirements which prevented it from taking corrective action and awarding the contract any sooner.

On November 24, 2004, this Court orally granted Plaintiffs request to supplement the Administrative Record by taking the deposition of Patricia Rollie, the CO, who was also the source selection authority, for the limited purpose of ascertaining: 1) the basis for her determination that there was a moratorium on issuing both new solicitations and amendments; and 2) the basis for her past performance evaluation of the awardee in July 2003 — areas which were not addressed in the AR. The Court also directed Defendant to [343]*343produce any additional documentation regarding the moratorium as well as three missing evaluations of Four Points and any evaluations of the past performance of Command on the contract at issue from January to July 2003.

The Court deferred ruling on Plaintiffs additional request to supplement the Administrative Record with the depositions of Ms. Rollie and the three evaluators on the bias issue stating that it “would need concrete facts and not global assertions of bias to allow Plaintiff to delve into this area.” Order Granting In Part Plaintiffs Motion to Supplement the Administrative Record, Dec. 1, 2004, at 2. As such, the Court granted Plaintiff leave to file the instant motion to supplement the AR and for discovery to allege concrete facts indicating bias.5

In support of its contention that the CO as well as the three evaluators are biased, Plaintiff alleges a litany of disagreements with them evaluation determinations. This was a best value procurement with award to be made to the offeror whose proposal was considered most advantageous to the Government. Offers were to be evaluated on Facility Quality, Transportation, Quality Control and Past Performance, as well as cost. Plaintiff has attempted to show bias by arguing that the evaluators’ conclusions were either inconsistent with each other or wrong citing, inter alia:

• the CO’s rating of Command as [], despite the fact that it did not have a game room or a weight room
• one evaluator’s conclusion that the finding of adult magazines under mattresses at Four Points during room inspections was a “[ ]”
• an erroneous comparative evaluation of Plaintiffs and Command’s applicant lounge seating, and television size
• an erroneous criticism of Four Points on the ground that its smoke detectors had no battery backup, when in fact they have a more reliable generator backup
• an erroneous evaluation of Command’s swimming pool as [] even though it was six or eight feet deep and had no lifeguard on duty
• one evaluator’s rating of Command as [ ] despite significant safety violations including the fact that smoke detectors were not hard-wired
• an evaluator’s erroneous evaluation of Four Points’ transportation services including timing, the condition of the vans used to transport the applicants, seat belts and tires, and the distance between MEPS and Four Points
• an evaluator’s unwarranted criticism of Four Points on the ground that applicants could only enter the restaurant if they were 21, when the policy restricted all guests who were under-age after 9:00 pm
• the evaluators’ failure to consider the absence of any illness, injury or accident involving any applicant over the last six years under Four Points’ contract

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Bluebook (online)
63 Fed. Cl. 341, 2004 U.S. Claims LEXIS 357, 2005 WL 44440, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/four-points-by-sheraton-v-united-states-uscfc-2004.