WHY DON’T WE ALREADY HAVE OPEN COMPETITION?
It’s important to remember that many of our water systems date back as far as 100 years or more, and some were built during the 1800s. And it’s also helpful to know that the overwhelming majority of the decisions and spending in water infrastructure occur at the municipal and state level. The U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National Association of Counties, and the National League of Cities claim that Cities and Counties, “spend over $115 billion each year to provide safe and reliable water and sewer services and maintain a vast physical infrastructure of pipes, pumps and plants.”
Unfortunately, the age of our water systems and how decentralized they are have contributed to inefficiency. This is especially true when it comes to procurement. When our water systems were built a hundred years ago or more, there was often only one type of accessible material that could do the job. But technology has emerged and unfortunately procurement standards have not kept up with it.
Today, two factors have stood in the way of a shift to Open Competition:
The first reason is habit.
In a report urging Mayors to take action to be smarter about water projects, the U.S. Conference of Mayors pointed out that one of the big things keeping standards from shifting was the fact that they had always been one way, and old habits die hard.
The second reason has to do with how water projects are funded.
Unlike other municipal spending projects, water-related projects are done by local water systems, and their work is billed out to ratepayers. So even though it costs more to not allow for open competition, since those cost are distributed among all of the ratepayers, there isn’t as much incentive to change.