THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 15, 1994 TAG: 9411150322
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Short : 35 lines
A war of words between the city's school system and a company that recently lost its bid to manage the schools' janitorial services will not turn into a court battle, officials said Monday.
``We have decided not to pursue any legal action,'' said Claire Buchan, spokeswoman for Chicago-based ServiceMaster Co. She declined to elaborate. ``We're not going to get into our decision-making process on that.''
The company last month filed a formal protest against the School Board's vote in September to hire Marriott Management Services Corp. and tried unsuccessfully to get a court injunction to temporarily block the agreement.
In 1989, to save money, the School Board signed a five-year contract with ServiceMaster. An internal audit of that contract pointed out flaws in the agreement.
ServiceMaster claimed that the School Board had violated Virginia's procurement act and was biased against the company by the controversial audit.
In a three-page response, Norfolk school officials rejected the protest and denied any wrongdoing.
Marriott, based in Newark, Del., took over management of cleaning operations this month. The $722,000 contract with Marriott, the low bidder, is about $500,000 less than what was paid to ServiceMaster.
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK SCHOOLS LAWSUIT by CNB