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Florida Department of Transportation officials met, Aug. 25, to whittle the list down the list of potential bidders to run Alligator Alley for 50-75 years.

Instead, they invited all six to make an offer, based on appraisals by a six-member panel that analyzed the proposing firms based on financial and technical criteria.

Of the three-member committee charged with narrowing the list, one member expressed a different opinion.

Stan Cann, DOT district secretary for the area including Collier County, proposed excluding GVI-Lehman Alligator Alley Access Partners, based on the number of contractual disputes against the team’s firms.

“That, to me, is a big concern,” Cann said. “After looking at many construction and maintenance contracts over the years, we find that those where the contractor or concessionaire works well with the Department of Transportation, the quality of the work is much better.”

But technical advisory committee members said the issue was not cause for great alarm, only earning the team a ranking of “fair,” in the area of claims and disputes.

“I would put a small amount of weight on that, just because these companies do a lot of work with a lot of different countries and a lot of owners,” technical committee member Tim Lattner said.

But the team also had the lowest overall score by six points, Cann pointed out.

The three-member selection panel discussed narrowing the field of proposals, but eventually decided that more firms would mean healthier competition.

Members of both the technical and financial committees confirmed to the selection committee that all six teams would be capable of operating the Alley on a 50- to 75-year lease, though some maintenance managers had minimal hands-on experience with road and bridge maintenance.

But for many members of the public present, no one but the state is qualified to oversee the operation of the 78-mile toll road from Naples to Fort Lauderdale.

Representatives from the Citizens Transportation Coalition of Collier County stood in the audience with sandwich boards slung over their shoulders, depicting a blindfolded sun and the words “A Shady Deal.”

“It was not unexpected,” group representative Gina Downs said of the meeting’s outcome. “It’s part of the sham this governor is running.”

She said the deal lacks proper scrutiny.

“This is the first project of this kind in Florida. Where is the independent review of this project?” she questioned.

While Downs was asked to state her concerns on a public comment form, the elected officials present were invited to address the crowd.

State Sen. Burt Saunders, State Rep. Matt Hudson and Collier County Commissioner Frank Halas all voiced opposition to the lease, amid applause and shouts of CTC members.

“I don’t think the question is ‘can these firms do this?’” said Saunders. “I think the question is ‘why do it at all?’”

Halas questioned the promise for revenue sharing from the profits generated by the road’s lease, saying Collier County hadn’t received any money from the toll road in its 40 years.

Hudson, who has regularly attended the public meetings on the issue, said he was glad to finally hear some extended conversation on the firms interested in the lease, though he remains opposed to the deal.

“Think about where we were in Florida 50 years ago,” he said to the audience. “I will tell you that in 1958, we were just wrangling with air conditioning and mosquito control. Where are we going to be another 50 years from now? It concerns me that we are tying ourselves up for that amount of time.”

A public meeting on the proposal is scheduled from 6-8 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 16, at the Hilton Naples, in advance of the final draft contract for the Alley lease.