Following the last post published here, “Janitor worked for DeKalb 8 years without a contract,” I decided to check into the city’s current janitorial contract. It was signed in December, 2024, by DeKalb city manager Bill Nicklas and Donald Tennin, Jr., doing business as DeKalb Janitorial, LLC.
The fact that DeKalb has a janitorial contract with DeKalb Janitorial obviously is an improvement over the apparent handshake deal with Arcenio Cruz. Nevertheless, the city still appears to be cutting corners on purchasing requirements, and we’ll explore them here.
Chapter 54 of the DeKalb Municipal Code, “Financial Administration,” directs the city’s finance director to the “City of DeKalb Purchasing Manual” as the procedural reference for contracts. The process starts with the item or service being budgeted. From there, requirements depend on anticipated cost:
— With an expected cost up to $5,000 for the year, the contract can be handled within the department with no additional approvals required up the chain of command.
— With an expected cost of $5,001 to $19,999 for the year, three written quotes must be gathered from potential vendors, plus finance director’s approval sought within this dollar range. Additionally, the city manager’s approval must be sought when costs are expected to exceed $10,000.
— With an expected cost of $20,000 and above for the year, a contract must be publicly bid where the law requires it, and city council approval obtained.
Despite paying Cruz more than $20,000 during each of the 8 years of his service examined by City Barbs, DeKalb is unable to produce any contract for his services. DeKalb did manage to produce a contract with DeKalb Janitorial, but ignored other rules. To start, the job required quotes from three vendors. A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request asked for the quotes, but the response included only the DeKalb Janitorial estimate.
More seriously problematic is the cost as stated in the contract, a bit less than $15,000 annually, is already out of date. That figure only applied to 2025 and to cleaning the city hall. For 2026, they’ve added the police station to the cleaning list and the amount paid monthly has more than doubled, with the total likely to hit $35,000 in December. Purchasing rules say, “If any City purchase increases the total over $20,000 for the current fiscal year, the contract must be presented to Council for approval prior to the order being placed.” Staff budgeted for this. They should have brought forth the amended contract months ago. The FOIA response doesn’t indicate this has happened — only the 2024 estimates and original signed contract are included.
Meanwhile, the consent agenda for the July 27, 2026 meeting (last night for you early bird readers) included approval of a monthly invoice payment to DeKalb Janitorial that quietly pushed this year’s payment total over the $20,000 threshold.
Will staff bring the contract to the next meeting now that payments have surpassed that threshold? Or will they continue to ignore their obligations to the council in matters of purchasing?
Related: A defense of the rights of legislators in City of DeKalb