Bills fire local cleaner, hire Michigan firm

Tag : cleaner cover

The Buffalo Bills have contracted with a Michigan-based company tohandle cleaning, maintenance and grounds improvement at the RalphWilson Stadium complex, dropping the local firm that was doing thework.
Knight Facilities Management will service all facilities at theOrchard Park complex, providing daily and overnight cleaning,supporting grounds improvement and handling general maintenanceprojects, the Bills said. KnightFM, as the company is also known,will be responsible for keeping the stadium clean for all events,the Bills said.
KnightFM has several other pro stadiums on its resume, includingRaymond James Stadium and Tropicana Field in Florida, FedEx Fieldin Maryland, Ford Field in Detroit, and Camden Yards in Baltimore.
“KnightFM is an experienced, innovative and valuable partnerthat will help provide a safe, clean and fan-friendly environmentfor Bills fans and visitors,” said Joe Frandina, theBills’ vice president of stadium operations, in a statement.
Andy Major, the Bills’ executive director of marketing, saidthe deal with KnightFM is year to year. He declined to release thedollar value of the agreement.
“KnightFM came back with a really good bid,” Majorsaid. “They’re got a real good track record in theindustry.”
The Bills’ switch to KnightFM displaced two companies withlocal ties that have provided cleaning and related services foryears at the stadium complex.
First Choice, a staffing company with offices in Orchard Park,worked with the Bills for 14 years, said Thomas Kerr, FirstChoice’s president. Libra Temps LLC has provided services tothe organization for about 10 years, said Peter Covey,Libra’s owner, who recently moved to Georgia.
First Choice was on a two-year contract with the Bills. Thedeal’s terms gave the Bills the right to cancel the dealafter first year and put the work out to bid, which the Bills optedto do.
Kerr said his company entered a bid, but he felt that his companydid not have a realistic chance of winning based on thecontract’s structure.
First Choice provided a range of services at the stadium, includingcleaning, maintaining the property and tarping the field. Followinggames, his company would arrange transportation for about 300workers to clean up the stadium, a process that took parts of threedays, he said.
When the stadium’s seats needed to be cleared of snow beforea game, First Choice worked with Labor Ready to bring in people forthat task, he said.
Kerr said he was sorry to see his company’s work for theBills come to an end.
“We were always on top of it,” he said. “We werealways bringing people to work.”
A group of five of cleaners provided by Libra worked year-round atthe stadium facilities, Covey said. Another group of eight to 10workers provided by Libra started before the football season. Theyprepared the stadium suites and cleaned them after games, workingat least 40 hours per week during that period, he said.
“We have the same people come back year after year,“Covey said. His company did not have a formal contract with theBills, he said.
While Erie County owns the stadium, it does not cover the cost ofcleaning it and has no input on who is chosen for that work, saidGerard Sentz, the county’s commissioner of public works.“That’s all the responsibility of the Bills and theBills’ charges.”
Both Kerr and Covey said KnightFM offered to hire their cleaningstaffers but for much less money. KnightFM’s sales managerreferred questions about pay to the company’s vice presidentof human resources, who did not return a call to comment.
Major said he couldn’t comment on the pay offered byKnightFM, but said its work force will still be local.
“The bottom line is, all the people working for them aregoing to be local folks,” he said.
mglynn@buffnews.com