This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Feb. 4, 2010 - Alternative Opportunities, a not-for-profit agency based in Springfield, Mo., is now the new operator of the Missouri vehicle-license office in Maplewood, among five such contracts that the agency has obtained in recent weeks.
The new contracts underscore that Alternative Opportunities has apparently corrected the problems that prompted the Missouri Department of Revenue to rebid 10 earlier license contracts awarded the agency.
Alternative Opportunities, which provides assistance for the disabled and teens in foster care, is now on track to once again run the largest number of license offices in the state.
The Maplewood license office, in the Deer Creek shopping center, was among two that the Department of Revenue announced Thursday have been awarded to Alternative Opportunities.
The second is the license office in Ozark, Mo.
Alternative Opportunities also bid on, but failed to win, two other license contracts awarded Thursday, in O’Fallon and Springfield, Mo.
The agency in recent weeks also has been awarded contracts to operate vehicle license offices in Nixa, Carthage and Farmington, Mo.
As we reported earlier, such awards could signal that the agency may be successful in re-snagging 10 license-office contracts that the state Department of Revenue withdrew last month, including two in the St. Louis area, because of technical problems with the original bids.
Even obtaining a portion of those contracts would make Alternative Opportunities the state's No. 1 holder of license-office contracts. The state Republican Party has contended that the agency has gotten a boost because several of its top executives are Democratic donors. The agency and the Department of Revenue deny any link, and cite the objective criteria of the bidding process.
Alternative Opportunities continues to operate the 10 license offices in limbo, and has re-bid for the final contracts. Department of Revenue spokesman Ted Farnen has said that there is no guarantee that Alternative Opportunities will be re-awarded any or all of the previous contracts.
