Local, Or Low Bidder? Aldermen, Attorney Discuss Process
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By MARK EVANS
STE. GENEVIEVE HERALD
During the regular Ste. Genevieve Board of Aldermen meeting last Thursday, the subject of favoring local bidders came up.
Ward 2 Alderman Eric Bennett asked whether the board could adopt a policy for awarding contracts to local bidders if the bids were close enough. This led to nearly a 20-minute discussion.
Ward 3 Alderman Joe Steiger said he would like to go forward with the idea.
City Attorney Mark Bishop warned them that there could be issues with adopting such a blanket policy.
“You can take into account certain factors, individually, especially if they’re a business close by, so that you have a better response time.”
He recommended it be done on a case-by-case basis, rather than a blanket contract. He said it would be “easier to defend” such a policy in court.
“You can get sued by the lowest bidder in a contract and if it’s a big contract, they would be entitled to lost profits, even if they didn’t do anything,” he said.
Steiger asked how a protocol could be set up to consider local bidders, if a blanket policy wouldn’t work.
City Administrator Happy Welch said the city was doing its due diligence by notifying local contractors of upcoming jobs.
Bishop, after saying he thought all the local contractors were of good quality, pitched a hypothetical scenario at the board. In the case of a poor contractor “and you all know he’s bad,” who came reasonably close to having the low bid, with a blanket policy, the city would be forced to award the contract to this bidder, or risk getting sued.
“From a legal perspective, a case by case analysis, based upon the bids and based past performance and future expectation of performance,” is much easier to defend, Bishop said. Having the discussion in the meeting minutes is a good protection, too, “a presentation of evidence,” that is “based on merit.”
“If you just have a blanket (policy) where you’re just within a certain percent, it’s going to be far less defensible and far more likely for the losing bidder to sue us because they’re going to see that as unfair,” he said.
Ward 4 Alderman Joe Prince said that is what they essentially do now, looking for “the best overall bid,” rather than just the lowest dollar figure.
Welch gave an example of work done on city hall in the past, in which a local bidder was not the lowest bidder, but was able to guarantee the work to be done much quicker than the other bidders, do to workforce and materials being local. In that case, he noted, the city was justified in going with the local firm, over an out-of-county low-bidder.
Welch also warned that having a blanket policy to always award to local contractors within a certain percent of the low bidder, might “stifle bidding” from outside contractors and kill competition.
Bishop spoke more about the importance of having specific reasons for choosing a bid that was not lowest and in putting that into the public record.
REPORTS ARE GIVEN
Welch reported bids were due June 1 for sealing cracks on Progress Parkway. He also said a couple of additional quotes came in for renting temporary city hall location, while renovation is going on, on the city hall building.
He also reported that June kicks off a 10-year capital review with department heads.
Steve Wilson, local manager for Alliance Water Resources, reported that delivery of some items to be installed in the electrical building had still not been made.
He said a 12-inch pipe on Progress Parkway broke the week before.
Wilson also said the street department (which Alliance how manages) was down to one working dump truck. He got the OK from the board to get prices on a used truck.
Ryan Pollock, assistant police chief, reported that the department responded to 537 calls in April, up 93 from March.
He noted that they were conducting interviews to fill the last open position on the squad.
ORDINANCES ARE PASSED
Meanwhile, three bills passed on both first and second reading. One approved signing a 12-month lease with H & M Goldenberg, II, LLLP, to lease 44 Plaza Drive as a temporary head quarters for city hall.
Located next to Domino’s Pizza in Pointe Basse Plaza, this storefront was the site of a requested medical marijuana dispensary in October 2019, following the legalizing of medical marijuana in Missouri. The dispensary never panned out.
The second one was an ordinance amending the purchase of new state-approved mobile radios for the fire department from Motorola Solutions Wireless USA. The third was an ordinance authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement with Cloudpermit for the building department.
One ordinance passed on second reading only. It provides for the annexation of certain real estate owned by the R-II School District.
Passing on first reading only were ordinances allowing guest lodging at 495 Jefferson Street and an internally lit sign at the Knights of Columbus Hall.
Additionally, the board approved Jokerst, Inc.’s low bid of $342, 64 (option 2) for the water main improvements project, Bales Concrete LLC’s low bid of $62.83 per linear foot for the individual property owners’ concrete sidewalk replacement, and Donze Construction’s low bid of $349,541 for the city hall/board room remodeling.