Bid award on Radium Springs trail sections proves controversial

ALBANY — A decision on hiring a company to build two sections of concrete trail at Radium Springs turned out not to be so simple on Monday, taking three votes and an hour of discussion to arrive at a narrow 4-3 decision.

Prior to the final vote, Dougherty County Commission members heard County Attorney Spencer Lee read from a letter addressed to Jonesboro-based C&S Construction and Consulting Inc.

The letter was in response to a letter from C&S threatening legal action after its bid was declared unsatisfactory.

The company’s bid was about $14,000 less than the $985,396 bid submitted by HTS Construction Inc. of Albany, which ultimately was awarded the bid.

In the letter, attorney James H. Edge of the Albany Moore Clarke DuVall and Rodgers firm outlined reasons for the rejection of the bid.

It stated that prices in the bid for bond, grading and concrete were “highly irregular,” with the prices for bond and grading being significantly higher than the other four companies that tendered bids. The prices given for the concrete work were less than the actual cost of cement, not counting labor and equipment costs associated with installation.

One reference given turned out to be an individual listed as a company officer per the company’s filings with the Georgia Secretary of State, and a C&S board member was a second reference listed, the letter said.

“The county’s phone calls to the references provided went unanswered and unreturned,” the letter said. “As to the construction projects provided by C&S as past project data, the county was unable to ascertain any usable information regarding C&S’s role in this project, including whether C&S had ever performed any concrete work of the type and scope required by this project.”

Commissioner Clinton Johnson, who was joined by Commissioners Victor Edwards, Gloria Gaines and Anthony Jones, first against awarding the bid to HTS and in a subsequent vote that passed to deny the bid to the company, said that minority-owned firms need to be given opportunities.

“As a commissioner, I had the idea we wanted to reach out to boost all the economies,” he said. “I think there is enough business in Dougherty County to spread around to more such businesses.

“I don’t want to establish a policy that we award 20 percent or this amount, but I thought we had the (heart) to award contracts to those companies. I want all department heads to make the effort to involve all businesses.”

After the initial two votes resulted in the rejection of HTS, Johnson proposed awarding the bid to C&S.

That request was rejected by Commission Chairman Chris Cohilas, who responded that the agenda item was specifically for the decision on the company identified by staff as the lowest responsible and responsive bidder. He agreed to place an item to approve C&S on the agenda for the commission’s next regular meeting if that was the desire of the majority.

Jones, who finally broke the impasse by switching his vote, agreed the county should reach out to include companies that may be looking to get a foot in the door for government business.

“Education is the key,” he said. “If you look in terms of helping and educating instead of disqualifying based on the rules; let’s kind of see if we can educate before we say ‘unresponsive’ and ‘disqualification.’”

In an interview following the meeting, Gaines said she would like to see the county review bid policies to ensure more inclusion.

“We just need to look at the process,” she said. “The policy is not producing the results (that) would be fair and equitable. The test of any policy is whether it produces the results you desire.”

In his opinion, the county dodged a bullet in that HTS would have a strong legal case had it been rejected in favor of a company whose bid had been unanimously rejected by staff and did not meet specifications, Cohilas said.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that if we had gone down the course that was apparently planned, the county would have paid for the trail twice: the bid cost plus the company that should have got the bid (that) they won legitimately,” he said during an interview after the meeting. “The rules are in place to make sure no preferential treatment can be given to anyone.

“I’m glad the County Commission got it right and a near-certain financial disaster was averted. I also think it’s important we follow the rules in place.”

Staff Photo: Alan MauldinAlanMauldin[email protected]