In a special meeting held last week, the Wrangell City and Borough Assembly decided to go with a local contractor over the low bidder in a major lighting project.
Buness Electric and Tongass Electric were both bidders from among nine being considered for the city dock lighting project, a continued step in improvements to commercial passenger vessel facilities that was estimated at around $300,000. The project funding comes from a grant through the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, and when completed should upgrade feeders and the lighting fixtures around the city’s primary vessel dock.
Based in Coffman Cove, Tongass Electric submitted a bid for $246,577.79, which included the base bid work and an alternative to upgrade the facility’s power center. Wrangell-based contractors Buness Electric submitted a bid for the same work for a price of $254,440.
The Public Works Department recommended awarding the bid to Tongass as the lowest bidder but in a letter to the city, contractor Jordan Buness pointed out Wrangell has on ordinance a local bidder preference when the difference is within a five-percent margin when the total cost is $1,000,000 or less. Because the project is being funded through the state such a practice is allowable, though that would not be the case for federal monies. Because the difference between the two bids was just over three percent, the Wrangell contractor made the case it should be awarded the bid.
The Buness letter cited several other technicalities about Tongass’ bid paperwork which it argued should disqualify it from consideration. This included using two different names – Tongass Electric and Tongass Enterprises LLC – in the filing, and putting the base bid total down outside of the sealed bid when submitting by email or fax, which would make it a “nonresponsive bid.”
In a response letter, Tongass owner Micheal Burgess noted that the use of a local preference was not advertised in the invitation to bid, and that considerable time and effort had gone into preparing the packet. Both businesses made the case that their selection would effectively have an economic benefit to the local community.
In the special session, Assembly members had four options to consider, which had been reviewed by the city’s attorney. They could waive any informalities and consider Tongass’ bid responsive, thereby awarding them the bid. Despite the local preference ordinance, additional language stipulated they could forgo that if it was deemed to be in the community’s better interests.
Alternatively, they could award the bid to Buness, either because of local preference or because of the technicalities with Tongass’ filing. Because Buness had an outstanding bill with the city at the time of submitting its bid – itself a technicality – the Assembly could also vote to reject all bids for the project, starting the process over again.
Discussing the problem, members were largely in favor of overlooking the technical errors in both cases. Tongass had listed its total bid amount on its submission form November 25, and had listed the owning limited liability company in addition to the licensed contractor name.
“When staff received it, we knew what they meant,” explained city manager Jeff Jabusch. “It was an honest mistake, but it was a mistake.”
“The bid form is a little confusing, because it asks for the total of the bid,” conceded Assembly member Patti Gilbert.
Member Becky Rooney pointed out the language against revealing the bid amount was a “should” rather than a more definite “shall,” and that doing so would anyway be in no way beneficial to the contractor.
As for Buness, Jabusch pointed out it had paid up on a delinquent bill with the city the week before, and were now in good standing. “They cleaned that up right away and paid.”
Assembly members Stephen Prysunka and Dave Powell pointed out the local preference, while not mentioned explicitly in the bid invitation, was still among “all applicable ordinances” contractors were expected to be familiar with.
Citing this ordinance, ultimately members unanimously approved awarding the contract to Buness Electric.
Reader Comments(0)