A longtime Jackson County builder is challenging the way the county government recently handled bids for a new EMS station, saying the process was unfair.
Keith Hayes, accompanied by his attorney, Mitch Musser, told the Jackson County Board of Commissioners Monday night that there were irregularities in the handling of the bid proposal by county officials. The BOC is slated to vote on the bid May 21.
At issue in the bid is that apparent low-bidder Blue Frog Construction did not fill out the bid form correctly, left out some of the project costs and didn’t submit a grand total cost. After the bids were opened, the county purchasing manager sent Blue Frog operations vice president Michael Rubio a memo outlining five specific issues with the bid and asking Rubio to sign a “memorandum of agreement” that the firm’s cost would not exceed $597,914.
Rubio, who is the son of Jackson County building and grounds superintendent Marty Rubio, signed the MOA for that price.
But Hayes and Musser claim that the process was unfair since Blue Frog got a chance to “clarify” its bid after all the bids were opened and the firm knew what every other bidder had issued.
“Blue Frog Construction failed to provide a full bid for the EMS station until all of the bids had been made public and they should not be awarded the contract,” Musser said. “The request for proposal made it clear that the base bid was to be set out on the second page of the bid form. All that was required was to write out the dollar amount of the bid. That’s it. There was no requirement to itemize the bid. The instructions made it clear that the bid was sought to perform all of the items set forth in the request for proposals. However, Blue Frog Construction failed to include a base bid in this manner. Instead, they provided an eight-page detailed estimate of exactly what they were going to do if they were awarded the bid. Their detail even included the possibility of change orders depending on the fire marshal’s inspection.”
Musser said Rubio signed the letter from the county agreeing that the estimate would include the completion of all the work, including the items outlined by the county as not being in the proposal.
“The county allowed Blue Frog Construction the opportunity to present an estimate for a portion of the work in which they were supposed to bid, see where their bid stood in relation to the other bids and then revise their bid lower by agreeing to complete the additional items at no additional cost to thereby win the contract,” Musser said. “My client submitted a lump sum, lock-and-key bid for the items set forth in the request for proposals without knowledge of any other proposal. Blue Frog Construction has perverted the request for proposal process, their bid should be rejected entirely and they s should not be awarded the contract.”
Musser said that Blue Frog’s bid was actually $55,900 higher than its estimate because the firm left out certain aspects of the project and that since the bid was not done right, it should have been rejected.
County manager Kevin Poe stated that Blue Frog did not completely fill out the forms provided, including listing the base amount of the proposal in the appropriate place. He added that the company did attach a cost estimate with a total price.
County attorney Julius Hulsey gave background on the proposal process and said the county has the authority to decide how to proceed.
“It is in the discretion of the BOC to decide whether you want to accept the Blue Frog bid or if you want to reject it and accept the next bid,” he said. “It’s purely a matter of discretion for the commissioners.”
Commissioner Bruce Yates, who represents the West Jackson area, said: “We have rules to follow. If we don’t follow the rules, we have inconsistency and confusion. Sounds like everyone except for one bidder did exactly what they were supposed to do. When you start varying from these practices, things can become very confusing.”
Commissioner Dwain Smith said: “It’s pretty clear to me.”
Commissioner Chas Hardy asked the county manager to review the information presented prior to the vote being taken.
“We might need to look at this internally to make sure we don’t run into situations like this again,” Hardy said.
Don Clerici of BMK Construction and Engineering, the county’s consultant for capital projects, has recommended the bid go to Blue Frog Construction.
BOC chairman Hunter Bicknell recused himself from the discussion Monday night.
