Special to El Rrun-Rrun
It took three meetings, but the City of Brownsville Commission and administration finally put a pesky $2.8 million issue to rest.
At issue was a vote April 21 where a majority of the commission - by a 6-1 vote - approved awarding a $2.8 million street, sidewalk and drainage construction contract for Anahuac Street that turns into Naranjo Road east of U.S. 77/83 and where it meets Old Alice Road.
At the time, although the Finance Dept. had recommended awarding it to the lowest bidder, Total Commitment Construction of Mission Texas, the majority voted to award it to G&T Paving, the Brownsville bidder, even though their bid was $84,000 higher based on the belief they had the option for local preference, if not best value, or the city.
During the April 21 meeting, the Finance department recommended that the lowest bidder, Total Commitment Construction Co., of Mission, be awarded the contract in the amount of $2,810,332.75.
But then, under questioning from commission members on whether they could award the contract to local bidder G&T Paving under the "local preference" option, the staff said they could.
Under the "local preference " option, if the second-lowest bidder is from the city, commissioners are allowed to award it the contract if it's within 5 percent of the lowest bid.
G&T's bid was $2,894,709.60, $84,377 higher than Total Commitment Construction's low bid of $2,810,332.75. However, the commission was told by the Finance reps at the meeting that the amount was well within the 5 percent allowed under the local preference, which was $140,516.
Only commissioner Jessica Tereau voted against the award saying that even if the extra $84,377 above the lowest bid stayed in Brownsville, to her it was still too much.
And the "best value" consideration is not applicable in awarding the the local bidder. contract, Finance said.
"We also reviewed Texas Local Government Code Section 252 (Best Value) which provides the ability to award contracts to a non-lowest bidder. Section 252 is not allowable for street construction projects."
On Tuesday, Finance Director Lupe Granado apologized to the commission for what he called "a simple failure on our part" and recommended that the Hidalgo County be awarded the bid.
"There was incorrect information provided by this department on this item," he explained.
"How was it that no one picked up on this?," Mayor Trey Mendez asked Granado. "This was tabled at a meeting prior to April 21. This is like Purchasing 101. Frankly, I'm not happy about it. It reflects on us badly."
As we said earlier, eating crow is never pretty, but in the end, commissioner Ben Neece bit the bullet and made the motion to rescind the April 21 vote and award the bid to Total Commitment Construction, the lowest bidder. The rest of the commission joined him in the vote.