No action was taken Monday on either a new city clerk or bids for $18.2 million in wastewater treatment plant upgrades after both items failed to garner enough Poplar Bluff City Council votes to move forward.
The current city clerk is set to retire as of July 1.
Controversy over the bids includes concerns of the city’s ability to hold onto the current pricing, and if legal action could be taken by bidders, based on the council’s ultimate decision.
Both items were to be discussed and voted upon during a special meeting that took place before a new city council could be seated (see accompanying story).
City manager Mark Massingham said he did not know as of the time of the meeting what would happen next for either matter.
__CLERK__
A motion to name current planning department secretary Nevada Young as the new city clerk failed to make it out of the workshop session, on a 3-3 vote. Council member at-large Steve Davis recused himself from the discussion and vote on this matter, citing a conflict of interest.
Council members Shane Cornman, Robert Smith and Barbara Horton voted against the measure, which was supported by outgoing Ward 1 representative and mayor Susan McVey and council members Ed DeGaris and Ron Black.
Longtime city clerk Pam Kearbey announced her retirement earlier this year.
DeGaris said he believed Young was the best qualified candidate, and that city ordinances conflict on a residency issue. Young currently lives outside the city and city ordinances state the city clerk must live inside the city.
Another regulation allows department heads to live outside the city limits, which the clerk is a department head, said DeGaris.
He suggested the city needs to look at the ordinances and clarify the matter.
Cornman said after the council meeting, he believed the council would take another look at the existing pool of applicants. It was a long process to get to this point, according to Cornman. The city received about a dozen applications for the job.
__BIDS__
A recommendation from the Municipal Utilities Advisory Board to select the low bidder for wastweater treatment plant upgrades also failed to make it out of the workshop session on a 4-3 vote.
The matter was tabled at a previous meeting. A motion was needed to remove the item from the table for discussion. Smith, Horton, Cornman and Davis voted against this, with McVey, Black and DeGaris in favor.
The matter has been a workshop item for the council at two previous meetings, when the apparaent low bid was questioned by Cornman and another bidder.
Brockmiller Construction of Farmington, Missouri, submitted a base bid of $17.044 million. Robertson Contractors of Poplar Bluff submitted the second-lowest base bid, at $17.56 million.
Cornman and an attorney for Robertson have said the Brockmiller bid is unbalanced, questioning a line item related to blowers. Brockmiller representatives have said the line item includes only the labor costs and that other expenses were part of a separate line item, in a lump bid from another company.
In a letter dated April 10, an attorney for Brockmiller also informed the city the bid was never intended to be a unit price contract.
“The price that governs is the total lump sum price,” said Richard Hardcastle of Greensfelder Attorneys at Law of St. Louis. “The price represents the contractor’s commitment to perform the designed scope of work for a fixed dollar amount.
“Unit price bids are used when quantities cannot be accurately established or may change due to differing site conditions. That is not the case with this project, as the design engineer has repeatedly stated.”
Engineers have cautioned the city that bids were opened March 12, and are good for 90 days. They have said 45 days will be needed for approval of the low-interest loan the city expects to receive from the state revolving fund.
Cornman presented council members with a letter from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, which said the commitment for the loan is good through Sept. 30, 2019. After that time, the city could reapply, DNR said.
“Therefore, the city is currently not at risk for losing their CWSRF loan,” said Joel Reschly, legal council for DNR. “While the Department would like to see the project move forward as soon as practical, we also recognize the city may need to take some additional time to formally review each bid in order to make an informed decision.”
Municipal Utilities General Manager Bill Bach provided the council with a letter concerning the project, and concerns that failing to award the contract to Brockmiller without a qualifying reason could result in a lawsuit.
The utility advisory board and legal counsel agree the lowest, responsive and responsible bidder is Brockmiller, Bach said.
“If the City votes to award the project to a firm other than the low bidder, the City will not qualify for SRF funding and will be forced into the public funding market,” Bach said in the document, dated April 2.
That could result in a rate increase of approximately 10 percent for customers, according to Bach.
Bach also said he was concerned if the timeframe for bids to be good were to expire, new bids could come back as much as $800,000 higher, based on other bids for the project.
“If the City fails to award the contract to the low bidder without cause and after discussing with counsel, it is my concern the City is opening itself up to litigation,” Bach said.
The city is making the upgrades to comply with tighter DNR regulations on the treatment of wastewater. Failure to make changes as required under the current permit timeline could result in penalties of up to $9,560 per day, Bach said.