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April 28, 2011 in City
Verner seeks rule change to overlook lowest bidder for contracts
Mayor wants $300,000 threshold for new bid law
Verner
(Full-size photo)
Spokane Mayor Mary Verner has shifted her position on new rules allowing the city to overlook the lowest bidder for city contracts when companies have poor records following the law.
Verner opted not to sign the ordinance, which was approved on a 5-2 vote on April 4. The absence of her signature doesn’t constitute a veto, which could have been overridden, and the rules will become law.
Instead, the mayor is pushing for an amendment that would reduce the number of contracts affected by the rules. Verner has asked that only contracts worth $300,000 or more be subject to the law, which requires a low bidder – the assumed winner of a city contract – to complete a questionnaire about the company’s compliance with safety, labor, environmental and other rules. The lowest bidder could be passed over if the city determined that the business is not “responsible.”
During debate about the ordinance, city public works administrators argued that the extra paperwork wasn’t a burden and would give the city more tools to weed out irresponsible companies.
But Verner said last week that city departments with fewer employees could be overwhelmed by the change.
“This is my desire to have an ordinance that I can implement,” Verner said.
Some City Council members appeared surprised by Verner’s request, and at a meeting last week redirected it to a council committee.
“This ordinance that we passed two weeks ago went through tremendous process,” Councilman Richard Rush said last week. The mayor’s proposal “may have merit, but, initially, I’m pretty hostile to the way this is coming up the process.”
Kate McCaslin, president of the Inland Pacific Chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors, said Verner’s proposal is a “minor” change but would improve the ordinance. The association argued that adding the requirement on bidders would create unneeded bureaucracy.
Some labor leaders say they are open to Verner’s request, but point to recent violations by a company working on city projects. The state Department of Labor and Industries is investigating alleged prevailing wage violations by Eclipse Traffic Control when the firm worked on Second Avenue reconstruction last year.
Deven Johnson, president of the Eastern Washington-Northern Idaho Building Construction Trades Council, said Verner should consider lowering the proposed threshold to $200,000.
Closing Geiger: Wise or worrisome? 
Lulubelle on April 28 at 8:14 a.m.
Sorry to see Mayor Verner caving to McCaslin and her developers. Looks like taxpayers and citizens once again are relegated to the “untouchable” class in Spokane’s “mover & shaker” caste system.
DickAdams on April 28 at 10:11 a.m.
Verner does have the leadership skills required to be the mayor. She deserves the boot. Post haste.
Lulubelle on April 28 at 10:19 a.m.
It’s not so much Mayor Verner…..it the big fish, little stream Spokane elite mindset of us vs. them.
james_l on April 28 at 12:12 p.m.
This is such a simple concept; I am amazed at how some people seem incapable of understanding this.
Imagine you are remodeling your house and you are selecting a contractor. You get the bids and notice that the low bid is from a contractor with a history of shoddy workmanship, contractual disputes, and legal malfeasance. You want to select the next lowest bid from a contractor with an impeccable reputation, but are “forced” to select the lowball one.
It seems reasonable to allow the City to consider past contracor performance when spending our money.
ZagChuck on April 28 at 2:20 p.m.
@ James.
I don’t invite the contractor with a shoddy work history to come to my home and give a bid. Therefore his lowball bid is never in the stack.
What this will do is have companies filling lawsuits and complaints against each other, in an attempt to manipulate the bids higher, and the low bidders out of work…
james_l on April 28 at 3:10 p.m.
@ ZagChuck:
I wouldn’t invite the bad contractor to bid on my work either; but with Public Works projects the City can’t choose who bids.
So I will amend my analogy thus: not only am I forced to award the job to the bad contractor, I am being forced to allow him to bid in the first place.
There is no tangible reason to expect this modification to the bidding requirements to increase the number of lawsuits and complaints. This modification actually brings the City more into alignment with a majority of Cities and Counties across the US who allow consideration of past performance in the determination of the successful lowest responsive bidder.
Perhaps this modification will help us correct one of the 2 main problems with road construction in our region (the other being poor oversight).
Lulubelle on April 28 at 4:07 p.m.
Contracts should be awarded based on the lowest & BEST bid. I’m surprised the City of Spokane doesn’t have this written into their bidding process. Again, its too bad City government is reduced to groveling at the feet of local development/construction interests
Thayne on April 28 at 6:50 p.m.
All this will do is allow the crooks in city government to pick their buddies companies for jobs. Sort of like when Haliburton was given the contract after 9/11 with no bids. It was just a coincidence that Chaney had been their CEO before being VPOTUS.
lovetheissues on May 02 at 1:08 p.m.
I love the move, it says to the world that we want a good job, not a cheap job. The economy will lower the price, she will just have to find a top of the line company.
BlindLight on May 02 at 1:26 p.m.
@ James
James is Dead on on this. if the city has to take a low bid even if the contractor has a poor reputation or work history then the city is constantly at risk of paying for poor workmanship as well as possible cost overruns, legal fees and not meeting completion dates. Shotty contracting should not be encouraged or facilitated and most of all the tax payers shouldn’t have to pay for it.