Let the Sun Shine In

The Jasper County Commission has voted to award the bid for Pitts Chapel Road improvements to Dekalb Pipeline.

Anyone who uses the road will send up a round of applause. School buses, emergency vehicles and property owners have suffered with Pitts Chapel’s poor condition for decades.

That said, did the commissioners make the best decision by awarding the bid to other than the apparent low bidder?
The initial recommendation from County Engineer Larry Kaiser indicated, at more than two official commission meetings, that Cummings Site Development was the bidder with the most advantageous proposal for the project based on his unit price bid.

Dekalb Pipeline was heard disputing this recommendation informally after the meeting on June 15, and was subsequently awarded the contract at the July 20 meeting with no public discussion by the commisisoners prior to their vote.

Commissioner Mary Patrick abstained from the voting, but did not offer a reason why. It turns out she has a business relationship with DeKalb Pipeline.

County Attorney James Alexander said at Commissioner Patrick’s request, he researched the law and ethics policies and the relationship did not constitute a conflict.

A little background: An advertisement in last week’s Monticello News said that the county chose the high bidder for a road project, spending about $107,000 more than needed from our Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) dollars. That was not entirely true.

The county commission apparently changed the scope of the project to use a six-inch base rather than a four-inch base. The $465,000 low bid was for a four inch base. The low bidder was Cummings Site Development, and Scott Cummings said the additional two inches would have bumped his bid up to $495,000 or so.

And there is some disagreement as to whether his bid included fencing and landscaping.

So the county commission really did not overspend SPLOST money by $107,000 as the ad said. The actual difference would have been $35,000-$40,000 according to the engineer, and about $70,000 according to Mr. Cummings.

DOES IT REALLY MATTER?

Jasperites should be asking why the county chose the high bidder regardless of the difference. How much of our money is too much for the commissioners to overspend?

Both firms have good reputations. Both firms have a vested interest in Jasper County. And, in these tough economic times, both firms are hungry and want the job.

A little history—the Pitts Chapel Road project has been going on ad infinitum. The county agreed to stop having its public works department work on it, and put out to bid the grading and road bed preparation. The county already has a contract with Blount Construction for the actual paving.

At the recommendation of Larry Kaiser, the engineer with whom the county contracts to oversee SPLOST projects, the county sought and received “On-Demand Construction Services Unit Prices.”

Using those unit prices, Mr. Kaiser defined the scope of the project, and determined Cummings to be the low bidder. He recommended Cummings to the county. When the recommendation was made, the commissioners had some questions, and took no action.

A couple of weeks later, commissioners met with the engineer again and questioned why he recommended a four inch base. They questioned how he defined the scope. Commissioner Mary Patrick insinuated Mr. Kaiser defined the scope to make Cummings the low bidder, basically questioning his integrity. The questioning went on for quite a while. Again, at that meeting, no decision was made.

Then, at the meeting on July 20, Mr. Kaiser was on the agenda again. He then recommended DeKalb Pipeline to get the job at a price of $571,000. There was no discussion whatsoever among the commissioners, and they approved the recommendation with four commissioners voting in favor, and Commissioner Patrick abstaining.

It seemed strange at the time, as she had previously led the charge questioning the professional engineer’s recommendation of the low bidder. It was highly unusual, also, as the commissioners generally discuss virtually every item on which they vote, and rarely if ever accept a recommendation without some verbal reasoning. It was further unusual, as this was the third time a recommendation had been made, and now it was a different recommendation. It certainly appeared to the observer that the decision had been made prior to the meeting.

Upon questioning from this newspaper, Mr. Kaiser said he does not think he explained the on-demand construction services well to the commissioners. The engineer determines the scope of the project and which contractor is best for a particular job based on the scope. Mr. Kaiser had figured the bids several ways, using the figures provided by the contractors, and come up with what he thought was the best deal for Jasper County. He had confirmed with Cummings to be certain they could commit to do the job for $465,000.

However, he said the commissioners wanted him to figure “apples to apples.” So, rather than assessing each set of unit prices and deterining the best deal for the county, he re-figured the job as he was instructed, and recommended DeKalb.

Two weeks later, at Monday’s County Commission meeting, during the general comments portion of the meeting, Ken McMichael asked if Commissioner Patrick had a business relationship with DeKalb Pipeline. The commissioners had already made it clear they would not answer questions during the public comment time. However, before voting to go into closed session, Commissioner Patrick made the statement that she “abstained from voting in any situation with the unit price deals.”

Transparency in government—why are we paying a higher price than necessary to finally pave Pitts Chapel Road?