Liberty County Development Authority board members met Monday to withdraw the panel’s vote to have Griffin Contracting work on the utilities portion of the new Firth Rixson facility in Tradeport East.
The old contract, worth $1,014,727 million, will be replaced by a $1,043,215 million contract, which will go to Terry R. Lee Contracting, Inc. The contract is to construct an access road, sewer, water and re-use water lines in Tradeport East Business Park near to Interstate 95.
The follow-up meeting came after members discovered Griffin Contracting did not document efforts to reach out to minority and women’s businesses, LCDA CEO Ron Tolley said last week.
LCDA Chairman Allen Brown opened the meeting by acknowledging the “technical difficulties” that occurred last week. He said the board should have deemed Griffin Contracting as non-responsive because the company did not meet all requirements to be awarded the contract.
All seven of the contracting companies were evaluated on a 0-120 scale, based on their performance in five different areas, with timeliness being one factor.
The board’s final decision was based on the two responsive (met minimum requirements) and responsible (met minimum score) contractors, Lee and Baker Infrastructure Group, and their total respective scores, LCDA director of marketing and research Anna Chafin said in an e-mail.
The seven companies that submitted proposals were told the job would need to be done in 120 days, LCDA board member Paul Krebs
said.
Board members asked county attorney Kelly Davis why Griffin Contracting’s initial submission slipped through for LCDA members to vote on if everything wasn’t in place.
Carmen Cole, LCDA director of administration and finance, said a four-person evaluation committee reviewed the proposals, and Griffin’s initial M/WBE paperwork seemed to be in order at the time of the review. The panel later discovered that was not the case.
“In essence, you’re correct that they were non-responsive and should have never been presented to you guys, but for us, they met the first categories when we reviewed them,” Cole said. “In the future, I’m sure we will look at that a lot more closely now that we understand how it’s supposed to work.”
Davis recommended that board members and LCDA employees meet to discuss M/WBE procedures so everyone is on the same page when contracts are involved.
Krebs said several times he was disappointed with the situation.
“We disqualified five of them. That’s absolutely ridiculous,” said Krebs of the construction contracts that were not approved because they failed to meet requirements.
Other board members agreed the procedures need to be reviewed, but remained focused on the topic at hand — voting in a new contractor to allow the Firth Rixson project to move forward.
“To my knowledge, this is the first time we’ve had this great percentage of offers deemed either unresponsive or un-responsible,” Davis said.
All but one board member, Paul Krebs, voted in favor of awarding the contract to Terry R. Lee Contracting, Inc.
The new contractor starts this month with an expected finish date of January 2011.
The old contract, worth $1,014,727 million, will be replaced by a $1,043,215 million contract, which will go to Terry R. Lee Contracting, Inc. The contract is to construct an access road, sewer, water and re-use water lines in Tradeport East Business Park near to Interstate 95.
The follow-up meeting came after members discovered Griffin Contracting did not document efforts to reach out to minority and women’s businesses, LCDA CEO Ron Tolley said last week.
LCDA Chairman Allen Brown opened the meeting by acknowledging the “technical difficulties” that occurred last week. He said the board should have deemed Griffin Contracting as non-responsive because the company did not meet all requirements to be awarded the contract.
All seven of the contracting companies were evaluated on a 0-120 scale, based on their performance in five different areas, with timeliness being one factor.
The board’s final decision was based on the two responsive (met minimum requirements) and responsible (met minimum score) contractors, Lee and Baker Infrastructure Group, and their total respective scores, LCDA director of marketing and research Anna Chafin said in an e-mail.
The seven companies that submitted proposals were told the job would need to be done in 120 days, LCDA board member Paul Krebs
said.
Board members asked county attorney Kelly Davis why Griffin Contracting’s initial submission slipped through for LCDA members to vote on if everything wasn’t in place.
Carmen Cole, LCDA director of administration and finance, said a four-person evaluation committee reviewed the proposals, and Griffin’s initial M/WBE paperwork seemed to be in order at the time of the review. The panel later discovered that was not the case.
“In essence, you’re correct that they were non-responsive and should have never been presented to you guys, but for us, they met the first categories when we reviewed them,” Cole said. “In the future, I’m sure we will look at that a lot more closely now that we understand how it’s supposed to work.”
Davis recommended that board members and LCDA employees meet to discuss M/WBE procedures so everyone is on the same page when contracts are involved.
Krebs said several times he was disappointed with the situation.
“We disqualified five of them. That’s absolutely ridiculous,” said Krebs of the construction contracts that were not approved because they failed to meet requirements.
Other board members agreed the procedures need to be reviewed, but remained focused on the topic at hand — voting in a new contractor to allow the Firth Rixson project to move forward.
“To my knowledge, this is the first time we’ve had this great percentage of offers deemed either unresponsive or un-responsible,” Davis said.
All but one board member, Paul Krebs, voted in favor of awarding the contract to Terry R. Lee Contracting, Inc.
The new contractor starts this month with an expected finish date of January 2011.