City Services Committee Balks at Lowering CH2MHILL Bid

CENTRAL — CH2MHILL’s efforts to keep the master privatization agreement for the City of Central ran into problems Monday night when Mayor Mac Watts’ Committee on City Services balked at allowing the firm to lower its bid by $1.7 million.

When proposals were opened last Wednesday, the low bidder for the five-year contract was IBTS at $16.2 million, CSRS was 2nd at $18 million, Severn Trent was 3rd at $18.7 million, and CH2MHILL was 4th at $18.9.  But, in a presentation to the Committee last Thursday, CH2MHILL told the committee its bid was actually $1.7 million lower, because it would give 100 percent of city permit fees to the City of Central.  For photos of the meeting, CLICK HERE.

Since last Thursday, some committee members have been upset, because bidders cannot change bids after they have been submitted.  Other committee members have approved the change as something included in CH2MHILL’s original bid.

At Monday night’s meeting, committee member Rodney Bonvillain said he had asked City Finance Director Suzonne Cowart to prepare a report showing the bidders’ bottom line bids, taking into account whether they would keep or give back all or a portion of permit fees collected.  Cowart distributed a pass-out sheet to committee members and the media which showed CH2MHILL moving into 2nd place in the bidding.

City attorney Sheri Morris said Ch2MHILL was not changing its bid but the numbers were based on language contained in CH2MHILL proposal as originally submitted.

However, committee member R. J. Saucier was having none of the idea.  “It seems like a breach of the Request for Proposals,” he said.  “We’re manipulating the numbers. We have to go by the bid stipulations!”

Committee member and City Councilman Louis DeJohn responded that “I don’t think we are manipulating the numbers.  This is a proposal, not a bid.”

There followed a discussion by several committee members and people in the audience to the effect that the low bid is not what’s really important.

Earlier, the committee adopted a point system that would give very little weight to the bid amount.  That plan would allow the committee to bypass the low bidder in favor of one of the other bidders.

Committee member Rodney Bonvillain said he worked with Suzonne Cowart to weight the point system, based on the revised bid amounts.  Under the new point system, price would determine 25 percent of the 200 points.  Factors other than price would determine the other 75 percent of the points.  In addition, the points accumulated by the bids submitted would be staggered, so that IBTS would get 50 points, Severn Trent 40, CH2MHILL 38, and CSRS would get 29.  Under this formula, a company could be the high bidder and yet get the job based on other factors.

Russell Starns told the committee, “Get it through your heads, this is not a bid!  It’s a proposal!”

But a member of the audience said, “The public is going to look at the bottom line.  If we deviate from the low bidder, the public is not going to understand that.  A company came in with the low bid.  If somebody gets it who’s not the low bidder, the public is not going to accept that.”

However, Dave Freneaux of Central Speaks said the committee should not be overly concerned about what the public thinks and should just do its job.

Mike LeClerq said, “It seems to me that they are trying to skew the results.  It looks like you are trying to come up with some other numbers.”

Mike Mannino said, “You have a bottom line number, and a bidder came back and wanted to change it.”

Michael Songy, principal of CSRS, stood and said he had not been provided a copy of Cowart’s report.  He said, “As we read the RFQ, there was a history of permits, and you were to deduct that.  We were the 2nd lowest bidder, and this would make us the high bidder.”

A representative of IBTS, the low bidder on the project, said the bidders were told to submit a price did not include permit fees.  “We calculated the numbers into the proposal as required.”  He emphasized IBTS’ commitment to return any profit to the city.  IBTS is a non-profit organization founded by the National Governors Association.

Committee member Gil Matherne said he agreed with R. J. Saucier — that the bid proposals have to be considered as originally submitted.  “In this, one contractor has all the advantages,” he said.  He moved that the committee should consider Cowart’s analysis and point totals only as a tool and not be bound by it.  Ultimately, the committee adopted Matherne’s motion.

The committee also considered several possible conflicts of interest by the different bidders.  Some of the perceived conflicts, which had to be reported, were not actual conflicts of interest, several committee members said.  However, committee member R. J. Saucier said CSRS has a real conflict of interest that should not be permitted.  CSRS administers the City-Parish Green Light capital outlay program.  Saucier recounted the controversy concerning the redesign of Sullivan Road, which includes open ditches.  Saucier said open ditches on a major thoroughfare are not in Central’s interests.  Saucier said the new highway was designed by Songy’s firm and that Songy had been adamant in keeping the design with open ditches.  “He really can’t be the designer of a project like this on the one hand representing the City-Parish and on the other hand administering Central’s city government,” Saucier said.

However, the committee voted to recommend to Mayor Mac Watts that he waive the alleged conflict of interest of CSRS.  The committee also recommending waiving an alleged conflict of interest of IBTS concerning PEC’s contract for engineering work on Hooper Road and CH2MHILL’s alleged conflict concerning its contract to administer the East Baton Rouge Parish sewer system.

The committee discussed at length possible inadequacies in the bond and insurance qualifications of the four bidders and gave them until 12 noon Tuesday to submit any and all paperwork to get their proposals in compliance with the Request for Proposals.

The committee had given notice that he might meet in Executive or closed session.  However, it did not do so.

The committee has scheduled meetings Tuesday at 5 p.m. and Wednesday at 5 p.m. to continue its deliberations.  The meeting notices say the committee may consider going into Executive Session at those meetings.

By Central City News editor Woody Jenkins