Minutes - Council - 03/30/2010 - Special

Home

and Connexus for $155,674, and along with that recommendation the ability to negotiate these out to a maximum of $25,000. Councilmember Dehen inquired why take out the parking area. Mr. Himmer replied we had that as a stand-alone project but Council could choose to add that back in. Councilmember Dehen asked if there would be a problem with the bid. City Attorney Goodrich stated there are some issues that would be better to be rebid with that alternative. Mayor Ramsey stated he would rather wait on that anyway. Councilmember Dehen stated that if there are legal issues with the parking lot, it would be his recommendation to rebid on that part. He wondered if it would be advantageous to get it done at the same time. City Engineer Himmer stated that the total bid of $2.8 million from W. Lohman does include all these alternatives. Director of Public Works Olson noted that $129,000 was the cost of that alternative. Motion by Councilmember Look and seconded by Councilmember Jeffrey to adopt Resolution #10-03-075 awazding a contract for City Project #10-23 East Meandering Commons Park and to also rebid the pazking lot and authorize staff to negotiate an inspection contract in a not to exceed amount of $25,000. Further discussion: City Attorney Goodrich stated there was some concern by the second lowest bidder of the bid submitted by W. Lohman. They feel the City Council should reject this bid and give the bid to the second lowest, finding the lowest bid is not a responsible bid. He stated he has had conversations with their attorney. There are some minor defects but not enough to reject the entire bid. They are asking the City Council to table action on this. Their concem is page 12 of 12 -the low bidder was supposed to enter the total bid numbers and all alternatives and they (W. Lohman) did not do that. However, the City can do that without going out to outside sources just by adding it up - so that's a minor defect the City can waive. They failed to include unit prices in alternates A, B, C and D. However, one can determine it by going to the base price so that's a minor defect, which the City can waive. They want time to evaluate and they are talking about a lawsuit and restraining orders. City Administrator Ulrich stated we aze on a timeline with regazd to this grant and if this project is delayed, we might put the money in jeopardy. He commented about putting that money in a bond to cover us if that happened. Mr. Goodrich stated that if it is determined they have a legitimate claim they could get a restraining order until the court has a chance to look at it. We would hope a bond would be required to cover our damages. They would have to be pretty certain about this action. Councilmember Look stated he is concerned about jeopardizing the Metropolitan Council money and inquired if anything has to be added to the motion. Mr. Goodrich responded no - if anything, it will be back to Council. Mr. Himmer commented on the incentive to complete this on time so delays would be a concern with regard to that as well. Councilmember Dehen stated he was not in favor of waiting. He felt the bid should be awazded - it should not be thrown out for a minor deficiency. He suggested Mr. Goodrich had done his due diligence. Councilmember Look agreed - we are tallying bids anyway to make sure the amount is correct and added he is not willing to jeopardize the money. Special City Council -March 30, 2010 Page 3 of 4