City's bid ordinance to be rewritten

The successful appeal of the competitive proposal bid evaluation ordinance for the $250,000 Hood Avenue/Fir Street waterline upgrade process has gutted the ordinance.

The City of Sisters re-issued the request for bids on the Hood Avenue project on Wednesday in a "lowest-bid-wins" format. The bids will be opened, reviewed for completeness, and a winner selected on May 25. If there are no successful appeals during the seven-day appeal window, the council will vote on the contract award in the May 2 meeting.

The new bid specification for the Hood Avenue project includes requirements for a detailed merchant communication plan, night work (7 p.m. to 7 a.m.), weekend and Rodeo blackout (no work) periods, and the requirement to begin the Cascade Avenue work first. The bid includes liquidated damages to support these bid requirements.

The original bid specification for the Hood Avenue project was a request for proposal format that allowed the city to award points for lowest bid, best communication plan, best construction plan, and it included an allowance for the contractor's "contribution to the community."

Based on those criteria, with lowest price being a maximum of 30 percent of the points, the second-lowest bidder, Robinson & Owen scored the highest number of points, with Robinson Construction of Bend second, and the lowest bidder, Bartels Construction, third. Bartels filed an appeal and threatened to sue.

Referring to their review of the Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) that govern municipal public improvement contracts, Director of Public Works Paul Bertagna said, "Andrew (Gorayeb) and I went through the ORS very carefully. It is very clear that the intent of the ORS is to use a competitive bidding (lowest price) process.

"They do offer an exclusion for special projects," continued Bertagna. "They tell you, very prescriptively, what that project needs to do for the city in order to qualify. It is the intent of the statute that we use a competitive bidding process unless there is a specific case."

Bend purchasing manager and Sisters resident Gwen Chapman offered, "Oregon laws are very clear that you can't give local preference. They are clear that there can be no preference other than the state itself. They recently passed a rule that the local contract review board can enact some local preference, but it is the state that you are preferring.

"The way the ordinance was written in itself is just like glaringly 'please sue me,'" Chapman concluded. "If you try to pull local into it you are going to have a problem. We have the same pressures in Bend."

Councilor Wendy Holzman said, " I'm wondering why we weren't getting this kind of advice last time we reviewed this ordinance. I'm a little disappointed and a little surprised. It seems like this should have been caught."

The council discussed the possibility that city attorney Steve Bryant should help rewrite the ordinance to comply with the ORS at no charge.

Former city councilor Pat Thompson passionately championed the ordinance in question at the time of its adoption as a method of rewarding local contractors that invest in the Sisters community.

When hearing of the expected revision of the ordnance, Thompson said, "It is very unfortunate that there will be no incentive to keep our local dollars in our local community. When our local events and charities need a donation they are not hitting up the out-of-town contractors that are here and gone, they go to the local contractors; and those contractors step up, for the rodeo, for the arts, for sports.

"When the Little League needs a load of dirt for their playing field they ask for and get donations from local contractors," said Thompson.

In other council business: The May 2 council workshop will include a discussion to establish the goals and criteria for recruiting a permanent city manager.

On Saturday, April 27, SPRD will be hosting a Celebrate Sisters Day with community work parties from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. followed by a picnic and possibly music when the work is done.

Arbor Day is Thursday. At noon Mrs. Holden's third-and fourth-grade class will be working with the city to plant trees at "The Stallion" and in Cliff Clemens Park. The public is invited.