HomeMy WebLinkAboutSpecial City Council Minutes 10.02.1979Minutes of the City Council of Laurel
October 2, 1979
A special meeting of the City Council of the City of Laurel, Montana, was
held in the Council Chambers ~nd called to order by Mayor, Larry D. Herman, at
7:40 p.m., on October 2, 1979.
COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT:
Albert Ehrlick
Duane Behm
Donald Meyers
Bill Brennan
Susan Carter
Terry Fink
Ervin Metzger
COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: Harold Burns
The Council met as the Utility Committee as a whole, to discuss the bid
awarded to Steel Structures for the 7th Street Sanitary Sewer.
City Attorney, Tom Bradley, discussed the problems with the ?th Street
Sanitary Sewer project.
HKM omitted from the notice for bids that the contractor would have to
conform to HUD regulations, since it is HUD that is financing part of the
job.
On the day the bids were to be opened HKM called Tom Bradley and said
that they had left the HUD requirements out of the Notice of Publication.
Mr. Bradley's original recommendation was to do it over; but HKM said if we
do that, it will be into winter before we get going on this project and with
inflation the way it is, it would add to the project cost. So it was decided
that at the time bids were to be opened, the Mayor would announce that con-
tractors would have to abide by the HUD regulations, and if any contractor
wanted to withdraw their bids they could do so now. (see minutes of special
meeting of August 28, 1979.) This would have worked alright, but the succes-
ful bidder was not at the bid opening. Now, because of this requirement,
that the contractor is subject to HUD regulations was not put into the notice,
the bidder is using this as a crutch, saying that this is a different contract
than what I bid on, because these HUD regulations add costs to the contract.
There is some general language in the specifications that a court could
determine, that even though HUD was not specifically mentioned in the notice,
there is language saying that the contractor is responsible for all government
regulations. There is a 50-50 chance that the court would hold that the con-
tractor had sufficient knowledge and that this would bind him to the contract.
The specifications pointed out HUD funds and Coal Grant funds would finance the
project.
The bid bond is not cash, but an insurance company bond and we would have
to sue the insurance company.
About the only way to go is to notify Steel Structures that they have $
days to sign the contract or we will proceed against the bid bond which is not
an easy process.
It appears that Steel Structures underbid the project, and now they are
looking for a way out.
page2 Minutes of the City Council of Laurel
Ken Beven reported that there are other cities having a similar problem
with ~his firm. Once they get the low bid, they come back and want more money
for one reason or another.
There being no further business to~efore the council at this time,
the meeting was adjourned at 7:55 p.m. \ ~
Donald L. Hackmann, City Clerk
Approved by the Mayor and passed by the City
Laurel, Montana, this 16th day of October, 1979.
Council of the City of