Denied: Losing Firm Protests Escambia Jail Bid

August 17, 2017

A challenge to the selection of a firm to build the Escambia County Jail project failed on Wednesday. Yates Construction asked for an informal protest hearing after losing the bid last week to Whitesell-Green/Caddell.

“We’re really just looking for an apples-to-apples comparison of the bids,” Yates Construction’s Attorney Dodds Dehmer said.

Their argument is over a retention pond. Whitesell-Green/Caddell presented a proposal to county commissioners on Thursday that showed a retention pond in the area that was designated for future retail space. Yates Construction proposed an expensive underground water storage in that same area.

“Clearly in our mind, this property was not to be used to build the facility, but rather for future development,” Dehmer said.

Dehmer argued that if they would have included a retention pond instead, it would have lowered their bid price by $3.5 million. That would have made them the lowest bidder.

County staff said that is a moot point.

Assistant County Administrator Amy Lovoy said commissioners chose the best value for the project, not necessarily the cheapest bid.

“With respect to the pricing, it simply wasn’t a selection criterion,” Lovoy said.

James Brown, the director of estimating and preconstruction services for Yates Construction, questioned that statement. He points to the time commissioners spent tallying up the numbers before the vote.

“You have a county that has budget pressures, you have it out in the media that they were the low price and I just don’t see an elected official making any other decision,” Brown said.

Paul Nobles, the county’s purchasing manager, upheld the commissioner’s decision to choose Whitesell-Green/Caddell. He said their original proposal submitted back in July complied with the county’s guidelines and that is what he will hold them to, not the changes presented to commissioners two weeks later.

“That was not an official proposal,” Nobles said. “That was just a discussion on what potentially could be done.”

Yates Construction can now ask for a formal protest. That would bring in an outside firm to hear both the county’s side and Yates Construction’s side. Then it would go to commissioners to consider.

Commissioners are set to ratify their selection at Thursday’s board meeting.

Comments

3 Responses to “Denied: Losing Firm Protests Escambia Jail Bid”

  1. Scott Amos on August 17th, 2017 9:56 pm

    Keep it Local

  2. Frank on August 17th, 2017 10:06 am

    Follow the Money!

  3. BT on August 17th, 2017 9:03 am

    So, the county is saying that the county did nothing wrong. I guess that settles it.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News