{"id":11602,"date":"2013-11-20T14:23:07","date_gmt":"2013-11-20T20:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flovalleynews.com\/?p=11602"},"modified":"2013-11-20T14:23:07","modified_gmt":"2013-11-20T20:23:07","slug":"florissant-council-mayor-disagree-on-bidding-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=11602","title":{"rendered":"Florissant Council, Mayor Disagree on Bidding Process"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Carol Arnett<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Florissant City Council last week discussed the procedure for introducing a bill appropriating funds before tabling a bill that would provide $300,000 for replacement of ball field lights and light poles on two fields in St. Ferdinand Park.<\/p>\n

At issue was not the funding, many council members said, but the way in which the city appropriates money. In this case, the $300,000 is an estimate of the cost. After the money is appropriated, the city will send out a request for bids.<\/p>\n

Councilman Tim Lee said he thought that the city was not going to use this process any more. He said he would prefer to see bids before appropriating funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was an issue we discussed in our last work session. We were asked because of the urgency of getting information forward and starting the bid process if we could authorize the parks department to start getting bids.\u201d The council voted unanimously, he said, to authorize the parks department to get bids and also voted unanimously to hold off the appropriation until the bids were in place. He said the council decided they would like to see bids before appropriations were made.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, Mr. Lee, with all due respect, you\u2019re going to have to table every bill that comes before you,\u201d Mayor Tom Schneider said. \u201cThis is the way we do purchasing. This has been reviewed by our finance director, our public works director and our city attorney.\u201d\u00a0 He said that he had discussed this with Lee earlier in the week.<\/p>\n

Lee said that his recollection of the meeting earlier in the week was that Schneider would present him with the positions of the attorney and other directors, not present the bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI urge the remaining members of the council to vote on this bill. The longer you delay this, the longer it\u2019s going to take us to get this bid out,\u201d Schneider said.<\/p>\n

Councilman John Grib said he agreed with Lee that the council had agreed to change the process. However, he said, he has done research that showed that some contractors expected a first reading of the bill before bids. He said that he had no problems having a first reading, but would require all bids and other information before a second reading and final vote.<\/p>\n

Schneider agreed. \u201cI would appreciate letting the first reading go and then we can discuss this in more detail. The position of the administration is that we have been doing it the way we\u2019ve been doing it for 50 years.\u201d Scheinder added that the method had worked well for the city. \u201cThis is an administrative responsibility that the council is perhaps trying to meddle in.\u201d Schneider said that he would continue to ask the council to appropriate funds and then put things out for bid when the money in appropriated.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn all due respect, this may be the way we\u2019ve been doing it for 50 years, but it\u2019s not working,\u201d Lee countered. He brought up a previous appropriating bill in which the council was asked to appropriate $33,500 to replace a light post. He said members of the council questioned the high price, and when bids came in, the cost was $17,000.<\/p>\n

Lee said there have been other instances when bids come in higher or lower than appropriated. He noted that the council is responsible for appropriating funds. He said that they already discussed this at a work session and took a vote, and now he feels blindsided that the bill was placed on this agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cI object to the way this went,\u201d Lee said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to allocated funds for a pig in a poke when I don\u2019t have any idea how much its going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that at the work session, the parks department and the mayor asked the council to expedite this project and get bids. Now, Lee said, they find out that 10 days have passed and no requests for bids have been sent. Schneider confirmed that no request had been sent.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince there have not been any requests for bids sent out,\u201d Grib said. \u201cMaybe that\u2019s something the administration can do in the next two weeks if we table this.\u201c<\/p>\n

City Attorney John Hessel said that different cities handle appropriations and requests for bids in different ways, and both the current method and the proposed method are legal.<\/p>\n

Lee made a motion to remove the item from the agenda. The council voted 8-1 to remove it. Mark Schmidt was the only vote to leave it.<\/p>\n

In other action, the council:<\/strong><\/p>\n