City Commissioners awarded a $3,544,750 contract with a 3-2 vote to Wadsworth Builders during their Feb. 20 meeting for the Great Falls Police Department evidence expansion project.
Commissioners were scheduled to award the contract during their Feb. 6 meeting, but delayed the decision so staff could review a protest by the other bidder, James Talcott Construction.
The bid specifications manual stated that bids should be separated into three components, the base bid plus contingency for construction; a bid for the cost of adding a dumbwaiter to the project; and a bid for adding fencing and gates to the project.
The base bid should have the base bid, which should include a 2.5 percent miscellaneous contingency.
After protest review, staff recommends $3.54 million GFPD evidence building contract award
While reviewing the bids, staff noticed that Wadsworth hadn’t incorporated the contingency into the main base bid line, so once added, their base bid was higher than Talcott’s.
Wadsworth’s base bid, adjusting to include the contingency was, $3,331,250 and Talcott’s was $3,300,500.
Wadsworth’s bids for the alternatives were $127,00 and $85,800 respectively, bringing their total bid to $3,544,750.
Talcott’s bids for the alternatives were $164,00 and $104,000, bringing their total bid to $3,568,500.
Had the contract been awarded solely on the base bid, Talcott would have been the low bidder, but staff said that the budget amount allowed for both additives to be included, making Wadsworth the low bidder.
City postpones contract award for GFPD evidence building
Talcott Construction’s lawyer argued that Wadsworth’s bid should have been disqualified for not conforming to the specific instructions and therefore was not “responsive” under state and federal law.
City staff reviewed the bids and the protest and disagrees with Talcott’s lawyer. Staff finds that the determination as to whether a bid conforms to the specifications is “fully within the discretion of the city.”
“It is the opinion of city staff that the city is within its rights to allow correction of an obvious nonconformity in Wadsworth’s presentation of its bid, and to allow the presentation of the bid, as adjusted, to reflect the bidder’s intent. Further, in this case, the adjustment did not, as counsel for Talcott argues in his February 5, 2024 letter, create an uneven playing-field or create some advantage for Wadsworth in the bidding process,” staff wrote in their agenda report.
The bid is to be awarded based on the entire project and in that regard, Wadsworth was the low bidder, according to staff, who recommended awarding the contract to Wadsworth.
During the Feb. 20 meeting, City Attorney David Dennis explained staff’s position on Talcott’s protest in detail.
He said that Talcott’s position was that the city couldn’t consider the Wadsworth bid because they didn’t add the two lines, including the contingency, to calculate the base bid, as instructed.
City likely to postpone GFPD evidence building construction award
Dennis said that it comes down to whether the mistake was material, which is defined by giving a bidder an advantage not enjoyed by others.
The issue was whether the variation gave Wadsworth an advantage, to which staff said, the error on the bid form didn’t change the outcome and Wadsworth still had the lowest overall bid.
Commissioner Rick Tryon moved to award the contract to Wadsworth and Commissioner Joe McKenney seconded.
Max Davis, Talcott’s attorney said during the Feb. 20 work session that if the city awarded the contract to Wadsworth they’d likely find themselves in court.
During the regular commission meeting, he said that Talcott disagreed with staff’s conclusion said that Wadsworth had goofed and that goof was material.
Commissioner Susan Wolff said she struggled with this decision since both contractors had done projects with the city and that she respected staff.
City Commissioner to consider $3.5 million contract for GFPD evidence addition
“But I do struggle with the fact that the original bid was not done correctly,” Wolff said, and that things need to be done correctly, “especially in the bidding environment.”
Commission Shannon Wilson said that she also struggled with it and was almost inclined to rebid the project.
Wolff and Wilson voted against awarding the contract to Wadsworth.
Tryon said that when Davis spoke during the work session, it gave the impression that staff hadn’t attempted to clarify the numbers with Wadsworth.
He said that if staff didn’t attempt to clarify the numbers, it was a problem, but if they did, he was inclined to award the bid.
Staff wrote in their staff reports for both the Feb. 6 and Feb. 20 meetings, and explained it during their presentations for both meetings, that they had contacted Wadsworth to clarify the numbers for the bid.
Sylvia Tarman, the city’s ARPA project manager, further responded to Tryon’s question saying that the bids were opened in a public meeting and as soon as she got back to her desk with the documents, she noticed the issue and contacted both bidders immediately to clarify their numbers.
City approves contract for GFPD evidence addition
She said that to rebid the project would take about another month and the numbers are now public.
Since the project is being funded with ARPA, or federal COVID relief, funds, the project has to be obligated by December.
Tryon said he was taken aback by being threatened with a lawsuit if they didn’t award the contract to Talcott and said it worked against their own case.
He said he suspects if the commission awarded to the contract to Talcott, Wadsworth might sue.
Tryon said it seemed simple that Wadsworth’s numbers were lower and he wanted the project to move forward.
Mayor Cory Reeves said he agreed with Tryon and voted to support the contract award based on the explanations from staff.
GFPD has faced increasing overcrowding in its evidence storage and processing areas over the years.
“More burdensome retention requirements and increases in case numbers have exacerbated the problem, making the need for addition space critical,” according to city staff.
In April 2022, commissioners selected the expansion as a top priority project for American Rescue Plan Act, or federal COVID relief, funds.
The project includes the construction of a roughly 8,000-square-foot addition onto the south side of the existing GFPD building.
In February 2023, the city hired BSpark Architecture to design the expansion.
City staff and BSpark reviewed the bids and recommended awarding the contract to Wadsworth.
