I lost a large Contract, read article and see how

That is a tough one. I know how you are feeling because I would be some upset in the same situation but if the city did not specify credentials and equipment required when sending out the bid packets and it was going to be based on lowest bid the other company won based on the rules that were established.Not cool but totally legal.
 
In the bid docs, the city reserved the right to interview the bidders and they did. The lowest bidder during the interview could not complete his list of equipment and personnel. The bid docs stated that the contract would go to the lowest RESPONSIBLE bidder. The commission basically let the low bidder tell them what his plans were right there and they just took his word for it. I believe there needs to be further investigation before the bid can be awarded, which the city also reserves the right to inspect bidders equipment and facilities. The low bidder plans on hiring two tree services as his employees and renting their equipment. One of the tree services has had the worst rep in Great Falls for years, the owner was in the paper two months ago for being caught red handed by the cops drunk trying to slit his own dogs throat, he was arrested and found to have warrents for dangerous drug charges. The other tree service is a one man show who a year and a half go almost died because while he was removing a tree with his bucket truck he thought it was a good idea to lower a log from up in his bucket by wrapping the rope around his arm, he was thrown 40 ft to the ground, he spent 2 months in ICU.

Sorry for venting, but this just seems to me and my lawyer to be an "Abuse of Discretion" by the city commission.
 
Poorly written and even more poorly enforced specs, are a huge headache for service providers preparing municipal bids, and a reason why so many cities have crappy, risk laden trees.

Perhaps going forward you can put your city council in touch with other cities who are specifying Certified Arborists in their RFP's I know of one city in my area that goes so far as to give an extra 10 points in considering bids in which a BCMA will have oversight on the execution of the proposed work.

You could also offer to be on the city planning committee and help them with developing better specifications so that in the future, they stand a chance of actually winding up with the results they paid for.

My chapter keeps a page of tree specs online, so it's easy for us to show people what a correct bid should look like. The devil is definitely in the details.
 
Definitely sucks Cory, especially the incompetence of the primary contractor in this case. I would be interested to see what the IRS would find in an audit after the fact? Would Bolands books actually show the other contractors as "employees". Definitely smells fishy. I did try to call you and left a voicemail message when you called me before. Don't know if you got it or not. I may post a Letter to the Editor in your paper over this, keep an eye out for it.
 
Seems like written correspondence with the city officials about enforcing "responsible" and voicing your concerns.

Is subbing out the work allowable to legally legit subs, working as subs, not employees? Proof of WC for employees?

Seems like they may have jumped through the appropriate hoops, even if incompetent.
 
It will be interesting to follow the outcome. Will they meet the deadline requirement or was there one? Is he a "friend" to the council and mayor? Just smacks of cheap local politics.

It's tough to fight this without really souring your relationship and opportunity for future work with the town.

Does his insurance co. know that he is bidding tree work? Will his policy actually cover him?
 
Yes, I also think that the Well Driller's insurance company might think tree removal is a stretch. Illegal too.

$250 thousand is worth the fight... big job indeed.
My guess is you may have to finish the job for these hacks after they hit a few houses, hurt some crew members.

Sucks.
 
Guaranteed it will be an " I told you so" .
Hopefully no one gets hurt when they screw it up.

I know how it feels man. Totally sucks.
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The head arborist in my town operates a full time tree service.
We compete for the same work.
And more than once he has tried to stop me from pruning and once removing a tree in a Front yard.
I'm sure he has got a good thing goin on with the city like Borland does. Things may slowly unravel.

It is what it is.
Stay calm and carry on.
 
Sounds well worth getting your lawyer involved.

We had a municipal tender let out here several years ago to remove 40 ugly dead willows, stumps and all. They went wi the lowest bidder whoever bid 20 k to my 48k. They didn't get the work done needless to say. Lesson learned. Your contract is far bigger and the municipality has far more to lose (as do you) and a good lawyer should be able to make that clear to them.

V
 
Can you show us the Bid Docs and what was in it?

In a town near where I live a company made a bid for less than half (€700.000,00) of what other comps offered (middle of the pack was around €1.500.000,00).
That company that made the lowest bid got the contract. In the end it turned out the towns bid doc was incomplete. The company arrived at the job site with only workforce and asked where the boom truck was to do the job... Bingo, first cash. They could send an extra bill for the boom truck. After the first day's work the whole street was a mess and the company left to go home. The next day the company was confronted with the 'facts' and reacted with "In the contract the town stated that the debris is not of any value for the town, neither is it of any value for us". Aha! You want us to clean up afterwards? Bingo, second cash. They could send an extra bill for chipping and cleaning up after the pruning crew.
No need to say that the town eventually had to pay way more than the middle bidder that included those boom truck, chipping and cleaning cost in their bid.
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Hopefully the sub who's mad at his dog should be in jail soon. Someone to stay away from anyway.

That could be a case for the ISA's code of ethics. I wouldn't want to be in a group photo with him.

It's more the, "trying" to make the cut part.
 
I just watched the council meeting on this. Quite the circus with a lot of finger pointing. Bottom line is the City did a terrible job in writing the bid specs. I still don't see how they can award to a company who has never done this type of work and is hiring subs to do it.
 
There is nothing wrong in working with subs.

It's a total lack of interest and know-how from a council to give the bid to a company that is not in the industry. And The lack of that is going to cost the community more than they realize at this moment.
 
Wolter, I agree there is nothing wrong with working with subs as long as they are qualified and the primary bidder has direct connections to the industry. The issue I have is the prime bidder, this guy punches holes in the ground for his primary business. During the council presentation he stated that his business was a "diversified" business. During the ensuing discussion it became obvious his business is to make a buck at whatever cost. The only good thing about this job is that there are no change orders, the bid price is it and no more, so if he gets in a bind and looses money, tough luck charlie.
 
[ QUOTE ]
The only good thing about this job is that there are no change orders, the bid price is it and no more, so if he gets in a bind and looses money, tough luck charlie.

[/ QUOTE ]Let's hope he will find a contractor that can do the job for him (for twice the price). That hole puncher is going to make a lot of mess and damage before he realizes treework is a speciality. But the one and only problem we have in this busyness is; we make it look way to easy.
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I've never had a client say, it looks easy after watching us do our stuff. They'll tell us they now appreciate all that is involved in removing a tree or properly pruning. While they see how efficiently we work they also see why it takes professionals to do it right and safely.


I'm amazed that the bid specs didn't include a limitation on subbing for the very reason that it allows for anyone to bid since they can then just sub the work. It's all starting to smell fishy. One of the lessons I learned in sales was that the best time to get involved with a bid is at the stage when the specs are being drafted. You can then spec it to suit you. It sounds like this is what happened.
 
SO here is the latest on the situation. I filed an official protest the day after the commission meeting which was on 0ctober 18th. City officials through phone calls kept telling me that I would receive a response, well I never got one and the other contractor started the work on the 27th.

I watched the other contractor doing the work, and in one hour this is what I saw. No eye protection, no chaps, no safety harness being worn while in bucket, kicking brush into chipper, some guys not wearing hard hats, no traffic signs, while rigging out big wood the logs were swinging 160 degrees and slamming into lower boom, and to top it off they were using their bucket truck to lift logs into a dump truck.

I have one of the best contract dispute lawyers in Montana now looking into this mess.
 
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