Looking at the Rear View Across the Washington Bridge

[XLFD]

The bidding process for the engineering services for the Washington Avenue bridge was previously discussed here, when it was wondered why the City did not bid out other engineering projects on high-value engineering service contracts, relying on only one firm (Prein & Newhof) and no competitive bids  as legally mandated by City law (which was confirmed in this companion piece to it). 

 

But in a FOIA request to get the competitive bids for the bridge engineering services, where 8 companies submitted bids, five were interviewed and then Fishbeck was selected for $240,358, as recorded, we uncovered another enigma.  An enigma that may have cost the Ludington taxpayers $173,458.

 

Amazingly, Prein & Newhof were not invited to bid, perhaps reflecting their firm's not wanting to be involved in competitive bidding with their Ludington friends?  But here are the initial bids in letter sent to the bidding companies:

 

The average of the bids comes out to $225,749 and the median is $233,661.  Both are under the Fishbeck bid.  City Manager Shay, DPW's Shawn MacDonald, City Councilor/newspaperman Paul S. Peterson and an MDOT representative Rick Liptak whittled it down to 5.  They discarded L.S. Engineering, DLZ, and URS Corporation.  The first two being the second and fourth least expensive bids.  A quick glance sees that both had fair credentials in Civil Engineering and bridgework, and not located too far away. 

 

The four interviewed the five companies, using the following criteria to make their ultimate choice: 

- The firm's history and quality of experience with similar projects

- The qualifications of the firm's personnel assigned to the project

- The firm's experience with working with other federal, state and local authorities

- The firm's experience in staying on budget and meeting deadlines

- The firm's familiarity and proximity to the project location

- The firm's ability to relate to and understand the project requirements

- The cost of the engineering services

- Reference checks

 

With the bids in and the interviews conducted they unanimously voted for--- Fishbeck.  Their rationale was that they had significant experience in designing bridges, had real good reference checks, they had 'prepared' for the interview, and had very good knowledge of the bridge.  They had even checked with people in the neighborhood about the bridge.  Here's more of what they may have seen:  FTC&H

 

But what about Nordlund & Associates, a Ludington firm that submitted a bid $173, 458 less than the winner of the contract?  Less than 28% of Fishbeck's bid.  I wasn't part of the interview process, so they must have really done a poor job in presenting themseves because, like Fishbeck, they have experience in designing bridges and a talented staff with civil engineering experience led by the two Nordlunds. 

 

They definitely were at the top of at least two of the criteria (cost and familiarity/proximity), and I can't imagine nobody on the panel, nobody on the public utilities committee, and nobody on the Ludington City Council questioning why they used $173,458 more of the local taxpayer's money to hire someone whose nearest office is Grand Rapids.  I would really like to see the interviewing committee's rationale for not hiring a Ludington business with many years of civil engineering experience, many local projects of note, and a competitive bid that is less than 28% of what Fishbeck will receive. 

Here's the full FOIA reply for the bids.

[Willy]

I don't understand how the bids can vary so dramatically. Does Ludington have a resident engineer or an engineering consultant who helps with this type of situation by giving advice to the people who make the decisions on who to hire?

[XLFD]

Yeah, John Shay, LOL.

The competitive bidding process is surprising in how much you can save.  In just this instance, if the City just contacted URS Corporation, who had a bid of $388K when they knew they were in a competitive bid, instead of Nordlund, they could have spent $322,000 more on these services.  This is why competitive bidding needs to be done for big-enough-sized contracts, because it saves big-time money.  And prevents collusion and corruption between the City and contractors from happening.  It also should be an open and transparent process, you shouldn't have to file FOIAs to see that your politicians are doing it right, and to explain why they passed on such a bargain like Nordlund offered.

What you had here was one former municipal insurance claims adjuster/current City Mangler (Shay), one former newspaper manager/City Clouncilor (Peterson), coupled with a Lud DPW Supervisor-- the same people who decided to spend over $1,200,000 to paint a couple of water towers when it could have been done for about $300,000. 

Richard Liptak, the MI DOT representative, would have not been keyed into the financial aspect of the decision--the State did not have to foot any of the bill for engineering services.  Therefore, his vote would go to who he thought might have the best presentation or other factors based on his experience.  The other non-civil engineers of the selection committee would follow his lead like goslings to a goose.  And that's why we selected a company that was above the median and average bids. 

[Willy]

Is the City required to give a detailed report on how / why a particular contractor is chosen especially when the City refuses to take the lowest bid and ends up rewarding a contract to a bidder that is head and shoulders above the lowest bid in the process?

[XLFD]

You think they would have to, but I have yet to find anything that forces them to unequivocally select the lowest bid for qualified competitive bidders, as we had here.  The bidders need to prove they are qualified before they get down to the interview phase, the product of these civil engineers will be primarily blueprints and plans utilized by the construction crew, and a quick response if there is any questions. 

The close proximity of Nordlund & Associates should be a big plus, as nobody else is closer than Muskegon.  And the price-- I just can't believe you'd throw nearly $200,000 at a flashier presentation for engineering services the City of Ludington taxpayers must all pay for-- and at what is basically an unneeded bridge.

[Sweater Cows!]

I don't know much about Nordlund other than they are in ludington and have been around ever since I can remember seeing there place on Lud. ave near the curve where the speed limit changes.  That said, The lowest bid is not necessarily the best bid, nor is the highest, nor is the mean or median.

ONe thing about bids is that whoever is choosing the 'winner' needs to know what they are reading because they may not be comparing apples to apples, and there is even a difference between Fuji apples and Red Delicious. Not only do they  have to know that they are apples but they need to be the same kind of apples.

I hate bidding in sealed bids. Unless the client requesting the bid lays out an exact specification for what they want done, nearly writing the bid themselves and only asking for the dollars to be filled in by the bidder it is hard to come up with a competitive bid for the exact same ends. Many times(in my job anyway) there can 3 or four ways to get the same end result, but thru different means and with different quality.

As an example: a guy came in for a job, got a price from me and a price from another guy. The other guy was about 250 less. He asked if I could do it for that because he wanted us to do it. I said to bring me in the other estimate and let me see it. He brought it in and when I reviewed it I found where the other person was doing some things differently which led to less money. Now I *could* do it that way as well, no problem *if* that was the clients desired result. But I need to know that is what the person wants.

In this case I actually explained to the guy that I could match the other and do the job the way the other had written it. But I wanted to do it in a different way(better results long term but not as cheap) because the cheaper way might not hold up as long as what I was doing.(de-trimming mouldings,handles,mirrors,emblems,etc...) so all clear coat would be under the pieces when re-attached instead of just masking around them, now either way is fine, but one way is 'proper' and one is cheaper. That is why I say bids(sealed bids) suck. BTW, the guy had it done for my price the way I thought best:)

I have more examples but I think ya'll get what I mean that sealed bids are not neccessarily going to provide the exact same services. I would rather have open bids where each company can review the other guys so they are bidding on doing the exact same thing, but just who will do that exact thing for the lowest price.

[Marty Redman]

The senior Nordlund has nearly 50 years of experience in civil engineering starting off in California.  The younger has over 20 years.  This contract is for the engineering services company to supply technical drawings for this bridge rehab.  Spending more than you have to to get tech drawings from two competent and different companies is wasteful. 

The process went thru here sounds like Chicago contract bidding.  Send bids to as many as you want, and pick the ones you planned on all along.  There should at the very least be some reason why they denied someone like Nordlund from this project whom would have supplied what they needed, did it competently, and were available for quick response when needed.