Photo by KELLY FARRELL

Staff

Skip Castaldi, a resident in the Kendall sewer district, urged City Council "get it done" rather than delay the sewer project by sending construction of the Kendall and Mackle Park sewer districts back out to bid. Kelly Farrell/ Staff

MARCO ISLAND — City Council’s meeting began for the first time in months without a cement wall between City Hall and neighbor Andrew Guidry’s physicians’ office. With parking once again open and shared between City Hall’s neighbor as decided in a December meeting, Council began Monday afternoon addressing a new dispute between the city and three contracting firms regarding bids on sewer construction.

The extra parking was utilized as many residents attended the meeting to express their varying interests in more than $15 million in sewer construction for year-four of the central sewer project. The protests are over sewering the two largest Island neighborhoods.

Council decided that the city’s new process of selecting bids based on qualifications and cost caused confusion and directed the projects be rebid on the old process of selecting the low, responsive bidder.

Representatives from D.N. Higgins, Quality Enterprises and Mitchell & Stark presented their cases for why their firm should be selected to construct either the Kendall sewer district or the Mackle Park sewer district, or both.

D.N. Higgins was the low bidder for both sewer projects, but was not recommended by city staff.

With Higgins, the low bidder, and Mitchell & Stark, the high bidder, protesting the city’s selection of Quality Enterprises, the mid-bidder, it would delay the sewer project by about 30 days if the city went out to rebid due to the confusion.

Councilman Chuck Kiester said he did not believe Quality Enterprises should be used on Marco because of their involvement in the mishandling of asbestos pipe at Veterans Community Park during the Collier Boulevard project, which was completed in mid-2008.

Some residents said time was the main issue in the sewer project while many were more concerned about expense.

“It’s important to get this project done as soon as possible,” said Skip Castaldi, resident of the Kendall sewer district. Castaldi recommended council not rebid the project because it would cause a delay.

Resident Bob Brown said he disagreed.

“For a lot of my neighbors it’s all about saving money. We have three qualified contractors with a chance to save a million some dollars. That’s what it should be all about,” Brown said.

After hearing evidence from all three contractors, Council decided that Higgins had some merit to their questions about the bid process.

Vice Chairman Frank Recker called the city’s new bid process, which combined price and qualifications into the selection process, “arbitrary, capricious and appalling.”

If the city chose Higgins for both projects it would save more than $1 million.

“How do I go to taxpayers and say I’m going to spend an extra million? ... This is too subjective,” Recker said.

Council unanimously voted to direct Public Works Director Rony Joel to rebid the projects using the city’s prior bid process of narrowing bidders based upon their meeting minimum qualifications in the request for proposals and then recommending the lowest bidder. Upon Councilman Jerry Gibson’s recommendation, a qualification will also include completing the project as outlined in the original bid process so there would not be sewer construction projects ongoing through the 2009 holidays.

Work once scheduled to begin in April will likely begin in May but must still be done by mid-December.

Councilman Rob Popoff requested that a full review of the city’s bid process be among City Council’s next agenda items. Thompson said it would make a constructive workshop for the council.

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