At a special meeting on March 15, the Goodman Board of Aldermen were split on a vote to accept a bid for street construction, and Mayor J.R. Fisher broke the tie.
As the board reviewed the minutes of the previous meeting, Alderman Clay Sexson said there were two motions missing from the minutes -- a motion to adjourn that failed and a motion to rebid the street project that passed.
This led to a discussion on street bids.
At a previous meeting, the board opened bids from APAC Central Inc., Blevins Asphalt Construction Co. Inc. and Emery Sapp and Sons Inc. Fisher had recommended accepting the bid from APAC for $922,684.50. The company also included a price per ton, which was $92.25 for 10,002 tons of asphalt materials. Compared to Blevins' bid, which was $739,322.10 for the project but the cost for materials was $98.55 for 7,502 tons of asphalt materials. For this reason, Fisher argued that APAC had the more cost-efficient bid. Emery Sapp and Sons submitted a bid of $1,081,341 for the project with a "per mile" price without giving a "per ton" price. A representative of the company reportedly remarked at a previous meeting that the company was not informed the company could bid by the ton.
Alderman John Bunch said March 15 the would not vote to choose a bid from APAC Central Inc. He later explained the board voted to rebid the project and he thought the city could save money and still complete the project. He added the bids were not "apples to apples" because one contractor did not bid by the ton.
Alderman Clay Sexson commented that Emery Sapp and Sons could have made a more competitive bid had they known they could bid by the ton, however, the detail was not in the bid package that went out to contractors.
Fisher said, "Anyone can look at someone else's bid and say after the fact, 'I could have bid more competitively.'"
Fisher recognized Clyde Davidson from the audience, who asked City Attorney Jordan Paul whether the board needed to vote again on the original bids or rebid the project.
Paul said if the contractors were still willing to honor the bids, the board could vote on them, or they could rebid them.
Davidson later encouraged the board to address the motion from the previous meeting to rebid the street project.
After some discussion, Alderman Nicholas Smith made a motion to rescind the motion to rebid the street project, and this motion passed.
A motion was made to send contractors a new packet for hot mix by the ton with an addendum for fiber, and this motion did not pass.
After this, the board approved the minutes of the previous meeting.
Later in the meeting, Smith made a motion to accept the bid from APAC. Alderman Beth Hallmark seconded the motion. Smith and Hallmark voted yes, and Sexson and Bunch voted no. Fisher broke the tie with a yes vote, and applause and cheers erupted from the audience.
Also during the meeting, the board heard from Brock Goehl of DA Davidson regarding financing of the street project. He said the interest rate would be around 5.25 percent. Fisher later said he anticipated the rate would be more like 4 to 5 percent. The lease would be for 20 years and would involve a $63,000 annual payment for a total of $774,616, Goehl said.
The board also considered an ordinance to change a vote of "abstain" to a "no" vote. Currently board members can vote yes, no, abstain or recuse, Fisher said. He said members were abusing the ability to abstain, and the new ordinance would take away the opportunity to be unethical.
Paul said he was not sure there was any difference between abstaining and recusing and said he did not think the ordinance would do any good. He said he would look into the matter further.
In other business, Mykkah Buchanan of KPM presented the city's audit. She reported the city received a clean opinion, which is the best opinion a city can get.
The regular Goodman city council meeting session on Tuesday, March 21 was canceled due to lack of quorum. The city will reconvene at city hall on Thursday, March 23 at 7 p.m. Residents are welcome to attend.