Commissioners disagree over purchasing policy in selecting bid for sewer repair

• Tweet
• 

Debate over a nearly 6-year-old city purchasing policy ensued at Monday’s City Commission meeting before commissioners eventually approved what is an otherwise routine financial bid to repair sewer manholes.

City Manager Kathie Grinzinger said it’s “fairly standard” that the city will annually repair about 50 storm and up to 20 sanitary sewer manholes to keep Mount Pleasant’s sewer system working well.

By the end of July, the city had received bids from five in-state and two out-of-state companies for its 2011 Manhole Rehabilitation Project. The lowest suggested cost came at $64,329 from a Winchester, Ind., company and the lowest in-state at $64,850 from another based in Grand Rapids.

Commissioners motioned to accept each low bid in two separate votes — neither receiving the majority for approval — after Commissioner Jon Joslin voiced his dissent for investing city money in services from an out-of-state company versus an in-state with only a $521 cost difference between them.

“I have a tough time sending money outside of our state,” Joslin said. “Our state is desperate for money. We need the jobs inside our state, and we need to apply to me what is common sense.”

If a company within city limits summits a bid within 2 percent of the next project offer, a policy applied in November 2005 dictates commissioners give a preference to the local bid. Because the policy was never expanded to take preference to in-state or in-county companies, several commissioners maintained “policy is policy,” prompting lastly a 4-2 vote to accept the Indiana bid.

But Commissioner Jim Holton said they each agreed with Joslin that the policy needed to be updated — something they could do in the coming weeks or months.

“What we maybe want to look at is do we want to put a one percent change or five percent, or something in-state,” he said.

Commissioner Nancy English agreed a change in policy to take preference to in-state bids would clear up these decisions down the road, saying: “Until we make a formal policy, you’re going to find yourself going, ‘now what do we do?’”

Joslin said he was hopeful commissioners would broaden the purchasing policy in a similar fashion to the original in 2005.

“When we did the policy the first time, sometimes you take it step by step,” he said. “Do it in smaller steps (and) it’s easier to accomplish.”