Bid process in Bluffdale under attack

BLUFFDALE — A fire of controversy is surrounding construction of the city's new fire station and how the city awarded the project bid.

At least two City Council members have questioned whether the city's mayor and administrator did enough to ensure that the lowest bid to build the $1.4 million fire station was chosen.

Lyle Kenney, owner of Forest Line Construction, says he submitted a bid that was $77,000 less than his competitor, Interwest Construction, but was given the cold shoulder by city staff, who he claims never notified him that his bid was rejected or why.

"We do stuff for the state of Utah, we've done stuff for Utah County, the National Guard, Wyoming state," Kenney said, but never in his career has he ever been simply ignored by a government agency. Kenney acknowledged his bids do get rejected, but added most government entities give him a reason in writing as to why his bid was passed over.

After waiting since the bid was awarded in June, "I'm still waiting," Kenney said. "I called all the time. I bet you I called six different times. We e-mailed letters . . . nobody will give me an answer."

Council members said when they voted to award the bid on June 10 they were acting upon advice from the city's staff.

Councilwoman Claudia Anderson said although there was no hard evidence of favoritism, the way the city handled the bid cannot eliminate it.

"I had a real problem with this," Anderson said. "Why we paid something like $77,000 more for this bid, I don't think we had justification."

Anderson said she was also upset over some of the amenities in the fire station, such as a $7,000 professional cooking range to be installed in the station's kitchen. "It was ridiculous," she said.

Anderson said she was only one of two members to vote down the decision to award the bid to Interwest, asking for more time to explore the bids.

Councilman Jesse Kelley was the other. Kelley said because the bid specifications for the fire station were so complex, he and others on the council relied heavily upon the recommendations of city staff and the architect hired by the city. "It's possible that we were misled," Kelley said.

According to council minutes, the contracted architect and staff called Forest Line a "fairly young company without a lot of experience in building this kind of facility."