PLACE YOUR BIDS!!! AGAIN…
After all the hoopla Mono County put up about funding cleanup for the Pack Fire, the county now finds itself without a contractor to do the work.
In March, the county received word that the state would reimburse it for up to 75% of debris removal costs tied to the November Pack Fire, which destroyed 36 structures.
On Tuesday, however, county supervisors learned that when the project went out to bid, both submitted proposals came in far above what officials had planned.
“One [bid was] almost two times over budget, and the other two times over budget,” Assistant County Counsel Emily Fox said.
DRC Emergency Services, a debris removal contractor, had previously given the county an estimate of about $2.6 million. But when it formally bid the project, the price came in at more than $5 million. The only other bidder submitted a proposal exceeding $6 million.
To make matters more complicated, the higher of the two bidders filed a bid protest challenging issues with the lower bid.
A bid protest is a formal challenge by a competing contractor arguing that something about the bidding process or another bidder’s submission was improper such as failure to follow instructions, missing required documents or other compliance issues. It is essentially a request for the government to review whether the process was fair and correct.
Regardless of the protest, the supervisors rejected both bids as non-responsive.
To move forward, staff plans to revise the project scope and rebid the work with a shorter 14 day solicitation window in hopes of attracting more competitive pricing and additional bidders.
There are 23 potentially eligible firms, but most did not submit bids.
“Some of the more local contractors, for example the ones who did the Walker Fire, didn’t even bid” Public Works Director Paul Roten said. “They probably didn’t see it in their emails.”
Despite the setback, officials noted the delay could help the project.
Preliminary site assessments indicate additional archaeological work may be required before cleanup begins meaning the revised timeline could better align with a shovel ready start.
The county is now aiming to award a contract and begin work June 15 with cleanup expected to wrap in July. While Roten does not expect pricing to fall all the way back to the original $2.6 million estimate, he believes rebidding could bring costs significantly closer to that figure.
