|
"In the context of responsible bidder, the term responsible refers not only:tl the attribute of
<br /> trustworthiness, but also to the quality, fitness, and capacity of the bidder to perform the
<br /> proposed agreement satisfactory.", and those are the criteria that the City of Sunny Isles
<br /> Beach asks, are you trustworthy, are you the kind of bidder that we want to work with, and
<br /> that is what responsible means, and that is why they use these criteria here. In 62-8, there
<br /> are criteria 1-5 all of those are used to determine whether you are a responsible bidder or not,
<br /> and again the court says: "In the context of responsible bidder the term responsible refers not
<br /> only to the attribute of trustworthiness, but also to the quality, fitness and capacity of the
<br /> bidder to perform the proposed agreement satisfactory. When a statutelrequires that an
<br /> award be made to the lowest or highest responsible bidder, it must be awarded accordingly
<br /> unless that bidder is found not responsible, not qualified to perform the particular work under
<br /> consideration, although public bodies have discretion to determine which bidders are
<br /> responsible they may not, if they determine more than one bidder is responsible, make the
<br /> award on the basis of relative superiority.
<br /> Ms. Dickens said that the case from California is a different standard than what the law is in
<br /> Florida. Mr. Del Armas said that the City of Sweetwater couldn't be clearer, the City of
<br /> Sweetwater is out of the 3rd DCA, and it says"lowest responsible bidder means that it is a low
<br /> bidder who was found to be responsive.", your discretion ends. We don't want the City to
<br /> coming along later and saying yeah, they are both responsible bidders, brut you know what,
<br /> we like one better than the other, and that is exactly what we want to prevent. We want to
<br /> prevent unclear standards, and there is another principal at play here which is even beyond
<br /> the fact that the City absolutely lacks requirement, and that is that the City here has acted on
<br /> an undisclosed criteria. What is a undisclosed criteria, when you put together a bid package,
<br /> as a municipality, you are establishing the rules of the game, you are establishing the ground
<br /> rules, do not come in later and say, oh I am sorry, we forgot to tell you, there is another rule
<br /> and we are applying that rule in order to award it to Southeastern. For example, here are the
<br /> rules of the game, say you have to have Tran at least 40% in-house work, and then they
<br /> come along and say you met that, you have 44% but do you know what, wellike Southeastern
<br /> better because they have 70%. You know what, if you are going to award it based on who
<br /> does more in-house work, announce it, you are obligated to announce it,award
<br /> come in after
<br /> the fact and say, in order to force fit an award, or possibly force fit an award, because we
<br /> don't have to cast persons on anybody, acting in utmost good faith, you are not allowed
<br /> to do it, you need to announce the rules of the game clearly.
<br /> Mr. De Armas said in this case Magnum Construction vs. Broward Countyi School Board, and
<br /> you will see that he represented Magnum Construction the petitioner in this case, and we
<br /> went up to Tallahassee before that administrative judge Landingham, and what happened
<br /> here was there was a request for proposal, in that case they said that they are ranking you,
<br /> and there was a ranking unlike here, and there was a committee that was actually ranking
<br /> these proposers, and members of the School Board of Broward County voted to award it to
<br /> another contractor other then MCM on the basis that that other contractor had done more
<br /> business with the School Board of Broward County and they wanted somebody that had
<br /> either experience with local conditions or as one School Board member told him under oath,
<br /> they wanted somebody that had paid their dues in Broward County. None of that was
<br /> announced in the RFP and we went up, and Judge Landingham agreed, and said you know
<br /> Summary Minutes: Bid Protest 07-10-02 030308 Page 5 of 11
<br />
|