Tuesday, July 31, 2007

MDOT Resolves Low Bid Tie With Coin Toss

The Michigan Infrastructure & Transportation Association (MITA) reported this story in its July 27th Weekly Review Newsletter:

For what is believed to be only the second time in its history, [the Michigan Department of Transportation] MDOT experienced a low bid tie on a project bid in the July 6th letting. Exercising its authority and discretion under the applicable state statutes, administrative rules, and federal regulations, MDOT, with concurrence from the participating federal agency, resolved the low bid tie with a “flip of a coin”.

Soon after the coin toss the note “low bid won by coin toss” was added to the project bid summary in the “As Checked” letting results report on the MDOT website.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

"Disappointed Bidder" Rule Proves Fatal (Again) in DWSD Bid Protest

On July 10, 2007, for the second time in less than 6 months, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan has dismissed a bid protest of a DWSD contract on grounds that the low bidder lacked legal standing to challenge the award. As he did earlier this year, Judge John Feikens made short work of the contractor's claims:
Plaintiffs do not have standing to bring this matter before this Court. Plaintiffs argue that they are Detroit taxpayers and DWSD fee-paying customers and as such have standing to legally challenge the DWSD award in this matter, regardless of whether they have bid on the PC-755 contract or not. I previously wrote that retail water customers of DWSD or rate payers do not have standing to join in disputes involving the awarding of public contracts.

* * *

Allowing Plaintiffs to have standing in this matter would essentially permit any individual in the region to become a party to any case regarding a contract awarded by DWSD, and would have the further consequence of allowing any disappointed bidder to circumvent the disappointed bidder doctrine merely because they also are retail customers of the DWSD.
Walbridge Aldinger Co. v. City of Detroit, 495 F. Supp. 2d 642, 645 ( E.D. Mich. 2007)