Redmond Awards Bid
So just recently the City of Redmond awarded a bid to a contractor that wasn’t the lowest bidder. This is unheard of in municipality bidding. The City awarded the contract to redo 6th street in down town Redmond. 6th street use to the main thorough fare through Redmond for years until just recently when the bypass was put in. Since the bypass was built and the economic plunge, downtown businesses on 6th street have been hurting bad.
Taylor NW was awarded the contract to reconstruct 6th street. Taylor NW wasn’t the lowest bid and they weren’t even the second lowest bid. Taylor was actually $400,000 dollars higher than the lowest bid and $200,000 higher than the second lowest. So why did they get the contract?
Prior to bidding the contract, they were heavily involved with working with the merchants and finding out how they can help minimize the impact of the project. They thought outside the box. Taylor NW included in there bid a timely completion of the project, ideas of how the project could be better and cleaning the storefronts of the businesses downtown.
Robinson Construction is the low bidder who did not receive the contract. They filed a letter with the City Council saying that they didn’t review references. I don’t think references were necessary. Fact of the matter is, no one else took it upon themselves to sell their company. They came up with some numbers on a spreadsheet and said here is our number, let’s take another 10% off the top and that will be our bid. Taylor NW spent some serious time finding out what the customer really wanted and offered services to the city that no one else was.
It is kind of funny how when I read the article I was pretty much jumping up and down. I loved the fact that a company during this economic time gets a bid when they are $400,000 high. The other person reading the article (taxpayer) is pissed.
My next challenge is trying to figure out what services can we offer our contractors that no one else does.
