Engineering contract challenged, city straddles fence

After residents challenged the legality of a city contract during a meeting last week, High Springs commissioners are debating whether to seek another opinion. So far, no decision has been reached.

Citing Florida State Statute 287.055, known as the Consultants' Competitive Negotiation Act, concerned citizen Robyn Rush said that when High Springs began its city wastewater system project, commonly referred to as the sewer project, it did not follow proper procedure for selecting an engineering firm.

She said the city did not advertise properly when seeking firms to apply for the contract, and furthermore that from her understanding of the statute, the city should have received a minimum of three different companies’ applications before choosing one and then proceeding with the project.

Rush also suggested that the city should have considered other engineering firms for each new phase of the project rather than continuing to renew its contract with Jones Edmunds & Associates Inc.

City attorney Tom DePeter contested that from a legal standpoint, he did not think High Springs had violated the state statute. He interpreted it as being intended to require that of all the applications a municipality receives for a contract, it must officially consider at least three before choosing one, rather than Rush’s interpretation that the law intends to absolutely require three applications before the project can go on.

DePeter argued that this wouldn’t be plausible because sometimes a city doesn’t get that many interested parties, and he doesn’t think the law is intended to prohibit a project just because it didn’t receive three bids for contract.

Despite what Depeter said, Rush implored the commission to request a non-binding opinion on the matter from the state attorney general. If the city were to request it, the opinion would be a judgment on whether High Springs violated any law, but it would not be a legal ruling and would not automatically require any action.

City Commissioner Dean Davis said that “in the interest of clearing the air,” he thinks the city should request the opinion. Commissioner Eric May agreed that it might be a good idea to do so, as did Commissioner Susan Weller.

Commissioner Byran Williams interjected that he would prefer to put the issue on hold and have more discussion about it first, and with that the discussion was tabled.

Mayor Larry Travis was not present at the meeting.

An item was added to the agenda for Thursday night’s commission workshop that reads “Review and discuss contract with Jones Edmunds and Associates.”