LAPLACE — Awarding a contract that could potentially eliminate the myriad of problems that have plagued the St. John the Baptist Parish Utilities Department for the past several years is entwined in a legal labyrinth, one that will likely be untangled by the district attorney’s office.

The awarding of a contract exceeding $5.5 million for the water meter reading and billing system project was scheduled to be voted on during the Parish Council’s finance committee meeting Tuesday. Parish President Natalie Robottom recommended the Council vote to accept Aqua Metric Sales Company’s bid of $5.7 million, which was about $200,000 higher than the low bid of Greenup Industries LLC, which came in at $5.5 million.

Although Greenup, which is located in Gonzales, submitted the lowest bid, Robottom contended it was “non-responsive” because of several deficiencies so she recommended accepting the bid of Aqua Metrics, a Selma, Texas-based company.

But it was then the legal unraveling began, with Robottom and Council Chair Thomas Malik debating two state statutes regarding public bid law, and each forwarding their opinions as to Greenup’s bid being “non-responsive” or “non-responsible,” which could have an impact on the final decision.

Robottom said Greenup’s bid was determined by the state Attorney General’s office “not to be not-responsible,” which means the Parish Council could legally award the contract to the next lower bidder, which was Aqua Metrics, the only  other company bidding.

Malik disagreed and said a formal letter should be sent to Greenup Industries, allowing a chance to respond to the claims that the contract contained deficiencies.

“Being an education major (in college), I have no idea what is going on with this law,” Councilman Larry Snyder said. “As far as I’m concerned, the only thing (on the Greenup bid) was an item being left blank. We need to let (the district attorney’s office) look at it and figure all of this stuff out.”

Representatives from the district attorney’s office, as well as District Attorney Bridget A. Dinvaut, were present but were not asked to speak on the matter. But in a legal report submitted to the Council before the meeting, it was reported the “district attorney’s office was not provided any information related” to the contract.

At the beginning of the finance committee meeting, an attorney from Jones-Walker law firm in New Orleans, which is representing Greenup, said the company was protesting the awarding of the contract to Aqua Metric because it violated state public bid laws.

Rodney Greenup then addressed the Council, saying he would like to see due process applied and added he is a LaPlace resident and his company currently has more than 30 people from St. John Parish on its staff.

“We want to keep the dollars here and help the citizens,” he said.

In a copy of an email obtained by L’OBSERVATEUR through a public records request, Robottom told Council members Greenup’s deficiencies included not using the proper replacement bid form as required by Addendum No 1, not  providing a price on the first page of the Public Work Bid form as required, adding five bid items to the bid form, not providing pricing for certain items, changing quantities and units of measure on the bid form and not providing an alternate bid amount that would be tacked on to the base bid.

“Does that disqualify (Greenup) from being the responsible bidder?” Councilman Marvin Perrilloux asked.

“I think he qualifies. But before proceeding further we need to have legal review it.”

In an email to L’OBSERVATEUR, Director of Purchasing and Procurement Jean Stewart explained the timeline of the contract bid, of which the legality was also questioned by Council members. She said on April 5, one day after the bids were opened, Digital Engineering, which is overseeing the meter project, sent an email to Greenup informing the company it was the “apparent” low bidder and a list of documents and information was to be submitted to Stewart’s office within 10 days.

Stewart said “upon careful review” Greenup’s bid was deemed non-responsive. Because of those deficiencies, Aqua Metric was deemed the lowest responsible and responsive bidder, and that company’s bid was subsequently approved by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.

The Council adopted a motion to table the matter and to instruct the D.A.’s office to review the contracts relating to the bid laws and issue a legal opinion.

— By Richard Meek