City Council Votes In Favor Of Builders Protesting City's Bidding Process

Accusations are flying against the city of Medford about what some are calling an unfair bidding process for a major construction job at the Police Department

The city has to hire a contractor to build a new evidence room at the Department. It’s a big job worth several hundred thousand dollars.

Four bids came in on the job. The nod went to the highest bidder, Adroit Construction, at $474,000. Three other bidders, Batzer Construction, Vitus Construction and Ausland Group, all local contractors with reportedly upstanding reputations, came in between 15 and 50 thousand less.

In order to award the project to the highest bidder the council would first have to vote to over-ride the competitive bidding ordinance. That ordinance requires the city to take the lowest bid. Counselors refused to over-ride the existing ordinance in a seven to one vote, so the city can’t move forward with the Ausland Group contract as initially planned.

It’s unclear whether the city will have to start over and open up the bidding process again. NBC-5 was told city staff will meet and decide the best way to proceed.