Bay County losing business to Walton County

PANAMA CITY — The Bay County Commission made a decision Tuesday that might cost the county $20,000 next year, lead to four local truckers losing their jobs and send some business to Walton County.

Commissioners and county staffers said their hands were tied by state bidding rules.

The fuss Tuesday was over sludge, the byproduct of the treatment process at the Military Point Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility, or AWT.

Bay Environmental has hauled sludge for the county for 17 years and its contract expires this month. The job went out for bid in September and R & E Farms, LLC — a Black, Ala., hauling company — checked in with the lowest bid at $33 per ton and will take the sludge to DeFuniak Springs.

The problem is that Bay Environmental, which did the job this year for $28 per ton, didn’t know its contract was up. The new contract will cost the county about $132,000, according to estimates from county Utilities Director Jamie Jones, which is $20,000 more than Bay Environmental charged this year.

The county advertised the bids in the Panama City News Herald in early September and opened the bids Sept. 23. Mallory Williams, president of Bay Environmental, didn’t know the job was out for bid until about three weeks ago.

“We were not notified, and we were shocked,” Williams told commissioners Tuesday.

He offered to hold his price at $28 if the county threw out the bids and re-opened the process, allowing the other bidders to undercut him.

But commissioners were reluctant to mess with the bidding process and voted 3-2 to approve the contract with R & E Farms. Commissioners Jerry Girvin and Mike Nelson voted no.

“I don’t see where we have any choice but to award the bid,” Commissioner Mike Thomas said. “I don’t think it’d be fair for us to open it back up for bids again.”

County Purchasing Director Jim Clawson said notice was sent to Bay Environmental’s old office in Gulf County. The company moved to Star Avenue about a year ago, but Williams said his company always took mail from a post office box.

“He’s been doing it for 17 years, I think he would know when his bids are up,” Clawson said Tuesday in a phone interview.

Bay Environmental trucks pulled onto the AWT on a daily basis, but no effort was made to tell them that their job was in jeopardy. The county is not required to notify the incumbent contract-holder that a job is up for bid, Clawson said.

County attorneys, who do not speak to the press, told Public Information Officer Valerie Lovett that R & E Farms could sue if the county reopened the bidding process. That’s no consolation to Williams, who said he will have to cut four employees to make up for the lost contract.

“My point was, 17 years of no problems. I think I deserve a little consideration,” he said. “I’m going to have to lay four people off and the job’s going to Walton County.”