The Winter Springs City Commission revisited an agenda item to carefully consider what company would be awarded a contract to remove sediment from nine of the city’s creeks before hurricane season begins on Monday night. That creek sediment shouldered part of the blame for the city’s flooding woes during the historically unprecedented Hurricane Ian.
Winter Springs staff wrote that Zulu Marine Services, Inc. would be the best choice for the job. Mayor Kevin McCann cited Zulu’s past work after Hurricane Ian, filming and learning the layout of the same creeks for the upcoming job.
“So they’ve been on every inch of these waterways,” McCann said. “They know what is there and they are the ones who did all of the video.”
During the commission meeting on Monday, Feb. 26, GRSC Inc., a company competing for the contract, brought attention to the commissioners that it was the lowest bidder, while Zulu was the third lowest.
The GRSC representative who spoke, Joe Ralph, said the city would be saving over $125,000 by shifting to GRSC. That amount stuck out to the commission so much that it tabled the decision for two weeks, informing GRSC it could come back and again advocate for the contract.
“The gentleman made a very valid point,” McCann said. “There’s over a $100,000 difference from the lowest bid to the bid that we are going with. That’s substantial, and that created a pause at the last meeting. We stopped and we said ‘wait a minute, hold on, that’s a real solid argument.’”
However, there was more than a bid weighing in on the selection. Hursh made it clear he trusted Zulu for its past performance in the city, while GRSC said it has never operated in Winter Springs.
The GRSC representative said the company has completed work in a nearby city and that it is qualified and has the equipment to conduct sediment removal.
That was not evident to the city’s staff, as Hursh told the other commission members that GRSC, and the 2nd lowest bidder, did not fully complete the Invitation to Bid.
“Both of them were deemed non-responsive in that they did provide their bid, they provided mandatory documents, but did not provide the information under sections B, C, and D as required on the proposal package,” Hursh said.
The Invitation to Bid is a document released for companies to complete and bid on a contract if they deem the job listed is achievable. Hursh said these sections guarantee that a company understands the scope of services.
“We have to go on what’s provided to us,” Hursh said. “Not word of mouth or ‘gee wiz can I get a do over.’ We can’t do that.”
Section B is a table of contents that lists what the company included in the invitation, section C is an introduction/cover letter where the company summarizes why it is qualified for the position, and section D is an in-depth inclusion of qualifications, from previous work and personnel, for the regular services it provides.
Zulu filled out all of the sections on the Invitation to Bid and therefore could be evaluated thoroughly.
“So, yes they were the low bid,” Hursh said about GRSC, “but we wouldn’t just randomly give a contract to someone because they are the low bid. We need to know what their work history is, so based on that, and B,C, and D not being completed, we felt compelled to go with Zulu and with the 3rd lowest bid.”
The GRSC representative said the company was not going to reveal its “trade secrets” by filling out parts of the invitation unrelated to what the job called for, such as every piece of equipment owned by the company when not all machines would be required for sediment removal.
Alex Batey, Zulu operations, was also in attendance Monday night and reiterated the commissions’ trust in the company for its prior work.
The final decision was a unanimous vote in favor of awarding the contract to Zulu for its bid of $333,379.60.
McCann told the GRSC representative that he was “very professional” and that there would be future opportunities for GRSC to possibly work with Winter Springs, including attention to the city’s ponds.
Ralph, the representative from GRSC, told commissioners he would abide by whatever decision the commission made and would not take it to court.
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