Commissioner's question spurs change in county policy

One simple question.

That's all it took to reverse years of a generally accepted – yet heretofore improper – county policy regarding the opening of sealed bids.

For as long as the present board of Highland County commissioners and other county office holders, including Auditor Bill Fawley, could remember, the county has always opened sealed bids at a designated time and date – and made the bids known to the public.

That all changed just before 9 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 12, when Commission President Shane Wilkin asked Highland County Prosecutor Anneka Collins if the commissioners were right to disclose the bid information at the time of the openings. Wilkin said someone from another county had questioned him on the policy in Highland County.

"We've always read the bids and the bid amounts when we opened them," Wilkin said.

Collins asked for the commissioners' Title 3 handbook from the Ohio Revised Code.

Under Chapter 307, Section 307.862 (C) "Competitive sealed proposals procedure," Collins read:

"In order to ensure fair and impartial evaluation, proposals and any documents or other records related to a subsequent negotiation for a final contract that would otherwise be available for public inspection and copying under section 149.43 of the Revised Code shall not be available until after the award of the contract."

For many years, it has been commissioners' policy to read the bids at the time of their openings during a public meeting.

To further complicate the issue, Jim Franke of Cox Paving was present for Wednesday's bid opening for a paving project on McClain Street in Greenfield.

Franke pointed out that the commissioners' legal advertisement stated the bids would be open and read aloud at the Sept. 12 board meeting at 9:40 a.m.

"The bid amount is public record as soon as it is opened," Franke said.

"No, it isn't," Collins replied, and reread the ORC section.

Franke said in other counties the bids are read when opened.

"(The law) clearly says proposals shall not be available until after the award of the contract," Collins said.

"Everybody makes that information available," Franke said.

"I believe it is not public record," Collins said. "The Code is clear."

Wilkin explained to Franke that a question arose recently about the Highland County board's policy on bid openings.

"By making the amounts public, you've made information available if (a contract) has to be re-bid," Wilkin said.

After consulting with Collins, Wilkin said Wednesday's bid would be read aloud as advertised.

"After this, don't ever do it again," Collins advised.

As it turned out, Cox Paving had the lone bid on the Greenfield project at $29,932.

"For future reference, we will have a legal opinion from the prosecutor and put that in with the bid packet," Wilkin said. "We've always read the bids in the past."

"We want to clarify the process," Commissioner Jeremy Shaffer said. "We're going to start a new trend (for Ohio counties)."

After making a telephone call at the meeting, Fawley added that he was advised that Ohio counties may accept the "lowest and best" bid, while townships and municipalities were bound to accept the lowest bid."

Franke said he appreciated that commissioners would include the legal opinion in future bid packets.

(Check back to highlandcountypress.com for more on the Sept. 12 meeting.)