Council approves 180th Avenue contract with on-site safety monitor; rejects Water Station 14 bid for further safety review

Vancouver City Council on Monday approved a contract for the 180th Avenue extension with an additional requirement that the city hire an on-site safety monitor, and separately rejected the apparent low bid for PFAS treatment at Water Station 14, returning that item to staff for further safety review.

Council took the two votes after extended discussion about safety citations shown on the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) website for the apparent low bidder — identified in council documents as Rachi — and about legal and schedule risks if the city delayed either award.

City Attorney (spoke during the meeting) summarized the council's options: "you can accept the lowest responsive responsible bidder... or... reject all bids," and noted staff could add additional criteria and rebid if council chose to do so. Staff also proposed a third approach: accept the apparent low bid and separately contract for a third-party observer to monitor safety on site and report back to the city.

Public Works staff described the proposed observer: "Their responsibility would be to monitor safety related, issues. They would, document any, safety related matters they they see and then they would report those back to the city." Staff emphasized the observer "would not have any ability to, interfere with the contractor's progress" and would only document and report concerns.

Councilors stressed competing timing obligations. Public Works said the 180th Avenue work is tied to a development agreement with Hewlett Packard and needs to be complete before HP occupies its building this fall; staff said a rebid could jeopardize that schedule. For Water Station 14, staff said the project is funded by a Department of Health grant executed in January 2024 and the city must award construction within 18 months of that date — roughly July 2025 — or seek an amendment from the Department of Health.

Councilor Paulson pressed for a cost estimate for full-time safety monitoring and staff estimated, "for both projects combined, at least a 100,000 if not more." Councilors raised the procurement question of whether adding monitoring costs after bids are received would change which bidder is the lowest "responsible" bidder.

After debate the council took separate motions. Councilor Fox moved to approve the 180th Avenue extension contract with the additional on-site safety inspector requirement; the motion passed on voice vote. Later, another councilor moved to reject the Water Station 14 award and return it to staff with additional safety conditions; that motion also passed on voice vote.

Council members asked staff to return with procurement language and options for how safety history should be considered in evaluating bidders for public works, and whether disclosure and verification procedures for L&I citations could be added to future bid scoring. Staff told council they would work with procurement and legal to draft language and evaluate whether the changes would be implemented through procurement policy, contract provisions, or code amendments.

Background: Councilors and staff referenced L&I investigations and prior incidents involving the apparent low bidder and noted L&I timelines for completing investigations can be lengthy. The city also noted its legal constraint: without a factual record staff cannot decline the apparent low bidder in favor of the second-lowest bidder. Councilors directed staff to develop requirements that would allow safety history to be a factor in future bid evaluations and to propose procurement or contracting language before rebidding projects.

Ending: Staff will return to council with draft language for procurement and contract provisions to allow council to consider bidder safety histories and to specify monitoring requirements; the Water Station 14 item will be reworked and brought back to council after staff develops additional safety conditions and evaluates grant timing with the Department of Health.