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Pearland council rejects all tree‑maintenance bids after prices exceed budget; staff to rebid
Summary
The City Council rejected all bids for a city tree‑maintenance contract after bids arrived far above the $400,000 budget; staff said the scope was larger than recent years and will refine scope and rebid.
Pearland’s City Council voted to reject all bids for the city’s tree‑maintenance contract after the proposals returned significantly higher than the amount budgeted.
Staff told council bids arrived between $1.3 million and $1.7 million for a contract budgeted at roughly $400,000. The contract rejection passed 6–0 with one recusal noted for a council member who had an ownership connection to a bidder.
Staff said the principal cause was that the scope and volume of work advertised this year were larger than previous years and that the solicitation predated current purchasing staff turnover. Purchasing staff and the department will refine the scope to align with the available budget and rebid the work.
Councilmember questioning focused on how the scope misalignment occurred and whether the city should use a unit‑price approach when possible. Purchasing staff said the original intent may have been for a unit supply structure but that the final pricing showed the scope as priced out higher than expected. The city will revisit the specification before issuing a new solicitation.
