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Council pulls parking garage contracts after tied scores, calls for re‑review and possible recusal
Summary
County councilors paused action on parking garage construction and design contracts after members reported tied evaluation scores and raised a potential conflict of interest by a reviewer who disclosed business relationships with bidders; the committee chair asked for a re‑examination of the selection process or new bids if no consensus emerges.
Council discussion on a proposed parking garage procurement ended with administration pulling the contracts from the council consent agenda for further review after evaluators produced tied scores and a council member disclosed prior business relationships with firms under consideration.
Council member Caprara said the administration had recommended Skanska for construction management and T.H.A. for architecture, but that the scoring group had tied Boyle and Skanska by points. Caprara asked that the committee "go back to the drawing board" and either develop a single consensus pick for both architecture and construction management or reject the bids. He said he would start the process over if the committee could not reach consensus.
Another council member (identified in the meeting transcript as the proponent of Skanska) acknowledged having "business relationships with everybody on the sheet," which prompted calls from colleagues to consider recusal. That council member volunteered to recuse from bidding on the project but declined that the past relationships impaired the evaluation. Other members said a disclosure and recusal should have occurred during the evaluation process. No contract awards were approved at the Finance Committee meeting; the administration removed the items from the council agenda for further committee work.
