Council accepts low bid despite missing signature; contractor’s unsigned bid prompts debate

During the April 15 public works meeting and subsequent council action, West Allis officials accepted the low bid from State Contractors Inc. for street reconstruction in two blocks, despite a technical deficiency: a missing signature on the bid bond submission.

Joel Mueller, a superintendent with experience in concrete contracting, addressed the council as a public commenter and acknowledged he had failed to sign the bid bond electronically, calling it a “technical error” and urging the city to accept his company’s lower bid. He said accepting the bid would save taxpayers $51,462 compared with the next lowest bidder.

City staff and council members discussed options. Assistant City Engineer Rob Hutter explained bidding procedures and the change to online bidding; the city attorney and committee members characterized the missing signature as an “exceedingly minor defect” and said accepting the bid would not, in their view, create a reasonable legal risk of a successful protest. The council voted to accept State Contractors’ low bid for $1,991,053.39 (identified in the packet as Resolution 2025-0807 and associated with item 44) and rejected the alternate bid from Wandel Contractors totaling $2,042,515.95 (item 45).

Committee and council recordings show the committee moved to accept State Contractors and to reject Wandel; both committee and council procedural votes carried and item 44 was approved while item 45 was rejected. Council members said the city could rescind the acceptance if the city attorney later identified a legal problem.

The exchange highlighted questions about online bid submissions, electronic signatures and whether technical bid defects should lead to rejection. Staff noted that since moving to online bidding, the city had not previously encountered the same omission. The council instructed staff to proceed to contract awarding under standard review processes.