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Irondale rejects municipal-complex bids after proposals exceed budget
Summary
The council voted to reject all bids for a new administrative complex after bids returned at about $23 million, exceeding the city's $18 million budget. The mayor said value engineering reduced costs but not enough, and the city will redesign the project to fit its allocated funds instead of taking on extra debt.
The Irondale City Council voted to reject all bids received for a planned municipal administrative complex after bids came in well above the amount the city had set aside. Mayor James C. Stewart Jr. told the council the city had budgeted $18 million for the project; the most recent bids were about $23 million, roughly $5 million higher than the spending plan.
The mayor said staff performed value-engineering exercises that reduced the apparent total by roughly $2.2 million, but that left an approximate gap still near $20 million compared with the $18 million the city had set aside. "In the best interest of the city, it's best to go ahead and to reject the bids that we received...and to go back into the redesign phase to be able to design a building that fits within the money that we've set aside," the mayor told the council.
Councilmembers voiced support for rejecting the bids rather than increasing debt. The item remained on consent and was approved as such; there were no recorded objections on the council floor during the vote. The mayor said the decision reflects an effort to be "a good steward of the city's money" and to avoid additional borrowing for the administrative complex.
The council did not provide a new timetable for soliciting redesigned plans or rebidding the project during the meeting.
