Public Works Committee holds $2.87 million trail-connection contract amid procurement questions

Manuel Barca, chair of the Jackson County Public Works Committee, on Wednesday said the committee would hold Ordinance 6004 — a proposed award of a construction contract to Mega Construction Corporation of Kansas City for up to $2,870,540 — until staff provides procurement and compliance documentation requested by legislators.

Richard Allen, superintendent of park planning and development for Parks Plus Rec, told the committee the project will connect the 13.5-mile Rock Island Trail and the 15.5-mile Little Blue Trace Trail near Noland Road and Highway 350, that it was funded in part by a $935,000 Federal Highway Administration enhancement grant (federal project TAP3453404) and that construction could begin in late 2025 and extend into 2026.

Committee members raised immediate concerns about procurement transparency after reviewing the bid tabulation included in the packet. ‘‘I’m curious as to how Mega KC can come in at 50% less,’’ said Manuel Barca, noting the low bid’s line items lacked detail on labor and that the packet did not include procurement or responsible-bidder (RBO) signoff documents. Barca added, “So I’m gonna hold this, unless there’s any objection, until we get some more documentation here.”

Staff said the job was administered under a MoDOT (Missouri Department of Transportation) grant partnership and that MoDOT sets conditions on solicitations tied to federal funds. Michelle Newman, director of Jackson County Parks plus Rec., told the committee the DBE (disadvantaged business enterprise) goal for the project is 8% set by MoDOT and provided a breakdown of subcontract work cited in the packet: Abay (culvert and bank stabilization, about 4.9%), Smart Traffic Company (traffic control, 0.7%) and Gurdon (Jersey barriers, roughly 2.34%).

Newman and procurement staff also explained the selection process: individual reviewers scored the vendor proposals and the aggregated scores produced a recommendation. Committee members requested the original bid documents, procurement worksheets, reviewer scores, engineering studies that justify the bank-stabilization line item (the staff presentation flagged that as the major cost variance between bidders), and written MoDOT guidance that precludes insertion of county RBO language on MoDOT-administered solicitations.

The packet described bank stabilization as the primary line‑item difference; staff said one bidder’s bank-stabilization entry totaled roughly $388,800 while another bidder listed near $3,000,000 for that same work, which legislators said required engineering justifications. Staff agreed to collect and circulate the requested materials before the ordinance returns to committee.

The committee did not vote on the ordinance. The hold preserves the county’s ability to seek additional information about bidder responsibility, subcontracting, payroll documentation and monitoring procedures before the committee takes a final vote.

What’s next: Committee staff agreed to compile procurement documents, the MoDOT correspondence on RBO language, bid worksheets and the engineering justification for bank stabilization; the item will return for consideration after committee members have reviewed that information.