Commissioners refer auditing and legal advertising bids to staff for recommendation

The Board of County Commissioners opened bids June 6 for auditing services and for legal advertising and referred both matters to staff for recommendation back to the board.

For auditing services the board opened a bid from Denning Downey and Associates (Kalispell) and a separate bid identified in the transcript as being "from Ike Bailey" (Billings). The transcript records specific dollar amounts for the bid attributed to Ike Bailey: fiscal year 2024 audit service $96,600; fiscal year 2025 $103,400; fiscal year 2026 $110,600; and fiscal year 2027 $118,300. Numbers for the Denning Downey submission are present in the record but are garbled in the available transcript and could not be reliably transcribed; the board referred both bids to staff for evaluation and recommendation.

The board also received a single bid for legal advertising from Yellowstone County News, which included unit pricing for initial and subsequent insertions; that bid was likewise referred to staff for recommendation.

Commissioner Morris moved to refer the auditing bids to staff; the motion was seconded by the chair and approved by voice vote. The chair moved to refer the legal advertising bid; Commissioner Morris seconded that motion and the board approved it by voice vote. No contracts were awarded at the meeting; both matters were set for staff recommendation to return to the board.