The Pleasant Hill City Council this week called for a new round of bidding for the contract to build the new city library, saying a mistake in the low bidder’s submission requires doing the bids over again.
The council voted 5-0 to reject all four previous bids, including the low bid of $21,717,000 from Richmond-based Overaa Construction.
The nature of the bid mistake, also referred to as an “abnormality,” was not specified, either by council members, city staff or representatives of Overaa who called in to Monday night’s web-based meeting.
But City Attorney Janet Coleson said the mistake was more serious than a typo or a clerical error. A city report says, “after consultation with the city attorney and in an abundance of caution, it was determined that it was in the City’s best interests to reject all bids.”
The bids were formally opened May 19. The highest of the four bids was $24,115,510.
State law requires municipal governments seeking bids on public works projects such as library design and construction, or even a parking lot understanding that parking lots should be sealcoated professionally, accept the lowest complying bid from a “responsible” bidder; all four library project bidders were considered responsible.
The new 24,000-square-foot, single-story library will be built on a vacant 3.65-acre parcel at the northeast corner of Monticello Avenue and Oak Park Boulevard, near where the old, recently closed library — the Contra Costa County Library system’s flagship — now sits.
The new library is part of a four-way plan in which the old library is leveled to make way for 34 new two-story houses on that land. The Mount Diablo Unified School District is conveying ownership of about 2 acres it owns near the old library to the city to become part of the new library site. Also, an adjacent 15-acre parcel will be sold to the Pleasant Hill Recreation and Park District, which plans to eventually build sports fields there.
The old Pleasant Hill library, the Contra Costa Library System’s largest and busiest, closed June 3 after more than 50 years.
While City Engineer John Baker estimated the rebidding process would be restarted this week and would push back the library’s opening date by about a month, Overaa officials told the council Monday night the delay
would more likely be “several months.”
Overaa officials, including CEO Jerry Overaa, said they felt they had sufficiently clarified the mistake, and called the council’s action unfair. With those bid numbers now public, company representatives told the council the process will be compromised going forward.
“We don’t understand … I don’t know what the city’s trying to gain here,” said Vinson Heine, an Overaa vice president.
While Overaa representatives mentioned there could be possible legal ramifications from rejecting all the bids, Coleson maintained Pleasant Hill has a right to reject the bids for any, or no, reason.
33 comments
Since it’s a public building why don’t you just tell everyone what the mistake was!
Why is the mistake a secret?
Wow seems no city council can be a general contractor
Imagine that
Maybe they should not be in charge of bidding proceedings since obviously they are not qualified
It’s shame really that the people voted to have 5 people in cahoots control all the money and all the decisions with no consequence for their ineptness
This is not against them they are just unqualified and it keeps costing us money
Seems like we just gave control of our money and cities to 5 16year olds who are trying to act like big business moguls
And botching it all the way with no consequences because they are minors
Shouldn’t a qualified person be held accountable for abusing tax money or actually rather performing the job in a qualified manor as to not cost us more money
Just one observation of the poor actions of city councils attempting to be general contractors who by the way need a license to do that
Wasting money of ours I guess is ok for the public
It says the mistake was the in the bid, not made by the city.
This probably means that there was an error in the bid that would have driven the cost up. Overaa thinks it’s small enough they should still get the job, the City thinks it’s large enough that it might make the Overaa bid higher than someone who lost — leaving the city open to a lawsuit to defend/explain why they didn’t go with the lowest bid.
Rejecting all the bids and reopening pisses Overaa off because all parties have now seen the bids and might be willing to shave some of their profit margin to win the contract.
Again, very curious to hear how you think the city council is responsible for Overaa trying to amend their bid.
@not random – your understanding is incorrect. The contract would be awarded to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder. If Overaa made a mistake that resulted in a higher bid but was still the lowest bid, they would be awarded the project. The error likely has to do with the bidding process. The laws that govern public projects are very strict and intended to ensure transparency, a level playing field for all bidders and the best value for the public agency. The system is by no means perfect.
Nailed it!
Watch for the lawsuit from Overaa. PH is known for its nepotism, and simply put, the bidder that they wanted to go with didn’t get the inside information in time and wasn’t the low bidder.
Stay tuned for a poo show in the courts.
Only $21 million?
In 2008 Walnut Creek was looking at $51 million.
But it’s two story with an underground garage.
Anyone remember the exact cost?
Things must be getting cheaper.
Not explaining the “defect in contract” adds a little smell to this…
My two cents (questions).
What happened to the CCC Library?
Why a City PH Library?
Time to make time for some research.
The Central library became the Pleasant Hill library in 2009. As part of this the city of Pleasant Hill agree to rent the Central library building from the county. Thus from a public perspective the name of the branch changed from “Central” to “Pleasant Hill.”
There used to be three more or less separate groups in the building.
1) County library administration. Besides upper management, finance, HR, etc they had the computers that ran the web site. This was moved to Martinez a couple of years ago.
2) County library operations. When books are acquired by the library system they first go to these people who enter it into the database and put the tags, barcodes, etc. on the book. I believe group is now also in Martinez in the same building as administration. Operations also deals with book repair and disposal.
A separate group within operations handled Link+ which is an inter-library loan program for the western united states. I believe the Link+ people are now working in the basement of the Orinda library.
3) The Central library branch.
Besides being a normal library branch that served the area this library also contained a U,S. government Federal Depository collection. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Depository_Library_Program about this. Over the years more and more of the Depository materials were converted to on-line resources with the Depository available as PDF files. By the end of the 1990s I believe this transition was completed and so the Depository no longer exists. That’s why the existing library had so much space for the adult non-fiction. Most of the lower floor in this area was the Depository.
There was also a large reference room section in what was called the Baldwin Room on the eastern side of the library. Pretty much all of the materials that used to be here are now on-line and so the reference section was disbanded.
The Central library also had the vault of historical materials. That material is going to the Contra Costa historical society.
As it was a large branch the central library was also used as the training branch for new employees. It continued to handle this up until recently.
WCResident what became of the extensive microfilm collection of newspapers? And the shelves of old magazines in binders – loved wasting a day looking through those?
@WCreaker – I heard there was a plan to digitize the microfilm collection. At present it’s at the Walnut Creek library (main branch). When I heard about the digital plan I mentioned there would be copyright issues. The films are vendors who presumably own or license the copyright. I don’t know if my comments ever made it upstream to whoever is in charge of that project.
I’m not sure what’s happening to the old magazines. That’s a good question.
This is a publicly works construction project and is governed by public contract code. All municipalities are required to adhere to public contract code. The city is following the guidance of their attorney. Because of the legal nature of the issue, the rational is not made public. While frustrating, the city has likely done nothing wrong. This happens from time to time with public projects.
@WC Resident, appreciate the info
thanks!
Well…if they won’t tell us what the mistake was, I assume we’re free to guess. Okay, I’ll play!
My guess is that certain Unions, public officials, relatives, or friends weren’t properly greased. This caused the usual machinery of government to shut down. If you don’t pay, you can’t play.
At the risk of triggering the woke, (you know who you are )
I would reference the movie “Back to School” where a real life business man and builder confronts a learned professor. The point being, the real world is very different from fantasy land.
Exactly!!!!
Well…if they won’t tell us what the mistake was, I assume we’re free to guess. Okay, I’ll play!
My guess is that certain Unions, public officials, relatives, or friends weren’t properly greased. This caused the usual machinery of government to shut down. If you don’t pay, you can’t play.
At the risk of triggering the woke, (you know who you are )
I would reference the movie “Back to School” where a real life business man and builder confronts a learned professor. The point being, the real world is very different from fantasy land, and the lies people tell us.
Interesting how the same commenters on here are so well versed in the narrative. Doesn’t matter the topic. The same characters come out Over and over with their treasure trove of knowledge to shift your focus. As if the people paying the bill don’t need transparency. Anyone who has been in these positions in the real world knows exactly how corrupt the “bidding process” has always been
I have bid countless public projects over the last 20 years for multiple clients throughout california and can tell you that while the process is flawed, it is transparent and fair.
You’re not the only one.. “transparent and fair”..dude come on. That’s how I know you’re full of it. Let’s talk about the trips to Hawaii, sporting events, real estate kickbacks, timeshares, dinners, campaign donations. Who do you think you’re talking to? Why do you provide cover? It’s a valid question. What do you have to gain being an epidemiologist one week, a government employee the following week, and a contractor the next week? Not to mention you post all day long like you’re sitting on the couch. Is this your job? A professional message board poster? I see you
@sam – thank you for all the compliments. I am simply educated. I have however made a career working in construction. If you are at all curious about the public bidding process, you can go to any municipality and ask to see the bid results for any project. It is all available to the public through the Freedom of Information Act.
I see you..you know I do. Who pays you? I’m actually very familiar with the public bidding process. FOIA till you’re blue in the face my guy, you won’t see the actual process unless you’ve seen it, or lived it.
Sam you could not be farther from the truth. There are no trips to Hawaii, sporting events or real estate kickbacks…. It is sealed bids opened by the City Clerk at bid opening and awarded to the lowest responsible, responsive bidder. If a bid or all bids are rejected there usually is a reason. City has the right to reject all bids and rebid the project. Dan is correct, transparent and fair. You can’t award it to the highest bidder because he is sending you to Hawaii. Somebody would see that…silly.
Ha.I was in the game for 30 years.. that is exactly how things work. It’s really not a secret anymore. I could give names and projects, but I think it’s better we leave this here
In most cases like this the contractor didn’t bid on all aspects of the contract. Thus the lowest bid.
Good they caught it now.
Our lots are either unused, dated image crica 1990s or rundown but questionably functional, (DMW). Yet these newer project are ridiculous, like more car dealerships, ex. DVC and large parts of Walnut Creek. Who needs this many dealerships. Between two cities. Meanwhile Tesla is sold online only/has a small store. Funny and there a good amount on the road.
Just be mindful CC, dont sell us purely to the automotive industry. Please find another or more growing outlets.
Afraid of being sued, . . . they are ?
Most of the larger contractors rely on change orders as a way to make money on public works projects and Overaa Construction is a master of the change order. I say hooray to to P.Hill City counsel and city staff for their attention to detail.
I would say that giant sloth bear and family is really getting tired of being pushed around again.
This is ashamed that the city yet again has delayed construction of our library. They have made excuses after excuses since the bond measure passed. All construction has overrides, just look at house renovations are never what was in the original quote. Jerry Overaa company has been in business many years and when I worked for an engineering company he did work for us and never a complaint, he was the contractor for Pleasant Hill Bart parking lot. So it’s not likely he would miss a slight mistake on a bid. I personally think the city wanted another contractors bid but could not let them do it because it was not the lowest. The City of Pleasant Hill is notorious for doing this for delays. One delay was that they had to have an evaluation done because water was settling on the land. There was a dug out low spot in the middle of the land that collected water when it rained duh there was a grammar school on that property for years before it was torn down with never water problems. I have live in this all my life and I am dismayed by much of the things they do all while making it sound like it’s in the best interest of the people. Could it be that the delay is because monies for the library was spent on other entities within the city? Stop delaying Pleasant Hill and let’s move forward with this.
Just an FYI.
Pleasant Hill’s community relations manager, retired from Walnut Creek a couple years back.
So as far as communication regarding the ins and outs of building your new library. Well …
It’s not her first rodeo.
I wonder what will happen with the 100 years worth of amazing periodicals, magazines & other journals etc., stored at this branch upstairs. Any idea?
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