By Louis Zylka
The 830 Times
City council recently rejected proposals the city received for road materials, but were told by city staff the materials for at least one road project will be purchased from another vendor.
During the regular meeting on Aug. 12, council members discussed a resolution to authorize and direct the city manager to reject all proposals for the purchase of road materials for the city’s public works projects.
As mentioned in the memo submitted by Purchasing Agent Luis Menchaca, the proposal from Vulcan Materials Company lacked information, thus preventing the city from evaluating their proposal. The Texas Local Government Code Chapter 252 states that the governing body may reject any and all bids received from a sealed bidding process, Menchaca noted.
Councilman J.P. Sanchez made the motion to approve the resolution, and Councilman Randy Quiñones gave the second.
Councilwoman Carmen Gutierrez asked how the delay caused by the resolution will affect pending projects such as the reconstruction of East Losoya Street. Menchaca said the purchasing division staff has been looking for a vendor qualified to meet the requirements set forth by the state of Texas.
“If (the proposal) was over $50,000, then what we will do is sealed bidding, but we were able to find a vendor that the pricing falls under $50,000. We are now coordinating with a vendor so that we can get the delivery done before the end of August. That vendor actually works with the state of Texas and TxDOT,” Menchaca said. “Even though we didn’t receive any proposals, we are still working on finding a vendor that will be able to deliver to Del Rio.”
Mayor Al Arreola asked if the delay with road materials will stop any city projects from being finished. Greg Velazquez, the city’s public works director, chimed in on the discussion and said the city has found a vendor, Martin Marietta Materials, to help with the materials to finish work on East Losoya Street.
Councilman Jesus Lopez Jr. asked a question about why no prices were included in the proposal, and Menchaca said the city’s purchasing division does not ask for a prices in requests for proposals, and he explained how the selection is not based on price but on qualifications.
“In this instance, we did not include price as part of the qualification criteria, but even at that we didn’t receive much of anything (with the previous vendor). It was basically a printed-out copy of our RFP (request for proposals) and their insurance. We did reach out later on to see what they could send us, and they did send us a couple of pieces of the information that we requested, but because the items we received were very minimal, we were not able to really evaluate the vendor, and that is why we are recommending them to be rejected,” Menchaca said.
Council members unanimously approved the resolution before moving on to the next agenda
topic.
Menchaca spoke with The 830 Times during the week to say the purchasing division had purchased the order from Marietta last week and is expecting the road materials to arrive on Friday. He then said the city’s street division will finish the work on Losoya
