By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City council members Jan. 10 approved an ordinance authorizing City Manager John Sheedy to purchase utility vehicles for several city departments in the amount of $412,840 from the Caldwell Country Chevrolet Buy Board.
Purchasing Agent Luis Menchaca, in an informational packet provided to council members, wrote the council had passed a resolution in October 2022 authorizing Sheedy to seek requests for bids for utility vehicles.
“A public notice was posted at the Val Verde County Courthouse on Oct. 24, 2022. The request for bids was posted on the city of Del Rio and Val Verde County web sites and was also sent via email to vendors in the area that sell these items. A follow-up call was placed to ensure the link to the posting had been received. The city of Del Rio received sealed bids up until Nov. 16, 2022, at 10:15 a.m.,” Menchaca wrote.
Menchaca also reported that Brown Nissan of Del Rio submitted the low bid on one of the 13 utility vehicles and received the bid award. The purchasing agent said the Del Rio dealership did not bid on the other 12 vehicles the city wants to buy.
“Ram Country bid on 12 of the vehicles. It was the low bidder on two of the vehicles and received the bid award on said vehicles. Caldwell Country Chevrolet, an out-of-town bidder, submitted the lowest bid on the eight remaining vehicles. The bids submitted by Ram Country on these vehicles were not within 3 percent of Caldwell’s bids,” Menchaca added.
He noted the eight vehicles to be purchased from Caldwell Country are two one-ton single cab utility bed trucks for the city’s wastewater collections division, a half-ton single cab short bed truck for the public works director, two one ton single-cab flat bed trucks for wastewater collections, a one ton crew can long bed truck for the police department and two three-quarter ton crew cab long bed trucks for the fire department and the neighborhood services department.
After City Secretary Mari Acosta read the agenda item and Mayor Al Arreola called for a motion, Councilman Jim DeReus made the motion to approve the ordinance, with Councilman Jesus Lopez Jr. giving the second.
After the motion and second, DeReus said, “I don’t have any questions. I just have a comment. I appreciate the work that was put in after I had requested that this be brought back. As I told Mr. Menchaca today, the way that the (text of the) Local Government Code got into the agenda is nowhere near the formatting (of the original), which makes it very clear, as Mr. Menchaca was trying to explain to me at the last meeting, and as soon as I saw the Local Government Code, it was obvious about the 3 percent.”
“There’s another paragraph that I talked to the city attorney about, and he’s going to get some clarification, about whether we can go at a 5 percent level, but we’re not ready for that tonight,” DeReus added.
According to information on the web site of the Texas Municipal League, city governments may give preference to local bidders when awarding contracts.
“The (state procurement law) provision provides that if a city receives one or more bids from a bidder whose principal place of business is in the city and whose bid is within 3 percent of the lowest bid price of a non-resident, the city may pick the resident bidder after a written determination that the decision is in the best interests of the city,” wrote TML Deputy Executive Director and General Counsel Scott Houston in a paper on the issue.
There were no other comments or questions, and when Arreola called for the vote, the council approved the ordinance unanimously.
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