The Jefferson City Board of Education recently approved a contract with Don Schnieders Excavating Co. for a road construction project, but district administrators had recommended the board approve M&M Landscaping and Construction, which had the lowest bid.
Heather Masters, owner of M&M Landscaping and Construction in Eugene, said she thinks she was treated unfairly and doesn't understand why the board didn't approve her bid.
"I feel like something went wrong, and I don't know what it is," she said.
Board members "indicated their preference was to go with a local company even if the cost was somewhat higher," JC Schools Communications Director Ryan Burns said.
The contract is for construction of a road connecting Edgewood Drive to Fairgrounds Road/South Country Club Drive. It will go from behind Thomas Jefferson Middle School and Lawson Elementary School to West Edgewood Drive to alleviate traffic on South Country Club Drive.
At the April 26 special board meeting, Frank Underwood, director of facilities and transportation for the Jefferson City School District, presented a contract with M&M Landscaping and Construction for the project.
Board member Lorelei Schwartz made a motion to approve the contract, but the motion failed as four board members - Scott Hovis, Brad Bates, Stephanie Johnson and Lori Massman - voted no, and three - Ken Enloe, Lindsey Rowden and Schwartz - voted yes.
Hovis, vice president of the board, made a motion to approve a contract with Don Schnieders Excavating instead; board member Brad Bates seconded the motion. Enloe, president of the board, voted no, and the rest of the board voted yes.
M&M's base bid was $1,493,093 and the alternate bid was $72,832. Don Schnieders was the second-lowest bidder with a base bid of $1,546,810 and alternate bid of $57,000.
The district also received bids from Sam Gaines Construction and Twehous Excavation.
The Architects Alliance had already provided a contract to Masters, and they had a pre- construction meeting scheduled and were gathering project documents to be submitted to start the project, she said.
Masters expected the board to approve her contract, as it's unusual for a board to not approve a contract after district officials recommend it and the initial steps have already been taken, she said.
"We've dealt with public entities before, and all the signs were leading correctly towards an approval," she said. "I didn't see any reason not to proceed forward with our bid."
She said she was treated unfairly based on her address and possibly because M&M Landscaping and Construction is a female-owned business that is certified as a Women's Business Enterprise by the State of Missouri.
"There was an unadvertised biased decision based on our address," Masters said. "I'd also like to reiterate they turned down the lowest bid that happened to be a certified minority-owned business."
Masters said she doesn't think it's fair to reject her bid because it's in Eugene, as it's not far out of Jefferson City, and the company frequently does work in Jefferson City.
"We consider ourselves a local business," said Masters, who also is a secretary at Lewis and Clark Middle School, where she assists with attendance and behaviors.
Although Enloe voted for M&M and not Don Schneiders, he said the board's overall decision was to go with the company located in Jefferson City since the bid amounts weren't significantly different.
"We've consistently tried to support our local businesses and local contractors where at all possible," he said.
The reason for this, he said, is companies in Jefferson City pay tax dollars to the district.
"I don't want to speak for the board as a whole, but generally, when we talk about supporting local businesses with the dollars that we spend, that's what it's in the context of - a business that pays taxes in the Jefferson City School District," he said.
Enloe said he voted to stay with the initial recommendation because he knows what it's like to be on the vendor side of the process, and M&M, along with the other vendors, "responded in good faith based on the guidelines" the board currently has.
Moving forward, Enloe said he wants to establish more clear-cut, definitive guidelines for the board's preferences for contractors, such as if it's local and what that means, if it's a Women's Business Enterprise or Minority Business Enterprise, and if the contractor has a score on past performance.
He said this will help vendors understand exactly how their bid is going to be evaluated.
"I want us to be more diligent and have more detailed guidelines going forward," Enloe said.
Masters said she wrote to each board member, Underwood and Assistant Facilities Director John Moon, asking them to reconsider. She said she did not receive a response.
"At this point, there's no way we can probably get it overturned, but I just feel like people need to understand that something went wrong," she said.
The decision is final and will not be up for reconsideration, Burns said.
The News Tribune attempted to reach Hovis and Bates but did not receive a response.