By T. Scott Boatright
An advertising mistake made by the Lincoln Parish Police Jury’s official journal — the Ruston Daily Leader — has forced the LPPJ to reject acceptance of an original low bid for a sewer consolidation project and begin the process all over again.
That news generated the most discussion during the LPPJ’s monthly meeting held Tuesday night at the Lincoln Parish Courthouse.
“There was an error made by the paper (the Ruston Leader) on the advertising for the sewer project,” Hall said. “The ad was supposed to run three times in 25 days and it only ran twice. Baton Rouge caught it and basically said that we have to reject the bids we received and we have to re-advertise.”
Henry Shuler, consulting engineer for the project, tried to clarify the matter.
“Actually, we caught it first, but by that point it was over with,” Schuler said. “I don’t want to get into a bunch of finger-pointing and what not, but the bottom line is that the third ad didn’t get run. Courtney and I pleaded two different times, ‘Can we do this? Can we do that?’ with the state general counsel and the answer both times was emphatically, ‘No.’
“The low bid we received was a good bid, but there is no other option in my mind but to take this action — reject and start over.”
Juror Theresa Wyatt said the company that put in the original low bid would now be at a disadvantage because other companies will know what that bid was and asked if the issue would affect customer sewage rates.
“No, it shouldn’t affect rates,” Hall said. “It’s going to delay the project and create a lot of scenarios where the low bidder might not bid again because now everybody knows what that low bid was and (the company that made that bid) might just not even try to rebid. It’s just not a good situation.”
Schuler said that original low bid was close enough to grant funding proceeds that he felt the LPPJ could work with it.
LPPJ President Richard Durrett then pointed out that if the original low bidder doesn’t bid again, the bid prices could go up, potentially jeopardizing the grant if that funding is significantly lower than the new low bid. There is also a scenario where the new bid could be lower, but none of that will be known until after the second bid process is completed.
“It’s just not a good situation,” Schuler said. “I’m pretty confident that they will rebid, but they did leave money on the table so to speak — that’s their lingo. But everybody knows that now.”
Hall said the LPPJ received a certification that the advertising had run three times; however, after it was checked that turned out to be untrue.
“Our hands are tied,” Hall said. “Like Henry said, we appealed but they wouldn’t accept it. We (advertised) online too, so we were as transparent as we could be and came to them with our hat in hand and told them it’s not our fault … but the law’s the law.”
LPPJ Treasurer Michael Sutton said there were three original bids but that there was a considerable gap between the lowest and second-lowest.
“It’s a Catch 22,” Hall said. “We’ve got one paper in this parish that qualifies as the official journal.”
Currently, Louisiana Revised Statute 43:142 (2014) stipulates that official Louisiana governmental journals must be a print publication with the additional following regulations:
(1) Shall have been published in an office physically located in the parish in which the body is located for a period of five years preceding the selection.
(2) Shall not have missed during that period as many as three consecutive issues unless caused by fire, flood, strike, or natural disaster.
(3) Shall have maintained a general paid circulation in the parish in which the body is located for five consecutive years prior to the selection.
(4) Shall have been entered in a U.S. post office in that parish under a periodical permit in that parish for a period of five consecutive years prior to the selection.
“In smaller towns and parishes, we need to be able to advertise on the internet, or an internet paper,” Durrett said. “We’re tied to one newspaper in the sense that they charge the highest rate that the (state) legislature lets them. Even if we advertise on our website, it goes out to everybody. We need more leeway in the small parishes.”
Wyatt quickly followed by saying police juries like the LPPJ need more choices.
“We have two choices — the (Ruston Daily) Leader and the online (Lincoln Parish) Journal,” Juror Annette Straughter quickly added. “But because of rules and regulations, we have to go with the Leader even though, and I hate to say it, but it’s true, the online Journal will give us a better rate.”
Shuler said the second week in January would probably be the earliest the LPPJ can begin the readvertising process.
The LPPJ also set its 2024 meeting schedule, with the February – December meetings being held at 7 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month.
But the LPPJ’s first meeting of 2024 will be held on a Monday — Jan. 8 — to allow LPPJ members to take their oath of office and take website photos before the meeting officially begins at 7 p.m.
“The first meeting has to be Jan. 8,” Hall said. “You can set whatever time you’d like, but I can tell you know it will probably be a pretty light agenda because it will be the first meeting (for the new jury). You can add a special meeting later if you feel you need it.”
In other business, the LPPJ adopted the 2023 amended and 2024 proposed budgets for Humanitarian Enterprises of Lincoln Parish, the North Louisiana Exposition Center, and the North Louisiana Criminalistics laboratory. It also voted to authorize annual paperwork authorizing the LPPJ president to execute a 2024 Cooperative Endeavor Agreement with the GSI and IT offices as well as a intergovernmental agreement with the Lincoln Parish coroner’s office.
The LPPJ also appointed TaDarian Jackson to the Lincoln Parish Communications District to fill the unexpired term of Grambling State University Police Chief Rod Demery and three appointments to the Ruston-Lincoln Convention & Visitors Bureau Board — Gerald Jordan to represent Louisiana Tech University, Jeff McGhee to represent the Hotel/Motel Association and Rob Owens to represent the Ruston Restaurant Association.
Jurors also authorized annual filing of applications for an annual grant with the Louisiana Housing Corporation and a Louisiana Community Services block grant for Humanitarian Enterprises of Lincoln Parish.
The LPPJ also recognized Highway Superintendent Jerry Doss, who is retiring as of the end of the year, for his 33 years of service to the parish. The Jury’s Public Works Committee also heard an update from architect Mike Walpole on design plans for the Health Hub project.
Walpole said he expects plans to be finalized by February with a 12-14 month construction period beginning in early May with a targeted move-in date of the summer of 2025.
