Turner Construction Company officials were unhappy with the Osceola County School Board’s 3-2 decision Tuesday to rebid the Highlands Elementary School replacement project because of confusion over the local vendor policy.

Turner Construction, following a reconvened School District selection committee meeting Feb. 22, was ranked first among 10 construction management firms making the final list for the estimated $14.5 million project, followed by Clancy & Theys Construction Company and then W.G.

Mills/Ranger Building Services. However, W.G. Mills/Ranger Building Services was initially ranked highest by the selection committee and had been notified that the vote on awarding it the bid project would be made at the Feb. 16 School Board meeting.

A bid protest by W.G. Mills/Ranger Building Services dated March 1 forced the School Board to either rebid the job or go through the process of resolving the protest, which could have taken eight months, school officials said. The school is at 800 W. Donegan Ave., Kissimmee.

Scott Skidelsky, vice president and general manager at Turner Construction’s Orlando office, said it was unfair for the School Board to not negotiate the contract this late in the process and that putting out a new solicitation for the job would give losing bidders a chance to see the “creative ideas” incorporated into Turner’s winning bid.

“The selection (of Turner Construction) by the committee was unanimous – we all knew and understood the rules. Now we have to come up with new ideas,” Skidelsky said. “Even with the local preferences (given to the other firms), we were still able to be selected.”

The School Board at its March 16 meeting will clarify the method of calculating local vendor points and whether the system should even apply to construction management firms, which then hire subcontractors to perform the work.

School Board Member Cindy Hartig criticized the rebidding of the project, saying there was a problem with the W.G. Mills/Ranger Building Services proposal and its protest because the company, she said, was not a true local vendor for two reasons: W.G. Mills, based in Sarasota, didn’t have a required city of Kissimmee business license to qualify, though company officials signed an affidavit saying they qualified; and because W.G. Mills had formed a partnership with the Kissimmee-based Ranger Building Services solely to qualify for a local vendor preference.

Hartig continued to hammer at the issue, saying there is a state law that makes it a criminal offense to not provide accurate information on affidavits. She also said W. G. Mills didn’t get a county business license until December.

In its notice of protest, W.G. Mills officials stated that they have had a partnership with Ranger since 1998 and were awarded the Gateway High School classroom addition project under the new local vendor system and no one had a problem with its qualifications or its partnership with Ranger. The company in its protest also contends that the reconvened selection committee meeting was invalid because it used a “new interpretation” of the local preference policy, according to the document.

School Board Chairman John McKay said there were enough “discrepancies’ in the awarding of points for local vendor status to warrant supporting Superintendent Michael Grego’s and staff’s recommendation to reject all current bids and seek new ones.

McKay also said applying the local vendor policy to construction management companies might be questionable, given that there are no such firms in Osceola County large enough to handle large projects like the new Highlands school. He said he favored considering a firm’s work history and its presentation to the selection committee as the main criteria for a staff recommendation on the winning bid.

McKay also suggested there be a contractual obligation for the construction management company to employ as many Osceola County subcontractors as feasible and financially prudent, if qualified local contractors are available and can do the work.

School Board Member Jay Wheeler wasn’t so forgiving.

“I’m embarrassed to be in this position; I want some assurances that this won’t happen again,” Wheeler said. “However the ranking comes in, the process needs to be as tight as possible.”

School Board member David Stone said the “board is responsible for this mess.”

“Back in May, we didn’t do a good job of specifying how we would do local preferences,” he said, adding that he has heard that some members of the selection committee had been less than objective in their ranking.

Stone also said the joint venture/partnership issue has to be dealt with.

The first contract awarded under the new local vendor policy – to W. G. Mills/Ranger – was for the Gateway High School project; the Highlands school project was the second contract and the first where a protest was lodged.

Those voting to rebid the project were Wheeler, McKay and Stone; voting against the motion were Hartig and Marjorie Guillen-Melendez.