How Many Laws Is the City Breaking?

An Opinion Piece

by Joe Carter

Draft Version 1.0

As of 8/12/2022

Possible Violations of Texas Municipal Procurement Laws

Texas Municipal Procurement Laws are designed to obtain the best value for money on behalf of taxpayers by requiring a robust competitive bidding process for large expenditures. These procurement laws as codified can be found at this link and this link. The laws are described in layman’s terminolgy in theTexas Municipal Procurement Laws Made Easy handbook. From a layman’s perspective, it appears that the bidding process for the Senior Center project wasn’t robustly competitive and may not have provided the best value for taxpayers. It appears that the bid process may have been locked for a single bidder from the outset. The surface level evidence calls for expert-level examination of the process that was followed. High level information of the process is provided below:

1. In a September 30, 2021 called meeting of the Senior Center Advisory Board, the minutes say “Councilman Thurman proceeded to give information on the proposed new senior center, saying the City Council has a one-million-dollar budget and is working with Jim Burgeon of Rocky Creek Builders.” The existence of the $1 million budget and the work with Rocky Creek Builders are stated as facts, not as items contingent to future approval. There is no record of a vote in an open meeting to approve working with Rocky Creek Builders as of this date. From our layman’s perspective it appears that the decision to work with Rocky Creek was arrived at prior to a required competitive bidding process having taken place. If so, this would appear to place the City and the builder in violation of Texas Municipal Procurement Laws.

2. An RFQ for the senior center construction project was first advertised sometime around October 12, 2021 with an opening date of November 9, 2021. The RFQ specified a budget not to exceed $1 million, a location near the intersection of Tarleton Street at Vine Street - address to be determined later, 4400 square feet of building space.  The Nov 16, 2021 Council Special Meeting minutes state, “The single proposal that was received exceeded the $1,000,000 budget allocation for the project. Mr. Barnes recommended that council reject the proposal and direct staff to re-advertise.” The Council rejected the bid. Neither the RFQ, the name of the unsuccessful bidder nor the bid package the Council used in their deliberations was made available to the public in the meeting materials.

3. The final $1,180,000 budget for the 5700 square foot rectangular free-span metal building comes out to $207 per square foot of building space. A plush move-in-ready metal building complete with drywall, insulation, fixtures and HVAC can be built for approximately $120/sq ft. Even with a generous allowance for parking lot construction, there are any number of companies who could design and build the facility at a substantial profit given a $207/sq ft budget. Yet Stephenville only got 1 bid for the $1,180,000 project after rejecting a bid from an unknown bidder for an unknown amount that exceeded the original $1,000,000 budget. From a layman’s perspective, this indicates that there may be irregularities in the bid process in violation of Texas Municipal Procurement Laws. 

4. A requirement of Texas Municipal Procurement Laws is the following: “Sec. 2269.309. SUBMISSION OF DESIGN AFTER SELECTION. After selection of the design-build firm, that firm's architects or engineers shall submit all design elements for review and determination of scope compliance to the governmental entity or the governmental entity's architect or engineer before or concurrently with construction.” Even though construction has started on the project, design element documents have not been made available to the public. Whether or not they actually exist is unknown to the public. Given the criticality of easy access for a senior center facility, it is essential that senior citizens know about the nature of access factors such as proximity of parking, availability of disabled parking spaces, presence of stairs and ramps, sidewalk placement, covered drop-off zones for patrons, etc. No such information has been made available to the public as of 8/7/2022 even though construction began on 5/4/2022.

{Editors Note: Architect’s renderings of the planned building and parking lots were eventually posted on a bulletin board at the old Senior Center. We don’t have a date for that posting.}

Per theTexas Municipal Procurement Laws Made Easy handbook, “If a city enters into a contract without complying with the requirements of Chapter 252 of the Local Government Code, the contract is void. Any property tax paying resident of the city may bring suit in district court to stop the performance or payment of the contract. … If a person fails to comply with the competitive bidding or competitive proposal procedures required by Chapter 252, that person may be convicted of a Class B misdemeanor. … Under Texas law, an individual is automatically removed from his or her position if that person is finally convicted of failing to comply with the competitive bidding or competitive proposal procedures required by Local Government Code Chapter 252.”