Award <$550,000 Contract for Slide Repair - YES

We took the unusual step of authorizing the Public Works Director to award a contract for repairing and stabilizing areas of town damaged by landslides before any contractors had yet bid on the project.

While we normally would not authorize the award of a contract without seeing the bids (and selecting the lowest responsible bidder) first, we decided to give the Public Works Director advance approval in this case because this critical work needs to begin before the onset of the rainy season.

In order to make sure this unusual advance authorization couldn't result in the Town entering an exorbitant contract, we stipulated that the advance approval was only valid if the contract amount was less than $550,000, a reasonable sum for the work to be completed.

This is similar to the process we went through for another urgent repair project, at High Canal, in August.