Reject All Bids for the 2020 Repaving Project - YES

Whenever we have contractors bid on projects for construction, we always evaluate the bids carefully, and we usually pick what's called the "lowest responsible bidder"—the lowest bidder who could reasonably be trusted to execute the project well.

But sometimes, all the bids that come back are too high. If we don't think Corte Madera taxpayers would get their money's worth with even the lowest bid, we reject all the bids and try again.

That was the case with the 2020 Preventative Maintenance Project, a roadwork project shared between Corte Madera, San Anselmo, and Mill Valley to help cut costs. I voted to reject all bids, which came in substantially higher than what Town staff thought the project should cost, and re-bid the project.

As part of this vote, we also authorized the Public Works Director to go ahead and award a contract (which we usually vote on separately) if the lowest responsible bid came in under $1,000,000, a reasonable amount for this project. We did this to speed up the process, hopefully allowing us to finish the project before the rain starts in the fall.