Cody Rawson and his road construction company, Road’s Inc., is still getting preferential treatment from the Escambia Board of County Commission. Jamie Page reports on his blog.
Commissioners Robertson, Robinson, Valentino and White threw out the low bid for the drainage improvements in the Maplewoods area –even though Roads Inc hadn’t officially protested the recommendation to award the contract to a Mobile company, Gulf Equipment.
Rawson instead met with the Commissioners in their offices and told them that he had made a mistake in his bid and that he would do the work for $100,000 less than Gulf.
In other words, the sealed bid process is no longer valid. All a company has to do is meet privately with the commissioners and tell them that will do the job for less than all the other bids.
Remember Rawson is the creator of what was the world’s largest catfish pond in the Cantonment area. Read.
I favor giving contracts to local companies or at least companies that use local workers and subcontractors. According to Page, Hal Callaway, of Gulf Equipment told the commissioners that much of his crew lives in Pensacola.
However, you can’t change the rules after the bids are open. Contractors have to “live or die” by their written bids.
Escambia County will continue to be joke if these antics continue.