The Winnebago City Council held a special meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 3. There were only two topics on the agenda.

The first item was discussing and reviewing bids for curb and gutter work on First Avenue Southwest. A bid of $7,650 was received from Richard L. Anderson Construction while Precision Concrete Services submitted a bid of $8,775.

Winnebago city attorney, David Frundt, provided the council with a written explanation of what happened with the bids.

City staff had requested bids earlier this summer for the project and received two bids. One was from Richard L. Anderson Construction and the other was from Precision Concrete Systems.

After the bids were reviewed by the Streets committee, a recommendation was made to award the bid to Richard L. Anderson Construction.

Unfortunately, the bid never made it to the council level.

Prior to the bid coming before the council, the city received a complaint in writing from the owner of Precision Concrete stating that the bid from Richard L. Anderson Construction could not be accepted due to a conflict of interest with one of the council members, Chris Anderson.

While Chris Anderson does not have an ownership interest in Richard L. Anderson Construction, he does work for the company and is the son of the owner.

The city did not have on file any statement of conflict of interest by Chris Anderson relating to this bid prior to the bid being submitted to the city.

Because this contract was well under the competitive bidding dollar figure requirements, competitive bidding is not required and it is possible for a city to contract with a council member for a contract of the size in question. However, such a contract can only be entered into if the City Council passes a unanimous resolution approving the contract, less the councilperson seeking the contract. The conflict must be fully disclosed and the contract must be such that the rest of the council concludes that the work could not be awarded to anyone else for a lesser price.

Frundt went on to explain that after meeting privately with the council members, he learned that there would not be a unanimous vote to approve the needed resolution.

In the meantime, it was explained that Ulland Brothers had submitted a change order for the necessary work, but it was higher than either of the original bids.

Next, the council learned that Richard L. Anderson had pulled his bid for consideration.

After receiving that news, the City Council voted to award the bid to Precision Concrete Systems.

Council member Paul Eisenmenger then voiced his frustration with the conflict of interest problem.

“My wife submitted a bid for cleaning City Hall and was told she could not bid because I was on the council,” Eisenmenger said. “There was a property for sale next to mine that had a nice shed and I was very interested in purchasing it. But, because of the circumstances, I could not purchase it because I was on the council. I could have had someone else purchase it and then purchased it from them, but that sounded like something a politician would do, and I did not want to get caught up in that.”

“Some of these rules are State rules,” city administrator Judi Hynes told the council. “However, our town’s rules are stricter than the rules set forth by the State.”

“Then I think we need to review the rules we have in place and perhaps make some adjustments,” Eisenmenger responded. “I don’t know that our rules need to be stricter than the state’s.”

The council decided it would put the matter on the agenda at a later meeting.

The second item on the agenda dealt with the need to move a fence on a property because of the Cleveland Avenue Project.

The council discussed the matter and decided to put the fence six feet from the curb and have the landowner apply for a conditional use permit since the location of the fence will be in the city’s right-of-way. Part of the agreement will state that the city is not responsible for any damage which might occur to the fence during snow removal.