Washington County District 2 Supervisor Tommy Benson made a motion to reconsider and rescind the 3-2 action during the Board of Supervisors Nov. 1 regular meeting to approve payment to IMS Engineers for the partial designs of five out of six Local System Bridge Program (LSBP) projects.
Those projects include Handly Road, which had an invoice of $18,422,85 derived from a total construction cost of $729,960; Nightengale Road, invoice of $6,760 derived from a total construction cost of $325,000; Baker Road, invoice of $4,421 derived from a total construction cost of $243,790; Burdett Road, invoice of $9,901.73 derived from a total construction cost of $406,310; and Williams Bayou Road, invoice of $11,401.98 with a total construction cost of $486,180.
IMS’ engineering design fee is 4.8% of the construction value.
The question of whether or not a board order existed for the projects in which invoices were submitted and approved by a 3-2 vote, with the exception of the Breisch St. bridge in Leland and Warfield Point Park RV hookup site projects, arose in a Nov. 8 special meeting.
District 1 Supervisor Lee Gordon acknowledged the WPP project was properly done and did not object to the $720 invoice for the abandonment of McKay Road.
However, he maintained there were not individual board orders for the LSBP projects and Benson wanted clarification to that end.
BOS president Carl McGee asked Benson if he would like to revisit the decision at the then, upcoming Nov. 15 meeting pending a review of the minutes to determine the existence of the individual board orders for approval of the projects.
“Yes,” Benson responded, “because this is creating too much confusion. We will wait and entertain this next Monday.”
BOS attorney Griffin noted, “If we understand that once a decision is made by the board, only one of those members in the majority can make a motion to reconsider or rescind the action and those in descent can sit back and see what that’s going to be. Anybody can second the motion, but only one of those in the majority to make a motion.
Come that Monday, during the BOS Nov. 15 meeting, it was confirmed there were individual board orders for the projects.
Benson made a motion to reconsider and rescind the action taken for each invoice, which this time, resulted in a unanimous vote in favor of not remitting payment to IMS for the LSBP bridge project partial designs.
District 4 Supervisor Mala Brooks abstained from each vote, while Benson, Gordon and McGee and District 5 Supervisor Jerry Redmond voted in favor of the rescission with respect to each invoice.
Griffin informed that an explanation stating the reason for rescission must be provided.
“I don’t think we followed the proper process to receive this payment,” Benson responded, noting it as his reason for each rescission.
