FRANKFORT — General counsel for the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts has sustained a complaint filed by a Bowling Green contractor about the Monroe County Judicial Center project.

Scott, Murphy and Daniel LLC of Bowling Green submitted a protest on Oct. 12 claiming that Alliance Corporation of Glasgow improperly modified an alternate bid for a general trades contract.

A press release issued by the AOC, said “any attempt by Alliance to modify its bid is impermissible,” and that actions of the Monroe County Project Development Board, the agency that awarded the bid, were “improper.”

Tommy Gumm with Alliance said his company would abide by AOC’s decision.

“We don’t have to agree with it to abide by it. It’s one of those things. We are looking forward to moving (ahead) with the project,” he said.

Gumm attended a meeting of the Monroe County PDB regarding the bid protest.

Danny Rhoades, AOC project coordinator, referenced the AOC’s decision to sustain Scott, Murphy and Daniel’s bid protest.

“At the bid opening Alliance did give an alternate price of $12,000, which would have made them higher than Scott, Murphy (and) Daniel when you combine base bid and the alternate. Subsequent findings that Alliance was not going to require a bond from themselves. The director’s office has concluded since an alternate price was given which makes Alliance the second lowest bidder,” he said. “The findings that the director’s office has made are that Scott, Murphy and Daniel shall be awarded the contract for bid package 030.”

Rhoades then asked the Monroe County PDB to accept the bid from Scott, Murphy and Daniel and to accept their alternate bid, which it did, unanimously.

In the press release, Scott, Murphy and Daniel alleged that in May, Alliance, which is the construction manager, provided the Monroe County PDB with information about the two lowest bidders for the project.

Scott, Murphy and Daniel submitted a base bid of $1,226,469 with an alternate bid of $12,575, while Alliance submitted a base bid of $1,233,300 with an alternate bid of $12,000. Both bids required bonding increasing the amount.

The AOC reports states that if the Monroe County PDB rejected alternate bid No. 1 and selected Alliance as the successful bidder the cost of the project would be $1,233,300. If it accepted alternate bid No. 1 and selected Scott, Murphy and Daniel as the successful bidder the cost of the project would be $1,239,044. Alliance did this by waiving the bonding requirement for the company, according to the AOC report.

“Alliance listed itself as the recommended successful bidder at a cost of $1,233,300. No value was listed for alternate No. 1,” according to the report.

Alliance prepared a bid tabulation report dated Sept. 18 and listed its bid as $1,233,300 noting it was the low bid. Alliance listed Scott, Murphy and Daniel’s bid as $1,239,044.

The Monroe County PDB awarded the contract to Alliance Corporation of Glasgow on Oct. 2 thinking the company was the low bidder.

After following the AOC’s direction to award the bid to Scott, Murphy and Daniel, the Monroe County PDB discussed construction bonds for the project, which has a total cost of $9.9 million.

Bonds are scheduled to be sold Nov. 19 through Dec. 3 and Keith Brock, with Ross, Sinclaire and Associates LLC, told the Monroe County PDB it hopes to have an interest rate of at least 4 percent.

Brock asked the Monroe County PDB to solicit investment proposal and to authorize Judge-Executive Wilbur Graves to award it based upon Ross, Sinclair and Associates recommendation, which it agreed to do.

Monroe County PDB also approved expenditures, which included a disbursement request for a settlement payment to Alliance for the payment performance bond that Alliance had to put forward on all of their projects.

“There was an agreement reached between Codell Construction and the AOC that, I think it was 91 percent, that Codell would have to pay for their payment for performance bond and 9 percent that AOC would have to pay. That settlement agreement was also offered to Alliance Corporation and also Branscum. They both accepted that settlement agreement,” Rhoades said. “The proportionate share for Monroe County that will come out of the construction account for this settlement agreement is $4,832.65 for payment to Alliance Corporation. They’ve already paid the full amount of the bond.”

He pointed out the settlement agreement has to be paid within 30 days of execution.

“I believe we signed that last Thursday,” he said.

An announcement was also made regarding the groundbreaking for the judicial center. The event is scheduled for Nov. 30.

Following the meeting, Tommy Gumm said, “The final outcome of the project is the fact that we are $1.3 million under the designated budget, so we got some really good bids. We got a real good value. We’re pleased.”

The project’s budget was $11.2 million, but the actual project cost was $9.9 million, he said.

Tony High, a member of the Monroe County PDB, said he was glad to see that the project was finally getting under way.

“We’ve been working, I believe, a little over two years. It’s a long process to get through everything,” he said. “It was approved in the 2006 legislature but funded in the 2008 legislature. So, we weren’t even able to get a lot started.”

While there have been some problems with the project along the way, High said there weren’t “any great problems.”

“We just want to make sure that the community gets the best value and as was pointed out earlier we have come in way under budget, so we’re well pleased with that,” he said.

High said he had no comment to make about Tuesday’s meeting, other than to say, “Basically, we’ve always wanted to follow what was supposed to be done.”

Phone calls to Scott, Murphy and Daniel were not returned by press time.