A Canton City Council member's contacts with a contractor who has asked to submit a bid for the Marietta Road streetscape construction management job are being called into question by one of his colleagues.
Councilman Bob Rush said that Councilman Glen Cummins "acted improperly" when he suggested that the contract for the management of the complex construction project be sent out for bids after a quote to do the same work was released publicly.
"He suggested we go out for a quote," Rush said. "I objected because once someone gives you a price and you put that price in public record, you put that company in a bad spot and its really bad business."
According to the Cherokee Tribune, construction firm Arcadis issued the City of Canton a quote for $137,000 to perform project management for the streetscapes, which will run along Marietta Road up to Dr. John T. Pettit Street. Arcadis is the same firm that designed the streetscape project, Rush said.
Under the service agreements of the Arcadis contract, the city is not obligated to go out for quotes on the management of the project, but Cummins said in a March city council meeting that an industry contact he had spoken to led him to believe Arcadis was charging more than the standard rate for a project of its scope. Cummins then suggested that the city solicit quotes from other firms.
According to Rush, during the week following the city council meeting, City Engineer Joby West was contacted by someone at Benchmark Tuscany. The company was awarded a contract by the city to construct a building at the Hickory Log Creek Reservoir, and was now requesting to put in a bid for the Marietta streetscape project. Rush said that at the time, the city had not announced that bids were being sought.
Rush said that West was then visited by Cummins personally, who suggested that West not talk to the person that called him and instead direct his communications with Benchmark Tuscany through another person.
West was Contacted by Canton-Sixes Patch and said he had no comment on the situation.
Cummins commented on a recent Canton-Sixes Patch article that involved the bidding situation and defended his positions.
Although Cummins admitted that Benchmark Tuscany built a house for him in 2000-01, he said the house was sold in 2009 and is not in Cherokee County. Additionally, the contractor built the Cobb-Marietta Water Authority Building in 2011 and saved the city $100,000 through its low bid on the city's reservoir building.
Cummins said he did ask the contractor to contact the city regarding a bid, but only because of the contractor's fiscal track record and because Cummins felt the Arcadis bid was not competitive.
"If we can save thousands by getting more than one quote we should do so," Cummins said on Patch. "After all, I am concerned about how we spend taxpayer dollars."
Cummins said that he was concerned that others in city government were so committed to accepting a single bid of $137,000 for the streetscape management project.
"So much has been stirred up by my request for competitive quotations," he said. "One can only question: Why not try and lower the cost to the city?"
Cummins also said that he admitted publicly that the contractor had built a house for him in the past, and that Rush's "discovery" of this fact was not noteworthy.
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