St. Martinville – The St. Martin Parish rejected a bid protest from Southern Tire Mart regarding a call for bids on June 19 for the annual tire and tube contract of St. Martin Parish Government.
The protest was raised after the winning bidder, Total Tire Solutions, apparently replaced tires on Parish vehicles with tires made in China, which was prohibited in the bid process.
Parish legal counsel Lee Durio explained before the public hearing on the bid protest that the council does not award bids on the tire contract, which is for replacing tires on parish trucks, tractors and other vehicles, because it does not meet the monetary threshold for public bids.
But the administration bids out the work because if it doesn’t then each time a tire needs to be replaced the parish would need to get three proposals.
The bids are done on a per-tire basis, Durio said. Southern Tire and Total Tire Solutions submitted bids.
Protest
Southern Tire protested the bid, saying that the parish listed in its bid proposal that no tires made in China could be used for parish vehicles.
William Trahan of Southern Tire said that some of the tires used by Total Tire were from a Chinese manufacturer. His company became suspicious when Total Tire’s bid was more than $80 lower per tire than Southern Tire’s bid.
“What we’re requesting is to get from Total Tire their specific bids and their spec sheets,” Trahan said. “If they are from China, that’s going against y’all’s rules.”
“It is in our bidding procedures specifically that tires manufactured in China are not acceptable, and that’s the notice that’s given to any bidder that’s willing to bid on any tires, so that’s what you should expect.”
Durio added that if a Chinese-made tire was used, it would be against contract specifications and the parish could require the company to conform to the contract. If the company refused to do so, it would call for a rebidding or another alternative.
Southern Tire included what specific tires it would use in its bid, while Total Tire did not specify what tires it would use but knew that tires manufactured in China could not be used.
“So we have to read the bid as if they complied with that, that it’s not manufactured in China,” he said.
Trahan said that Southern Tire uses state-approved Bridgestone and Firestone tires in its bids for government contracts and has a special account for St. Martin Parish Government that is approved by Bridgestone/Firestone to get those prices that are bid out.
“All the tires y’all buy from us, y’all buy below our cost, so we have to get it back,” Trahan said. “That’s when the girl I deal with at corporate in our government department started looking at this and said something’s not right on these prices.”
He said he looked up the two tires that were provided by Total Tire and both are manufactured in China.
After the public hearing closed, Durio said that though Southern Tire provided a more thorough bid proposal with more information, Total Tire did not give any information in its bid that it was going to use Chinese-made tires.
His advice therefore was to refuse the bid protest because the bid was fine and that the law was complied with.
“However, I would implore the administration that when the tires come that we make sure, because if they try to set a Chinese tire on the vehicle, and if what (Trahan is) saying is true within the last two weeks (that Chinesemade tires were placed on a parish vehicle), you need to call (Total Tire) and say, ‘you knew you weren’t supposed to bid on a Chinesemanufactured tire, so we expect a non-Chinese-maufactured tire,” Durio said. “And they have to honor the bid.”
Governing entities are required to accept the lowest qualifying bid, he added. The lowest bid was awarded.
“If Total Tire had given evidence (in its bid) that these were Chinese-manufactured tires], I would agree with his protest,” Durio said. “But in what was presented tonight, you have everything that the purchasing agent considered (in the bid), my recommendation is to deny the bid.”
Durio said that if Total Tire does not honor its bid to provide a non-Chinesemanufactured tire, the parish has the right to terminate the contract.
Durio also said that he and Hundley had talked about clarifying the bid process moving forward by asking for bidders to specify what tires and which manufacturers they are proposing to use.
If the parish does break the contract, it would call for bids again rather than going to the next lowest bid.
Parish Council Chairman Chris Tauzin said in his 10 years on the parish council this was the first time he’d seen a bid protest raised.
Council member Corey Melancon said that it seemed to him that the company knew it was putting Chinese tires on parish vehicles despite submitting a bid where Chinese tires were prohibited from being used.
“In my opinion it wasn’t done right because of that,” he said.
Durio said that the bid request asked for 11R24.5 plain tires. Southern Tire’s bid was $370.80. Total Tire’s bid was $289.
“In reading that, can you ascertain if those are Chinese tires or not?” Durio asked. “Even if Total Tire bid a Chinese tire, parish government now has them locked in to the tire we asked for at $289.”
The council voted to deny the bid protest, but to have the administration look into whether Chinese tires were used, and if so to have the company replace them with tires not made in China. If the company won’t stand by its bid for non-Chinese tires, the parish could take that into account in the future.
