Beltway bids set off 9 months of debate

By Steve Kanigher

Saturday, Jan. 9, 2010 | 2 a.m.

In April, county staff recommended that the contract to widen Las Vegas Beltway from Tenaya Way to Decatur Boulevard go to Fisher Sand & Gravel because the company was qualified and its bid of $112.2 million was $4.6 million less than the next lowest qualified bidder, Las Vegas Paving.

Las Vegas Paving protested, alleging that two Fisher subcontractors weren’t properly licensed. County staff said they were.

Commissioners voted 6-1 to award the contract to Las Vegas Paving. Larry Brown cast the dissenting vote.

Fisher Sand & Gravel then filed a lawsuit. In June, Clark County District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez ordered the commission to reconsider the bid on grounds that Las Vegas Paving didn’t file its protest within five days of the bid opening, as required by state law.

When the commission reconsidered the bid in July, it again awarded the contract to Las Vegas Paving. The commission did so after Commissioner Steve Sisolak said that Fisher had violated job safety and pollution regulations in other states. The vote was 5-2. Brown and Susan Brager voted against it.

Fisher filed another lawsuit, charging that the county denied the company due process by failing to give it ample opportunity to respond to the allegations that caused commissioners to question its qualifications. The company also charged that commissioners, particularly Sisolak and Tom Collins, had a pro-union bias.

U.S. District Judge Robert Jones in September signed off on a writ, agreed to by the county, that he said required the commission to reconsider the bids once again, this time with Sisolak and Collins ordered to abstain. Jones later dismissed another lawsuit filed by Collins, who objected to the order preventing him from voting.

Then, in November, the commission voted 4-1 — with Sisolak and Collins abstaining — to simply reject all the bids and modify the beltway project. Chris Giunchigliani cast the no vote. She wanted to award the work to Las Vegas Paving.

That prompted this week’s fiery response from Jones and his order to award the bid to Fisher.