A $7.5 million project designed to bring increased sewer service to a booming Spanish Springs has run into a clog.

The city of Sparks, which is heading up the project, has been leveled with a lawsuit that claims their bid process for the sewer construction is breaking the law.

According to the man who brought the suit, Laborers’ Union Local 169 business manager Richard Daly, a recent decision to toss out 10 construction bids on the project and open up the bidding process anew should have been made by the Sparks City Council in a public meeting, not by the city’s purchasing manager.

Sparks purchasing manager Dan Marran opened up the sewer project for new bids on Wednesday, with Daly protesting that the action ran counter to Sparks Municipal Code.

According to Sparks City Attorney Chet Adams, the decision to accept rebids was made because new information came to light about an overlapping project – the Regional Transportation Commission’s widening of Vista Boulevard.

“After the (first) bid went out, we learned more about the project that is widening Vista (Boulevard),” Adams said. “To be fair to them (the contractors), we wanted them to know exactly what the project was they were bidding for … including the timeline.”

According to Adams, the new information about the Vista Boulevard widening could have cost a contractor an additional and unexpected amount of money.

According to Doug Maloy, RTC’s project manager for the Vista widening project, timing on both the sewer and widening projects is crucial.

“It is really important that the (sewer) work go in in advance,” Maloy said. “It is almost necessary. To build it afterward would be more inconvenient. It would cost more for them (the city) to do because it is a fairly large sewer line and it is fairly deep.”

According to Maloy, the widening project would need to tear up Vista Boulevard in some of the same places where the sewer project would have to dig.



The RTC plans to start its work on Vista in September. City spokesman Adam Mayberry said that the sewer project will need to start “soon,” possibly within the next couple months.



But, according to Daly, his main concern is making sure the process is done legally.

“The council has not taken the action to withdraw the bids in the proper forum,” Daly said. “We believe that the council has shifted its authority to someone else.”

Daly said that he would have withdrawn his suit if Adams had agreed to push the bidding discussion into the city council chambers.



After Daly took his petition to the city council in public comment Monday, councilman Ron Schmitt said that if the matter was not resolved in a couple weeks that he would personally request that it appear on a city council agenda. Schmitt said that the council would hear the item and confirm the purchasing manager’s action.

“It is our position that the city council or its authorized representatives can withdraw bids,” Adams said. “The purchasing manager can withdraw a request for proposal for bids.”

The lawsuit asks that the court issue a writ of mandamus, making the city award the contract to the lowest legal bidder. If this is not accepted, Daly asks that the court issue a writ of prohibition preventing Sparks from rebidding until the issue comes before the city council.

The project is being funded by taxpayer dollars, not stimulus funds, according to Mayberry.

“It is the same money that was used for the Sparks (Boulevard) sewer project last summer,” Mayberry said. “It is old federal money being funneled through a state program. The (Vista sewer) project will exhaust this pot of money.”