Maine Municipal Tax Collectors' & Treasurers' Association
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Posted by Eve Wilkinson, Gouldsboro, March 22, 2010: How do you all administer the award of bids? Do you open and award the same night? Do you make recommendations to your board and if so do you do that publicly? Wondering how folks treat recommendations when one of your bidders may not be reputable or honest or whatever. Thanks so much for your help,

Responses:

Having just gone through a couple of bid processes, let me share how we did it. With a snowplowing contract bid, the Selectmen opened up the 4-bids received, processed the information right then and there, debated on whether to go with the current contractor who had a lot of experience or to accept the lower priced bid from a rookie, but who lives in town. Ultimately, the lower priced bid from the rookie won the contract. We just bid out a photocopier too. There were lots of bids, and I recommended after the bid opening that we pick three to try out. We did that, the staff rated the copiers and the price, and ultimately made a recommendation that the Board accepted (it was easy, the lowest price was also the nicest copier!). In other words, we've done it both ways. I think it depends on the bid. (Stu Marckoon, Lamoine)