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Saturday, April 05, 2008

Ind. Gov't. - Yet more on "Storm Water Board resigns: Council criticized no-bid contract"

Updating this ILB entry from March 28th, Dick Kaukas of the Louisville Courier Journal reports today:

The New Albany City Council may decide next week whether to appeal the dismissal of its lawsuit challenging two no-bid contracts awarded last year by the city's sewer and storm water boards.
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In a ruling last week, Floyd Circuit Judge J. Terrence Cody threw out the lawsuit as requested by lawyers for the boards.

Cody concluded that the contracts were for "professional and technical services," which do not require bidding, and were not for "a public work" such as constructing a building, which must be bid under state law.

The ruling was a setback for the council, which has been grappling with the issue since last summer. * * *

Last week, after Cody dismissed the complaint, the council held another executive session in the offices of its lawyer, Jerry Ulrich. Members said afterward that no decision on what to do about the lawsuit had been reached.

Meanwhile, Mayor Doug England's administration has been looking at agreements that have privatized some city operations, including running the sewer and storm-water systems and picking up garbage.

In his "state of the city" address to the council last month, England said his staff was "assessing whether any of these services should be returned to City Hall and performed in-house with city personnel."

Such decisions, however, apparently would have to wait until the expiration of current contracts, such as those with EMC.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 5, 2008 12:36 PM
Posted to Indiana Government