Bid awarded for East Zone school
Fort Myers based Gulf Point Construction Company was ranked as the top firm to design and build a new middle school in the East Zone for the Lee County School District.
Gulf Point Construction has built a number of projects for the school district, including Manatee Elementary School, Oak Hammock Middle School, and conducted renovation work including the school district’s main administration building in Fort Myers.
They were selected again based on a process through the School District’s Administrative Services, beating out Gates Butz Institutional Construction, WG Mills Inc, Kraft Construction and DeAngelis Diamond Construction for the job.
According to Gulfpoint’s website, they specialize in church and school construction.
Lee County Board Member Don Armstrong didn’t agree with the selection, saying the process by which the firm was selected was flawed.
Armstrong said Gulfpoint officials left out vital information in the Request for Qualification process that, had it been included, would have knocked them out of the top spot.
Armstrong requested, and was eventually outvoted, on making Gate Butz Institutional Construction the top company.
“One thing this looks really bad, a lot of people out there say we have a bidding error, we have a fixed bidding process,” Armstrong said. “And it’s probably just a procedural error, but until we fix these loopholes, we will continue to have these problems.”
Support Services Executive Director William Moore stood by their selection process, calling it not only a fair, but effective method to find the most qualified firm for each new project.
“We stand by the ranking presented last week and we stand by it this week,” Moore said. “We’ve never had anyone file a protest to this system.”
“The system is working … it’s doing what it was designed to do,” said Board Member Jane Kuckel.
Chairman Thomas Scott wondered if the process was too fair, and turning off minority contractors in the process.
“This is about as thorough a process as I’ve seen, but I’ve wondered if the system is too complex and it discouraged people from applying for the review process,” Scott added.
Armstrong said that if $45 million in projects that were excluded by Gulfpoint had been included, they would have been passed in favor of another company.
“There were things missing out of that (the RFQ),” Armstrong said. “It’s our responsibility to do what’s right for his community in this fiscal time.”