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said, you read the Sunny Isles Beach Code, and you see that Sunny Isles Beach not only
<br /> limits their bidding to costs, but in their Code in Section 62.8, what do you think of these other
<br /> listed factors, and Mr. De Armas said those are factors that you use to determine whether a
<br /> bidder is responsible or not, that is the criteria that you use to determine responsibility velnon
<br /> period, once you determine that a bidder is responsible then that is it, your discretion is out
<br /> the window, you must award to the lowest bidder. It is very simple, in case after case stands
<br /> for the same proposition, the last case he cited was Boiston vs. Nappa Sanitation, and it is a
<br /> California case and it says the exact same thing, when we use the term "lowest responsible
<br /> bidder", lowest responsible bidder is not to be qualified on responsibility, and the court says
<br /> "In the context of responsible bidder, the term responsible refers not only to the attribute of
<br /> trustworthiness, but also to the quality, fitness, and capacity of the bidder to perform the
<br /> proposed agreement satisfactory.", and those are the criteria that the City of Sunny Isles
<br /> Beach asks, are you trustworthy, are you the kind of bidder that we want to work with, and
<br /> that is what responsible means, and that is why they use these criteria here. In 62-8, there
<br /> are criteria 1-5 all of those are used to determine whether you are a responsible bidder or not,
<br /> and again the court says: "In the context of responsible bidder the term responsible refers not
<br /> only to the attribute of trustworthiness, but also to the quality, fitness and capacity of the
<br /> bidder to perform the proposed agreement satisfactory. When a statute)requires that an
<br /> award be made to the lowest or highest responsible bidder, it must be awarded accordingly
<br /> unless that bidder is found not responsible, not qualified to perform the particular work under
<br /> consideration, although public bodies have discretion to determine which bidders are
<br /> responsible they may not, if they determine more than one bidder is responsible make the
<br /> award on the basis of relative superiority. Ms. Dickens said that the case from California is a
<br /> different standard than what the law is in Florida. Mr. Del Armas said that the City of
<br /> Sweetwater couldn't be clearer, the City of Sweetwater is out of the 3rd DCA, and it says
<br /> "lowest responsible bidder means that it is a low bidder who was found to be responsive.",
<br /> your discretion ends. We don't want the City to coming along later and saying yeah, they are
<br /> both responsible bidders, but you know what, we like one better than the other, and that is
<br /> exactly what we want to prevent. We want to prevent unclear standards, and there is another
<br /> principal at play here which is even beyond the fact that the City absolutely lacks requirement,
<br /> and that is that the City here has acted on an undisclosed criteria. Whatlis a undisclosed
<br /> criteria, when you put together a bid package, as a municipality, you are establishing the rules
<br /> of the game, you are establishing the ground rules, do not come in later and say, oh I am
<br /> sorry, we forgot to tell you, there is another rule and we are applying that rule in order to
<br /> award it to Southeastern. For example, here are the rules of the game say you have to have
<br /> Tran at least 40% in-house work, and then they come along and say you met that, you have
<br /> 44% but do you know what, we like Southeastern better because they have 70%. You know
<br /> what, if you are going to award it based on who does more in-house work, announce it, you
<br /> are obligated to announce it, don't come in after the fact and say, in order to force fit an
<br /> award, or possibly force fit an award, because we don't have to cast I persons on
<br /> anybody, acting in utmost good faith, you are not allowed to do it, you needlto announce the
<br /> rules of the game clearly.
<br /> Mr. De Armas said in this case Magnum Construction vs. Broward County School Board, and
<br /> you will see that he represented Magnum Construction the petitioner in this case, and we
<br /> went up to Tallahassee before that administrative judge Landingham, and what happened
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