More about the Iowa DOT's rejection of the bid for paving Pole Line Road

decorahnews.com reported earlier that the Iowa Department of Transportation has rejected the only bid on the project to repave part of Pole Line Road because the DOT said the bid did not meeting state requirements for minority hiring.

Mathy Construction of Onalaska, Wisconsin had submitted a bid for $3.6 million dollars for the project, but state officials in Ames rejected the bid because Mathy did not promise to meet the requirement that a certain amount of the work be done by minority-owned companies. 

Here is more information on how this requirement works.  When a contract is put out to bid it includes information about the goal for how much of the work must be done by minority-owned businesses--ranging anywhere from 1 percent to 8 percent.

In the past contractors would be able to take any percentage above the goal commitment and use it as a "credit" to qualify future commitments on other projects.

Sources say Mathy was not allowed to use those credits to qualify to reach the minority business goal on the Pole Line Road project.  Mathy had gotten bids from the minority businesses, but those bids were significantly higher than the other bids.  Mathy made a choice to go in with the numbers from the minorities that were fairly competitive, keeping the overall cost of the project below budget.  But the bid fell short of the 2 percent goal. 

In the hearing Mathy had with DOT officials in Ames, they told the state they have showed good faith efforts on previous projects and asked the DOT to award the contract on the basis of Mathy Construction being over compliant on previous work.  State officials would not allow Mathy to use credits from other projects, so the bid was rejected.