Columbia councilman’s business sues the city over lost contract, alleged conflict
Columbia City Councilman Peter Brown’s company Colite Technologies is suing the city after it says it was passed over for a multi-million-dollar contract for an “arbitrary” reason: one of its owners sits on city council.
The company, which builds commercial-sized solar projects for businesses and governments, put its hat in the ring this December to build the city a new solar power facility at its wastewater treatment plant south of downtown.
But the city disqualified its bid because of “unavoidable” conflict of interest concerns stemming from Brown’s partial ownership stake in the company, according to a lawsuit filed against the city by the company that alleges the city misapplied the conflict-of-interest rules and wrongfully disqualified Colite from the process.
Brown represents the northeast quadrant of Columbia on city council and also sits on the board of the Central Midlands Council of Governments. That board will be handling the federal grant money paying for a portion of the solar work.
Colite Technologies’ leadership said the conflict concerns could have been addressed.
“The disappointing thing is that we’ve invested a lot of money here in the local community, we’ve built a very successful, competitive company,” said Kevin O’Hara, co-founder and CEO of Colite Technologies. “Then when an opportunity comes up in the local community, we get arbitrarily removed from it.”
His company would have done the work for less, and his co-owner would have recused himself from any decisions about the project, O’Hara said.
Now, Colite Technologies has sued the city, asking a judge to pause any movement on the contract and order the city to consider its bid for the work. The city had not responded to the lawsuit as of press time. It has 30 days from being notified of the lawsuit to reply.
Conflict questions
Columbia City Council earlier this month approved a nearly $9 million contract to Kentucky-based CMTA, Inc. for the solar panel project. Brown recused himself from the vote.
A judge has since stopped the city from making that award final, issuing an injunction pausing the deal until the court says it can proceed.
The contract value is part of O’Hara’s legal argument. His company submitted plans to the city with a budget of $6.7 million, he said, and argues that difference elevates the dispute.
“The magnitude of the pricing discrepancy between Colite’s proposal and the intended awardee, as well as the error … committed by excluding Colite’s proposal from consideration, create significant issues of public interest,” that should be dealt with before the contract is issued, O’Hara wrote in a court filing.
Colite Technologies is a commercial solar company born from Councilman Brown’s commercial sign company called Colite, or Colite International. Brown is a managing partner of the sign company.
The Colite Technologies arm was founded in 2018 initially within Colite International, then broken off into its own company, under separate management.
O’Hara said Brown is not involved in managing the solar company and did nothing to influence the contract discussions.
O’Hara also said that his attorneys were making a legal argument to the city after their bid was disqualified, and that he learned the contract had already been decided while in the midst of those conversations.
“I sit on a lot of boards here, I’ve contributed a lot to the local community,” O’Hara said. “I feel really betrayed that we did not have a real opportunity to participate in this project that we’re completely qualified for.”
The State has contacted the city for a statement.
