Columbia signs $9M solar contract as councilman’s company sues over bid process
Columbia City Councilman Peter Brown’s company Colite Technologies is suing the city over a solar contract it says it was unfairly disqualified from competing for. Now Columbia says in a legal filing it was a regional group, not the city, that insisted Colite couldn’t be considered because of a conflict of interest.
The city is asking a judge to toss the suit, saying the issue shouldn’t be in court and that complaints about the bidding process are handled by the city, not a judge. The city has also now formally signed a contract with another company for the project in question.
In its motion to dismiss the Colite lawsuit, the city said it applied for grant funding through the Central Midlands Council of Governments to help pay for the solar project designed to offset some of the wastewater plant’s electric costs.
That regional planning and development group stewards state and federal dollars for local governments across the Midlands. The grant money paying for the solar project comes from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with the Midlands planning group allocating the money. That group, the city says, is who raised concerns about Brown creating a conflict.
Brown represents the northeast quadrant of Columbia on city council and also sat on the board of the Central Midlands Council of Governments at the time the company applied for the contract. Brown resigned from that board after Colite submitted its bid to the city “to help eliminate the conflict,” according to the city’s motion.
After “extensive meetings and discussions,” the city said it determined Brown’s resignation and recusal “cured any potential conflict” under the city’s procurement code, but the Council of Governments group disagreed.
The city did score Colite’s proposal for the project, ranking it the lowest of six total bidders, but that score only came after O’Hara’s attorney was already involved, O’Hara told The State.
Councilman’s company says it was unfairly disqualified
Colite Technologies’ lawsuit argues the company should not have been removed from consideration and that the issue could have been addressed by Brown recusing himself from any decisions about the contract.
A judge is scheduled to hear the city’s motion to dismiss the suit Sept. 16.
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 the lawsuit filed June 9, the same day the city council voted to award the contract to another company.
Colite Technologies’ leadership previously told The State that 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.
Colite Technologies submitted plans for the solar project with a budget of $6.7 million.
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 temporarily blocked the city from finalizing that contract, but both parties have since agreed to let the city move forward with CMTA, Inc.
City points to regional group and grant rules
In its filing, the city said the Central Midlands Council of Governments concluded that under its own procurement rules there was “no remedy” for the conflict and that it would withdraw from the project if Colite was considered.
The State attempted to reach a representative for the Central Midlands Council of Governments but did not hear back by publication.
O’Hara said that even if that group raised the issue, the city is still responsible for following their own rules, which his lawsuit alleges it did not.
Brown is a part owner of Colite Technologies but is not involved in managing the company. He is the managing partner of Colite International, a commercial sign company. The solar company started as an idea at Colite International before O’Hara established it as a separate business.
O’Hara is still pursuing a lawsuit against the city, despite dropping the request to block Columbia from finalizing the contract.
“We want the city to acknowledge they were wrong,” and to see if there is a way to change their procurement practices in the future, O’Hara said.
