Local governments seldom bid major roofing projects

Douglas County officials are getting ready for a major renovation project later this year, completely removing an old roof and installing a new one on the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center.

The project is expected to cost $625,000, but county commissioners agreed Wednesday not to go out for bids. Instead, the contract will go to Garland Co. of Cleveland, Ohio, a supplier that that has an exclusive arrangement through an organization that offers prenegotiated contracts for a large variety of supplies and services to state and local governments throughout the country.

The organization, U.S. Communities, founded in 1999, allows more than 55,000 local governments and educational institutions to piggyback on contracts that previously would have gone through competitive bids.

In addition to Douglas County, both the Lawrence school district and the city of Lawrence belong to U.S. Communities and have used it for a variety of projects, including contracting with Garland for roofing projectseven though Garland is typically more expensive than other suppliers.

"Typically it's higher (and) it's got a longer warranty," said Kirk Hinnergardt of Diamond-Everly Roofing Contractors, which installed a Garland roof on Kennedy School last year. "Their warranties are pretty user-friendly, but they are higher than everybody else."

Local officials say using the cooperative arrangement for new roofing saves them time and expense, especially on large, complicated projects for which local agencies lack the in-house expertise to manage a competitive bid process.

It's very complex when you get into it, said Jackie Waggoner, purchasing director for Douglas County. We've never taken a roof down to the deck, and that's what we'd be doing in this case. We have all of our core 24-7 operations in that building.

Waggoner said the alternative would have been to hire an outside project manager with expertise in roofing contracts and to have that firm interview several different roofing companies. She estimated that would have added $45,000 to $60,000 to the cost of materials and installation.

But Mike Greenamyre, owner of American Roofing in Leavenworth, said he believes local governments end up paying more because Garland uses what are often called proprietary bid specifications, meaning when it only hires local contractors who are approved to install the company's products, and they only use Garland's name-brand materials, even when equivalents are available from other suppliers.

The result, he said, is that the only thing being competitively bid on a local project is the cost of the labor.

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Local governments seldom bid major roofing projects