Overview:
• There were two rounds of bidding. Draughon Brothers had the lowest bid in the first round.
• But the county commissioners threw out all the bids, adjusted the requirements, and sought new bids.
• On the second round, Draughon Brothers had the second-lowest bid.
The Draughon Brothers audio, video, and lighting company of Fayetteville is suing Cumberland County, asserting that the county illegally gave preferential treatment to another company when taking bids for a contractor to install a new sound system at the Crown Coliseum.
The county Board of Commissioners awarded the sound system contract on May 18 to Metropolitan Interactive of Oxford, Connecticut, which bid $1.7 million. Draughon Brothers had bid $1.9 million.
This came after two rounds of bids.
In the first round, Draughon Brothers had the lowest bid, of about $1.49 million, while Metropolitan Interactive had the second-lowest, at just under $1.5 million. On May 4, the commissioners threw out all bids after they learned that a bidder had violated the rules by contacting board members directly via email during the process.
The commissioners adjusted the project requirements, restarted the bidding, and Metropolitan ultimately won.
Draughon Brothers alleges that Metropolitan’s bid on the second round did not meet all of the county’s requirements, including an electrical engineer licensed to work in North Carolina.
“The County’s actions destroyed the level playing field required by competitive bidding laws and rendered the bidding process arbitrary, capricious, and unlawful,” the company said.
Draughon Brothers also sued Metropolitan Interactive but dismissed the company as a defendant on July 24. No reason was specified.
The suit was filed on May 22 in Cumberland County Superior Court. Cumberland County filed a response on July 27. The county said it had complied with state law for soliciting bids and that Draughon Brothers did not have the lowest bid on the second round of bidding. It asked the court to dismiss the case.
Draughon Brothers asked a judge to stop the project. On June 12, Superior Court Judge Hoyt G. Tessen rejected the request.
On Monday, the Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously to have the county attorney’s office hire a private legal team to handle the lawsuit. “I just need some help with another case that’s turning into an ordeal,” County Attorney Rick Moorefield told the commissioners.
The county commissioners have dealt with several lawsuits recently.
One of these is the billing dispute with architect EwingCole, settled in June for $650,000, from the company’s work on the canceled Crown Event Center that was to be built downtown.
Another is the commissioners’ suit against the chemical manufacturing company Chemours, scheduled for trial this coming Monday. The trial is to determine what damages Chemours owes the county because its Fayetteville Works plant contaminated residents’ drinking water wells with PFAS and GenX chemicals, and what the company must do to abate the contamination.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
