Garden Leaders' bid protest denied

LAKEWOOD RANCH — A dispute between three of Lakewood Ranch’s Community Development Districts and their former landscaping contractor has come to a close.

Supervisors on Lakewood Ranch CDDs 1, 4 and 5 voted April 30 to adopt the recommended order of special magistrate Hamilton “Chip” Rice to deny and dismiss a bid protest filed Dec. 8 by Garden Leaders. The action will resolve the issue, unless Garden Leaders decides to pursue further legal action.

“We took yet another step to make sure it was a fair process,” CDD 1 Special Council Anthony Abate said. “The hearing officer did a good job, and it was recognized by the boards. (Garden Leaders) had an opportunity to present whatever evidence (it) thought was important, and it just wasn’t sufficient (to change the outcome).”

Garden Leaders had filed a legal action alleging the CDDs violated Sunshine laws during their bid review and vendor selection process last fall. Supervisors from all three boards agreed to redo the bidding process in exchange for dismissal of the lawsuit in September. When landscape contractor Down to Earth again emerged as the top vendor in all three districts, Garden Leaders filed a bid protest.

Garden Leaders’ attorney Morgan Bentley argued that higher-ranked vendors failed to disclose information that could have affected the conclusions of an evaluation committee used to select vendors for services, making the process unfair and necessitating a re-bid for services. Bentley said he now would be working with his client to consider its next step.

“We’re disappointed with the outcome, although it wasn’t entirely unexpected,” he said.

Should Garden Leaders wish to pursue further legal action, it will have until May 30 to file a lawsuit.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].

THE ORDER
Supervisors in CDDs 1 and 4 adopted the recommended order of special magistrate Hamilton “Chip” Rice fully, including a finding that the districts’ attorneys few exceed the amount of a bid protest bond. Only CDD 5 supervisors tweaked their final order to specifically include language to “reserve until a later date (a right) to address the entitlement and reasonableness of attorney fees and costs incurred by the district in this bid protest.” The bond amount was about $4,300, while costs incurred exceeded $20,000.