Travis County Commissioners Court
January 8, 2008
Item 10
10 is to approve contract award for trap rock, grade 5 t, if b number b 08003 dr, to the sole bidder, vulcan materials.
>> my only question, what were the violations for failure to disclose. My thinking was since this was the only opportunity, why not take it.
>> don ward with tnr road and bridge. I don't have the violations they had. I wasn't y --privy to that. I can tell you that they are basically the only vendor of this type in the state of Texas. Closest one after that is martin marietta out of oklahoma and out of arkansas.
>> who were the violations with?
>> I believe with tceq and had to do with some of their plan violations, air violations which you know, they operate all sorts of plants. I don't know if it was with this one. This was basically a quar ry and they mine it. They do process different materials, afalt--asphalt, that type of thing. It wasn't this particular plant, I would not imagine, but something where they were processing for an air violation.
>> were these violations available from, what was the process in going about finding out about the violations from tceq? Checking they are permit number?
>> I believe mr. White can give you some of those details.
>> I don't have the details on the specific violations, but they had several they did not report to us but their overall score was average violations, which is what is most people's scores.
>> that's the default score for tceq, if I’m not mistaken.
>> the information we found when the staff was taking a look was that they had a number of violations. They had been cited for 16 moderate as well as four minor at 11 different cites in the past five years, most of the violations from 2004. Mostly with regard to stormwater requirements but several with regard to managing waste to prevent discharge to the environment as well as outdoor burning violation.
>> it's unfortunate that we have no other options. I recognize that. If the bidder is listening, I’m also troubled in every instance where a bidder fails to disclose their violations. But I am grateful to tnr for their vigilance in checking. That is how we find out that people fail to disclose these issues.
>> one thing I might add, typically these bidders are just an estimator. This is a pretty large company and they are probably not up to speed on what the rest of their company, where these violations occur. When they put our, it's just another form that they are filling out. Not excusing them by any means. But these guys just sign it and get their bid in.
>> our process for discovering the violations is simply checking the permit number with tceq which is certainly available to them as well. I don't believe they have any excuse tor for failure to disclose when it's plainly a requirement of the bidding process.
>> our staff recommendation for this was that they be directed to provide some kind of an explanation as to how they had resolved all of these vee lages and to show they were not continuing to be in violation. Also to admonish them that they do need to take better care when they are preparing these things. Certainly if this had been an issue regarding money in their company, they would have been aware of it. This is an issue of concern to us as well, so they need to be aware of environmental issues that affect other sites of their company.
>> sadly, minor violations often carry no penalty what sove in our state. I would also suggest that we forward the information to our enforcement unit inside the county attorney's office because we do have the ability to monitor at the local level to some degree the discharge and waste practices of businesses within our purview.
>> were those in Travis County?
>> pardon me?
>> were those violations in Travis County?
>> I don't believe that these specific vee lages were in Travis County, although I don't know that for sure. Certainly we could be monitoring whatever activities they have within Travis County to make sure that they are abiding by environmental regulations.
>> you call these problems to these attention already?
>> we simply advised purchasing and mr. Ward here of the concerns that we had.
>> I would notify the vendor that we have these concerns.
>> I don't believe we have.
>> your recommend is that we notify them.
>> my recommendation is that we notify them and notify that we are giving the information over to the county attorney's office. Any enforcement abilities that we have inside Travis County will be monitoring their activity. Because I was not aware until this moment that actually, was it 16 moderate violations in the last five years?
>> sixteen moderate vie latelages.
>> our backup, understandably, I’m not slighting the backup. This is an evolving circumstance evolving piece of information coming to us. It listed them as minor violations. But 16 moderate violations in the last knife years is rather significant.
>> sixteen came from tceq.
>> correct.
>> they were in Texas.
>> correct.
>> can we find out what county they were in?
>> we can. I expect we have that in hand.
>> if they are the only ones, I don't flow that I would throw the baby out with the bath water this timeno.
>> no.
>> we certainly ought to call it to their attention and let them know we are monitoring and try to identify other vendors for the future.
>> another aspect, when they do try to do business with Travis County again, I think it ought to be understood that they need to report the violations.
>> I think don is correct, there is a disconnect 2010 the --between the folks figure out the application.
>> they overlook that portion? Apparently.
>> we have had this contract with vul dan --vulcan for the whole 15 years we have been there. It is a sole source provider. They get lax because they are the only bidder.
>> move approval and also inclusion of the eckhardt recommendations.
>> second.
>> discussion? All in favor. That passes by unanimous vote . Let us know about the follow-up responses we get from them. Mr. White and mr. Barr, ms. Grimes, let the court know about the follow-up responses we get from them after you contact them. Okay.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Wednesday, January 9, 2008 8:00 AM