The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-06-26
Letter to Commission Ex-
plains in Detail How the
Bids Were Considered
CERTIFIED CHECKS
WERE NECESSARY
Whole Matter Is Characterized As a
'Temptest in Teapot" in State
ment Signed By Entire Mem
bership of Board

What amounts to practically refusal
to grant the request of the city com
mission to readvertise and relet some
contracts was contained in a formal
statement issued last night by the
members of the board of education.
The board states that it cannot see
where any mistake or misunderstanu-
ing was made and that therefore 1t sees
no reason to reject all the bids and
readvertise the work.
The matter concerns the awarding
of contracts for some Improvement
work which the board of education
intends to do on the city public school
system. The dispute. started a few days
ago when a delegation of contractors
appeared before the city commission
with the charges that the board of edu-
cation had awarded the contracts to
other than the lowest bidder. President
Exum dispatched a letter to President
J. L. Parker post haste to hold up the
matter until an investigation had been
made Later the commissioners sent
another letter to DR.. Parker asking that
all the bids be rescinded, the work re-
advertised and relet.
The Statement in Full
The signed statement of the members
of the board Of education. in which the
whole matter is called tempest in a
teapot" follows:
Birmingham, Ala, June %, 1913.
Honorable City Commissioners, Bir-
mingham, Ala.
"Gentlemen-Replyin to your COM
munication, addressed to Hon. John l..
Parker, president board of education,
Birmingham, Ala, in which it was re-
quested that the board of education
reject all bids for the construction of
nine frame school buildings and re-
advertise for bids, etc. we beg to adj
wise that, upon the day the bids were
opened for the construction of the nine
frame buildings, there We're Is bids
submitted Some of these bids were for
all of the work, while others were for
only part of the work
"One of these bids was not consld-
cred because 1t was not accompanied
by a certified check, or a check of any
description. A second bid was re-
jected which was accompanied by an
uncertified check. A third bid was ac-
companied by a check for 5000, while
the remaining IL bids were accom-
panied uniformly by certified checks for
S100 cash each This indicated an un-
derstanding upon the part of all the
bidders but one that a certified check
of 500 was to accompany each bid,
while the one evidently understood that
a check for 800 for each house to be
constructed was to accompany the bid.
To Require Sufficient Security
This misunderstanding, however did
not in any sense affect the amount
specified in the various bids and was
not considered of sufficient moment to
warrant the rejection of all of the bids
as it was the purpose of the board of
education to require the party to whom
the contract was awarded to give a
good and sufficient bond, guaranteeing
the faithful performance of the con-
tract
'The parties to whom the contract
was awarded We're the lowest bidders
taking one of each of the three types
of houses as basis. or taking the sum
total of the nine houses as proposed
to be built as basis.
From all the information the school
board has been able to gather, it seems
that one of the parties whose bid was not
considered because of the fact that it was
not accompanied by certified check. con-
tends that his Arm was Disseminated
against, by reason of the fact that if his
bid had been accepted upon the basis oi
five houses, according to plan No. l, and
three houses according to plan No. 2, and
one house according to plan No. 8, there
would have been a saving to the city ot
the sum of S32.
Not Accompanied by Certified Check
I'VE wish to reiterate and emphasize tine
fact that this firms bid was not consid-
cred at all, because it was not accom-
panied by a certified check, as required
Furthermore two unsuccessful efforts were
made to communicate with this firm foi
the purposce of giving 1t an opportunity
to have it's check certified so that it's bid
could be considered.
"Granting for the sake of argument
however, that it's bid should have been
considered, the school board knows from
the beginning that there would not be