Arizona republican., 1917-03-22
T, POWER CONWAY BELIEVES THAT
AL LTERNAT|VE BIDDING ABOLISHED

e. Power Conway, district manager
for Warren Brothers, owners of the
bitulithic patents, told the city COM
mission at its regular session yesterday
morning, that it was his opinion, based
on the advice of Attorney John L.
Gust that Senate Bill No. so. passed
by the last legislature, removed the
right of the commission to advertise
for alternative bids for street paving
and that it would affect advertising
in connection with the paving now
planned and for which bids were about
to be asked The statement of Mr..
Conway was made after the matter
had been brought to the attention of
the commissioners, who in turn asked
CITY Attorney Richard f. Sloan for an
opinion AS the matter had been
called to his attention only the day
before, the city attorney would not
pass upon it at that time, saying that
he desired to look into the law further
before advising the commission. He
was asked to report his findings at,
the next regular meeting.
| The story printed exclusively in The
Arizona Republican yesterday morning
caused no end of comment about town.
| Those who had had time to look into
! the provisions of Senate Bill, No. so,
said that there was still a clause of
| the Act of 1915, which was operative,
unamended and sufficient to cover the
situation so far as the legal right of
! the commission to entertain alterna-
/ tive bids for paving. and further that
as the particular paragraph did not
! prescribe a method under which adver
tisement should be made in asking for
bids. the hands of the commissioners
frpa 70
of the measure. One attorney said
the absence of a repeating clause might
save the eliminated provisions, while
another was certain that no mention
of the repeating Of the alternative bid
ding provisions having been made in
! the title of the bill, those provisions
were quite probably not repealed
Before Commission
The matter came before the COM
mission when an effort was made to
take up a series of paving jobs, the
plans for which were ready and for
which the time was ripe to advertise
for bids. Some of these, according to
CITY Engineer j. B. Grand, required
early attention. The discussion that
ensued did not in the least clarity the
atmosphere and Mayor Corpsteir
finally ordered that all paving matters
go over to the next meeting in order
that City Attorney Sloan might have
full opportunity to study the situation
He said he did not see the wisdom OF
taking any action until the commits
sion was assured of it's position.
Although Attorney John L. Gust
!author of Senate Bill No. so as origin
ally introduced, and attorney for War
ren Brothers, had been asked by Mr.
Conway to advise him as to the status
lof alternative bidding, he did moi
| ppear before the commission, as had
| ,een hoped. An authority on paving
matters generally, it was believed that
| Ir Gust would be in a position to ai6
The commission Mr.. Conway said he
'elt sure that any work preceding the
| actual awarding of contract would be
| ,ffected by the amendment
The commissioners engaged in free
| discussion of the situation and all were
| If the opinion that it would be wise tC
defer action in the matter of advertis-
ling for bids until the opinion of Judge
Sloan had been obtained
Douglas Greatly Affected
David Benshimol, well known at
torney of Douglas, in the city on bust
ness connected with the interests o.
| 1 his client, the Southern California
Construction company, of Los Angeles
lrecenlIy awarded COllTdCiS loI pdNlils
lin Douglas approximating over 123.00'
Yards, and amounting to more thar
1885, 100000, was very much interested
in the story printed in The Arizona
! Republican yesterday morning con
: cerning the developments in connec
ton with Senate Bill No. so, and wa.
1 present at the commission meeting. 1
had been intimated to him that th'
bill as amended might affect th'
awards of two of the streets in Douglas
, because these contracts were awarded
. after the bill had been signed by Gov
! ernor Campbell. He was also inter
: ested because of the possible elimina
;, ton of alternate specifications fo
future paving in the cities of Arizona
: which in his opinion would destro.
4 competition.
4 Since giving Senate Bill No. 5
careful consideration" said Attorney