The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD) unveiled its 2018 fiscal year capital improvement and replacement program on April 17, 2017, but some contractors questioned the accountability of MSD’s bidding process. That after the MSD board of trustees refused to follow the recommendations of its professiona l staff and inexplicably killed a $145 million contract to the lowest responsible bidder on the Deer Creek tunneling project. When asked why he changed his vote at an April 13th MSD meeting to void the contract to low bidder Jay Dee/Frontier-Kemper (JDFK) Joint Venture,MSD Trustee Michael Yates told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “I have my reasons, and that’s all I’m saying.”
At the fiscal 2018 capital improvement and replacement program Jay Dee Contractors, Inc. Project Manager Abdul-Ghani Mekkaoul sought answers to why MSD trustees refused to follow the recommendation of its staff which had thoroughly vetted and approved JDFK’s low bid. After the meeting, Mekkauol noted that the JDFK bid met every standard of MSD’s request for proposal, including pricing, schedule, diversity and would have used a St. Louis union workforce. The meeting attracted reporters from St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis Business Journal and KMOV-TV, which sought answers to how wisely MSD is spending money on its massive $4.7 billion Project Clear.