Gordon Park renovation bids scrapped because park district did not provide adequate legal notice

The Park District of La Grange board of commissioners at a special meeting Monday night voted to reject all construction bids it received last week related to the planned renovation of Gordon Park after determining that it failed to provide proper legal notice when soliciting the bids.

Commissioners then directed Executive Director Dean Bissias begin the bid solicitation process anew.

Bissias said the problem with the initial round of bids arose when a legal notice he placed in the Suburban Life newspaper was published Sept. 8, only seven days before the bids were opened last Wednesday.

The Illinois Park District Code requires "at least one public notice at least 10 days before the bid date in a newspaper published in the district or, if no newspaper is published in the district, in a newspaper of general circulation in the area of the district."

Bissias said that the notice was provided to the newspaper with instructions that it be published on both Sept. 1 and 8. He said he did know why the first publication date was missed.

An identical notice provided to the Daily Herald was published in a timely manner, Bissias said. But that newspaper is not "published in the district" and therefore did not satisfy the law.

Bissias said the error was brought to his attention by Kevin Shields, a former park commissioner.

Park Board President Mary Ellen Penicook Monday night publicly thanked Shields for doing so.

The board also thanked resident Harlan Hirt for alerting them to the likelihood that the park district in 1999 failed to obtain necessary permits from the Village of La Grange and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District when it installed a new drainage system at Gordon Park.

Shields and Hirt both are members of La Grange Friends of the Parks, a group of residents that is fighting the park district in court over plans to sell a portion of Gordon Park to a developer.

Both men said their recent actions are unrelated to their opposition the proposed sale.

Comments

[William Dobias]

The Park Board just can't seem to get anything of a legal nature right, starting with the flaws in their 2007 sales contract with ARP (and probably before that). It seems to me that the Board is ill-served by their Executive Director, DEAN BISSIAS, and that it is time to hire someone better qualified than the former Buildings and Grounds Manager

[Jim Boo]

Maybe the PDLG needs to spend some money on legal assistance?

[William Dobias]

Actually, you're right, Jim. They need to find a lawyer that is more interested in serving them and us and not just focused on collecting big fees with minimum effort!

[Joe Bagodonuts]

I see no factual basis to support your claim that permits were not obtained for this work. The only fact you have is that they cannot produce a permit from 11 years ago. It could have just as easily been lost.

I can't produce today a lot of documents from 11 years ago. Doesn't mean they never existed.