A Low Bidder Cries Foul Over Tacoma’s New Water Pipes
Charges of inferior material and work outside the contract were briefly cleared—until affidavits from a lower bidder forced a fresh council inquiry.
Tacoma, April 13.—Special.—The city council met today in regular session. The charges against the contractors on the new pipe extension to the south end were investigated in committee of the whole. They were found to be without foundation, and a report was made to that effect. The charges were that the work was not being done according to contract, and that inferior material was used. Nearly all of the members of the council have viewed the work and are satisfied with it. Later in the session affidavits were filed by A. Moke, Hawkey and Fred O. Plummer, making specific the allegations that the work was not being done according to contract. On Monday, at 10 o’clock, the council will investigate the new charges in committee of the whole. Mr. Hawkey, who filed one of the affidavits, was a lower bidder for the contract.
“The charges were that the work was not being done according to contract, and that inferior material was used.”
Then as now, a low bidder’s complaint could stall or reopen a public contract, and councils had to decide whether “inferior material” was a real safety issue or sour grapes. Tacoma’s water system was becoming a municipal asset; the fight over who built its pipes and under what terms is an early version of today’s public-procurement battles.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.