Name: Bellingham City Council - Public Works and Natural Resources Committee meeting, Mar 23, 2026
Start: 2026-03-23
End: 2026-03-23
Location: City of Bellingham

City Council - Public Works and Natural Resources Committee

Mon, March 23, 2026

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Meeting summaryAI-generated

City Council – Public Works and Natural Resources Committee — March 23, 2026

This was a brief single-item committee meeting. Council Member Lilliquist was excused, so Council Member Anderson chaired in his place, with Council Member Hammill sitting in to provide the required quorum of three members.

Bid Rejection: Little Squalicum Water Quality Retrofits Phase 2 (EV-177)

The committee considered a staff recommendation to reject all bids received for the Little Squalicum Water Quality Retrofits Phase 2 project. This project is designed to improve water quality in Little Squalicum Creek by installing biopods and other enhanced stormwater treatment infrastructure in the Birwood neighborhood.

The city publicly opened six bids on March 4, 2026, but a procedural irregularity in how the bid process was administered made it impossible to determine which bidder submitted the lowest qualifying bid. Assistant Public Works Director Mike Wilson and Engineering Manager Freeman Anthony explained the problem: the project used "bid alternates," a common tool that gives the city flexibility in what scope of work it ultimately contracts for. However, the bid specifications contained language that was not flexible enough to clearly identify the low bidder when alternates were factored in. Staff are now working with the city's legal team to rewrite the specifications with clearer, more precise language before rebidding the project.

No public comment was noted. Council Member Hammill moved directly to a vote to reject, and there were no additional questions from committee members.

Vote: Unanimous in favor (Anderson, Hammill, and the third committee member present); none opposed. The recommendation will be forwarded to the full City Council for action.

Key Takeaways

The city must rebid the Little Squalicum Creek stormwater improvement project after a drafting error in the bid specifications made it impossible to identify the low bidder among six submitted bids.

Staff are revising the bid documents with legal counsel to prevent the same problem from recurring on the rebid.

No public comment was received and the committee acted quickly and unanimously, signaling no controversy over the decision itself — only a procedural delay for the project.

The underlying project — installing biopods and enhanced stormwater treatment in the Birwood neighborhood — remains on track, just pushed back pending a new bid cycle.

AI-generated summary from voice-to-text transcript. Not the official record. Verify important details with the source documents linked above.

What happened at this meeting

Recommendation to reject all bids on Little Squalicum Water Quality Retrofits Phase 2 (EV-177) Project, Bid No. 6B-2026

Staff recommended that the city council reject all bids on the Little Squalicum Water Quality Retrofit Phase 2 (EV-177) project due to irregularities in the bid administration process that made it impossible to determine the low bidder. Freeman Anthony, Engineering Manager of Public Works, explained that complications arose from bid alternate language in the specifications that created ambiguity in determining the lowest bid, and staff intends to rebid the project with revised specifications developed in consultation with legal counsel to provide more flexibility and precision. Council Member Hamill moved to reject all bids, with no additional questions or public comment recorded, and the committee voted unanimously in favor of the recommendation to bring forward to the full council.

Agenda items (1)

Procedural (1)

24872ProceduralRecommendation to reject all bids on Little Squalicum Water Quality Retrofits Phase 2 (EV-177) Project, Bid No. 6B-2026

The city is recommending that all bids submitted for the Little Squalicum Water Quality Retrofits Phase 2 project be rejected, meaning the project will need to go back out for new bids or be reconsidered.

What happened

Additional votes recorded in minutes

Recommendation to reject all bids on Little Squalicum Water Quality Retrofits Phase 2 (EV-177) Project, Bid No. 6B-2026

aye 3 · absent 1

Daniel Hammillaye

Jace Cottonaye

Lisa Andersonaye

Michael Lilliquistabsent

Verbatim transcript available

18 transcript segments indexed

Good morning and welcome to the Bellingham City Council committee meetings. Um we're going to start this meeting with public works and natural resources. Council member Lilloquist is excused today. And so I believe council member Anderson is going to be covering as chair for that committee.

City of Bellingham Public Works and Natural Resources Committee minutes March 23, 2026, 10:30 AM Chair: Michael Lilliquist Phone: 360-778-8200 Members: Lisa Anderson, Jace Cotton Email: ccmail@cob.org Web: cob.org/council City Council committee meetings Standing committee members receive reports and information, ask questions, and vote on a recommended action for consideration by the full Council at the regular meeting.

There is no public comment period during committee sessions. Call to order and roll call Council President Stone called the meeting to order at 10:30 a.m. Present: Committee Member Lisa Anderson, Fifth Ward Committee Member Jace Cotton, At-Large Committee Member Daniel Hammill, Third Ward Excused: Committee Chair Michael Lilliquist, Sixth Ward Public Works and Natural Resources 24872 1.

And then we also need three council members. And so council member Hamill, are you willing to sit in? Great. Okay. Thank you very much. So I'm going to turn it over to Council Member Anderson. >> Thank you and good morning.

Recommendation to reject all bids on Little Squalicum Water Quality Retrofits Phase 2 (EV-177) Project, Bid No. 6B-2026 Summary: Mike Wilson, Assistant Director of Engineering, and Freeman Anthony, Engineering Manager, presented the contract award for the Little Squalicum Water Quality Retrofits Phase 2 (EV-177) Project, Bid No.

Let me find my page here. Um, thank you for covering. Uh, Council Member Liiloquist is out, so I'll be chairing. Um, for public works, we have one item in front of us today. Item number um 24872 which is a recommendation to reject all bids on Squallicum water quality retrofit phase 2 EV-177 um project bid number 6B-2026.

Um the project provides um for imple improvement of water quality in Little Squalicum Creek through the installation of biopods and other enhanced wa storm water treatment in the Birwood neighborhood.

6B-2026. The project improves water quality in Little Squalicum Creek through the installation of Biopods and other enhanced stormwater treatments in the Birchwood neighborhood. Due to an error, the City is requesting a rejection of all bids so the project may be rebid.

The city publicly opened six bids on March 4th, 2026. Due to irregularity in the city's administration of the bid process, it is not possible to determine the low bidder. Therefore, staff recommend that city council reject all bids so that staff may rebid the project.

Council Members discussed the project and asked questions. Action: Daniel Hammill moved to reject all bids for the Little Squalicum Water Quality Retrofits Phase 2 (EV-177) Project, Bid No. 6B-2026. MOTION CARRIED 3-0.

And joining us today um is not our um public works director, Joel Blunt, but um Michael and I'm sorry I'm forgetting your name staff if you can. >> So Mike Wilson, assistant director of public works, city engineer.

We're gonna hand it off to Freeman Anthony to uh lead the discussion. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Mike. Um Freeman Anthony, uh engineering manager of public works. Um yeah, as it says here in the summary statement, um we had an irregularity in the administration of the process.

Um just for a little bit more added context, um utilizing uh bid alternates is a it's a it's a thing that we do to kind of give us some flexibility in bidding. But um depending on what kind of what the general service pro provisions that you use um and how you write it, it can be a bit complicated to figure out the low.

And in this case, we had that exact scenario. Um and we had some language in the bid spec that wasn't as flexible as we would have liked. So, we intend to rebid these with uh revised um specifications that we're working with legal on to give us some more flexibility and then allow us also to be a bit more precise in the process so we don't come back.

>> Thank you. Um council, any questions? >> Council member Hamill. >> Yeah, I just vote to reject. >> So, looking like there's no additional questions. We have a vote to reject. All in favor say I. >> I.

>> I. No opposed. So I'll bring that forward for recommendation tonight. Thank you gentlemen. Much appreciated. And turning it back to Council uh President um Stone. >> Thank you very much. Um so with that we will take a brief break.