Demolition firm appeals Milwaukee school award after its $928,000 bid lost to a $4.8 million one

MPS officials signed the TW Chicago contract Oct. 19 and scheduled it for final School Board approval on Oct. 29, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. MRD filed its appeal Oct. 27, alleging the selection process lacked transparency, and asked the board to hold off. MRD attorney John Machulak, writing to MPS's Office of Accountability and Efficiency, put the difference at $3,866,029. The outcome of the board vote had not been reported as of Friday.

Kevin O'Connor, speaking for MPS, said the district picked its contractor by scoring proposals in a competitive RFP rather than by taking the lowest price. A committee scored every proposal against criteria published in advance, including price, experience, safety, environmental controls and project approach, and TW Chicago came out on top, he said. The first round drew a single proposal, from TW Chicago. The district reissued the request in September and received six more.

MRD says the district never released the bids or the scores, and that the scores were not on the website MPS directed it to. The Journal Sentinel said it asked for the bids Sept. 30 and has not received them. Machulak conceded nobody yet knows whether MRD's price was the cheapest from a qualified firm. The head of the Milwaukee teachers union, Ingrid Walker-Henry, described the decision as “incredibly suspicious” given recent district budget cuts. TW Chicago declined to comment.

The district has about $5 million from Travelers Insurance for the job, and Travelers has worked with TW Chicago before, according to the Journal Sentinel and The Daily Reporter. Demolition is set to run from November through March, with Wisconsin-based Balestrieri Environmental & Development managing it. The 1917 school burned June 30 after rags soaked in cleaning products spontaneously combusted in a plastic trash can, fire officials said.