Attorneys Joey McCutchen And Stephen Napurano File Lawsuit Against City Of Fort Smith

Fort Smith attorneys Joey McCutchen and Stephen Napurano announced yesterday that they filed suit against the City of Fort Smith concerning the City’s decision to waive competitive bidding requirements and negotiate directly with a single contractor for the Parrot Island Waterslide Project.

The City initially solicited competitive bids for construction and installation work associated with the project. All bids received exceeded the amount budgeted for installation. Rather than rebidding the project or reopening the revised scope to competition, the City entered into direct negotiations with Royal Ridge Construction, LLC and later adopted an ordinance declaring an “exceptional situation” to waive competitive bidding. Attached is the complaint.

The lawsuit alleges that the City’s actions violated Arkansas law and the Fort Smith Municipal Code, which allows competitive bidding to be waived only in exceptional situations where bidding is not feasible. The complaint asserts that delay and budget overruns do not meet that legal standard and that the waiver ordinance was adopted without any emergency, public safety concern, or factual findings demonstrating that competitive bidding was not feasible. City records show that, after waiving competitive bidding, officials moved forward with a negotiated installation plan requiring more than $2 million in additional public funding beyond the originally budgeted amount.

McCutchen has raised concerns regarding the City’s bidding process and compliance with state law. McCutchen stated, “Competitive bidding laws exist to protect taxpayers, not to be ignored when the process becomes inconvenient. Cities are required to follow the law regardless of the level of convenience. This lawsuit is about enforcing those safeguards and ensuring that public funds are spent lawfully.”

Jimmie Cavin

Professional Bully Fighter I investigate and report on issues around the State of Arkansas with an emphasis on Government. I am strong conservative however I bring Truth and Facts regardless of Party affiliation….My hashtag is #FactsNotFiction