§ 321-49. Bid; Withdrawal of Bid Made in Error.

A bidder for a contract with the city may request the withdrawal of a bid not requiring bid surety from consideration. The city purchasing agent may allow the withdrawal if the price bid was substantially lower than the other bids, providing the bid was submitted in good faith and the reason for the price bid being substantially lower was a clerical mistake as opposed to a judgment mistake, and was actually due to an unintentional and substantial arithmetic error or an unintentional omission of a substantial quantity of work, labor, or material made directly in the compilation of the bid. The request to withdraw such bid shall be made in writing to the city purchasing agent within four business days from the bid opening procedure.

No bid may be withdrawn under this section when the result would be the awarding of the contract on another bid of the same bidder.

No bidder who is permitted to withdraw a bid shall benefit, directly or indirectly, from the performance of the contract for which the withdrawn bid was submitted, without the approval of the city purchasing agent. Without such approval, the contractor to whom the contract was awarded and the withdrawing bidder are jointly liable to the city in an amount equal to any compensation paid to or for the benefit of the withdrawing bidder, in addition to any criminal penalties.

If a bid is withdrawn under authority of this section, the city purchasing agent may award the contract to the next lowest bidder or reject all bids.

In the event the city purchasing agent denies the request for withdrawal and the bidder refuses to perform, the city purchasing agent may reject all bids or award to the next lowest bidder and the bidder shall be in default.

(Ordained by Ord. No. 426-1992, eff. Oct. 23, 1992; a. Emer. Ord. No. 177-2008, § 4, eff. June 29, 2008)