By Sarah Wienke
Missouri Lawyers Media
ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. — The St. Charles County Ambulance District is one of two public entities being sued for allegedly violating a Missouri law that prohibits union-only project labor agreements.
The Heart of America Chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors and St. Louis-based Raineri Construction filed suit in Cole County Circuit Court against the ambulance district and the Bayless School District for hiring union contractors for their construction projects rather than selecting the lowest bidder.
Attorney General Chris Koster is also named in the complaint for not taking action in enforcing the law.
Missouri passed the Fairness in Public Construction Act in 2007, which prohibits union-only project labor agreements on state funded projects and requires local governmental bodies to hold public hearings and justify the use of union-only agreements.
According to the petition, both Bayless and the ambulance district utilized bid procedures that eliminated non-union contractors from bidding and didn’t hold public hearings as required by law.
Jim Kistler, president and CEO of Associated Builders and Con-tractors, said ABC believes that public construction contracts should be awarded based on merit and not because of labor affiliation.
He said more than 80 percent of construction companies and workers have chosen not to belong to a union, so they are discriminated against by the school and ambulance districts.
“ABC believes in free market enterprise and open competition, both of which are undermined when local governments give preferential treatment to unions,” Kistler said, adding that numerous national studies have shown that tax-funded projects are more expensive when open-shop contractors are eliminated from competition.
The Bayless School District case is a perfect example, he said. When the non-union low bid was eliminated, the next lowest union bid increased the cost by $20,000.
He is also disturbed by the fact that these taxing entities didn’t hold a public hearing.
“It’s all about transparency,” he said. “I believe in the ability to have input in governmental action, and that’s being circumvented with backroom-type deals. “
Kistler said he’s seen an increase in this trend over the last six months, explaining that in the current economic climate, unions and union contractors are finding it very difficult to compete in the open market for construction jobs, so they are using their political clout to encourage public entities to hire them.
ABC is asking the court to immediately stop construction on the St. Charles County Ambulance District project, to nullify the contracts issued by both the Bayless School District and the ambulance district, to force both entities to follow the law in the future, and to require the Bayless and ambulance district board members to repay any moneys illegally spent.
Ken Koch, St. Charles Ambulance District Chief, said he knew ABC has been questioning their bidding practices and he’s aware that ABC is saying the district broke the law.
“We’re aware of their concerns, but since we haven’t been served, it’s premature to make a comment,” he said.
The building at the center of this lawsuit is what the district is calling “Base 10,” a new ambulance barn that will be located off of Weiss Road near St. Charles Community College in St. Peters.
Freise Construction Co., St. Louis, was selected for the project with a bid of $628,900. According to court documents, Freise included a statement that its workers belonged to the AFL-CIO Union with its bid.
The case is Raineri Construction v. Chris Koster et al, 09AC-cc00634.
Copyright 2009 Dolan Media Newswires