Mahoning Commissioners: Company claiming discrimination not following contract rules

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — Owners of a local excavating contractor claim Mahoning County Commissioners are discriminating against their company for not using unionized workers.

Commissioners argue the contractor isn’t following the requirements to land a pair of contracts.

With little fanfare and no public comment, commissioners approved a resolution Friday morning calling Rudzik Excavating’s apparent low bid for a pair of local infrastructure projects “unresponsive.”

Mahoning County Administrator Audrey Tillis says the projects included a waterline replacement in two neighborhoods off Grandview Avenue in Craig Beach near Lake Miltion as well as a sewer line replacement along Burgess Run Creek in Poland Township. Commissioners specified the work be done by union contractors.

“Because the bid specs were not followed,” Tillis said.

After commissioners adjourned the meeting and quickly left, Jim Tressa, a spokesman for Rudzik Excavating, called the company’s bid “perfect.”

“What we didn’t do was sign a ‘project labor agreement,” Tressa said. “We shouldn’t be mandated to be union and lay our guys off and hire union employees.”

Although projects using federal funding are not permitted to include union-only language in their specifications, work paid for with only local money can require organized labor to receive contracts.

“That being said, we follow our purchasing policy, which then gives the non-responsive bid five days to protest,” Tillis said.

“It’s a local politics issue, and they’re making a bad call, giving preferential treatment to some and dismissing others, and that’s I feel we’re being discriminated against because we’re non-union,” Tressa said.

Commissioners will hold a meeting later this month to decide whether or not to reject the Rudzik bid. First News was told the next lowest proposal was from another non-union contractor. The lowest union bid was several hundreds of thousands of dollars higher.

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