HTHA disqualifies low bidder for ongoing renovations

The Houma-Terrebonne Housing Authority called a special board meeting March 11 to determine if First Millennium Construction should be disqualified from its contract to renovate Senator Circle Development.

First Millennium had been the low bidder and was awarded the renovation contract last year.

However, after the company claimed they finished the first phase of work, residents began moving into the complex, and the housing board received many complaints regarding their work.

At the meeting, the board voted 4-1 to disqualify First Millennium’s contract. The next lowest bidder, Olympic Commercial & Residential Construction, was awarded the contract for the remaining phases of work.

Olympic’s bid was $130,000 higher than First Millennium.

“I find it in the best interest of the agency for us to try and move forward and get somebody who can give us some better quality of work,” said board member Joseph Thompson. “I sit on all the boards that deal with contractors. We don’t have these types of problems, and I’ve never seen this high volume of problems.”

The board accused First Millennium of not replacing shelves, not replacing garment rods and not replacing covers for electrical, telephone and cable outlets.

The board also received complaints that some of those electrical, telephone and cable outlets were not working.

However, the contract signed by the housing authority and First Millennium did not state that the contractor needed to replace these things.

“If you take it out, obviously it’s implied you need to return it to the condition it was in when you first started the job,” said housing authority Executive Director Wayne Thibodaux. “It just seems to me, common sense, implied, is that you would put them back.”

The contract required First Millennium to gut the apartment walls from four-feet-up to the ground, Thibodaux added.

“When you gut and tamper within the four feet, and then you put back your drywall, it seems to me you need to make sure the telephone jacks and the cable jacks and the electrical plugs are put back in working order in the same place they were when you started gutting,” he said. “Residents continue to complain that light fixtures aren’t working, that light plugs aren’t working.”

However, First Millennium owner and operator Nathian Hossley said his company followed the written contract.

“We made that public housing look brand new, like it was supposed to,” said Hossley. “However, in some of the units, we were only obligated, where the complaints are coming from four foot down, to remove the mold and the sheetrock four foot down. We had nothing to do with the light fixtures that [are] 30- or 40 years old and none of that other stuff.”

Hossley claims that his company fixed all of the complaints he has received regarding Senator Circle, but that he did not receive all of the complaints that were brought upon him at the meeting.

“Construction law states that under me being a general contractor, I have to first see the complaint, and then if I don’t respond to it, then I’m not responsive, and they can take action,” he said.

Hossley should have noticed the potential problems in the contract before he started construction and notified the board, Thompson said.

“If I give you a blue print, and it’s not what you need, it seems to me, somebody has to ask the question, hold up, let me get the architect in here, and get the owner in here, and let’s get on the same page,” he added.

Hossley said that he will ask the housing authority to reconsider, and if they do not reverse the decision, First Millennium will take them to court.

“But because of what they did here today, I will sue them. That’s without a doubt, but I will give them a chance to reconsider first,” said Hossley after the meeting. “It’s going to probably cost me about 40,000 [to sue]. It’s worth it for my name, because I’ve never experienced and never had this kind of issue. First Millennium’s name is worth more than that.”