Cirrus gets state’s apology for bid process

10/25/2005

BY CHARLES LASZEWSKI
Pioneer Press

William King, vice president of the fast-growing Cirrus Design airplane company, thought he was the victim of bid-rigging by the Minnesota Department of Transportation. But during a four-hour hearing Monday, he was informed he was the victim of budget problems and bad communication.

King told members of the state Senate Transportation Committee that he repeatedly got the runaround while trying to obtain documents to bid to replace one of the state’s Beechcraft Bonanza airplanes. The documents finally arrived at his company’s Duluth office on a Friday afternoon, July 22, leaving little time to meet the following Monday’s deadline, he said.

Worse, he said, the documents specified that the bidder’s plane must be certified to a “life limitation,’’ an outdated safety term that no plane built since 1968 is required to meet and one that is less specific than current requirements.

Beechcraft is about the only company that could meet that standard because it was allowed to keep that certification in 1968, King added.

As a result, Cirrus did not bid on the plane, King said.

“It was an intentional means by which to exclude a whole segment from the competition,’’ King told the committee. “That is offensive. ‘’

Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau, who also is the state’s transportation commissioner, told the committee that the department wanted to buy a Cirrus plane, in addition to replacing one of the state’s 1978 Bonanzas. However, when she looked at the department’s budget, she made the choice in late June to simply replace the Bonanza.

“By recommendation of the state’s professional pilots and aviation officials, the Cirrus aircraft was never considered as a replacement for our aging, working Bonanzas,’’ she testified.

The Cirrus would not carry as much cargo as the Bonanza, which the aviation division workers use to check the safety of the 130 airports around the state, Molnau said. Kent Allin, director of material management for the Department of Administration, said the state could have legally sought bids for a particular brand of plane.

Administration Commissioner Dana Badgerow, whose department oversees state bids, apologized to King for a series of mistakes, including sending the bid materials first to an Anoka company with a similar name.

King testified he complained about the process, but to a different state agency that had nothing to do with the bid. Badgerow apologized again for poor communication, saying someone should have informed him whom to contact in her department.

The Transportation Committee took no action at the hearing. The state paid about $600,000 for the Bonanza.