Two contracts sparked some debate at Tuesday night’s city council meeting. Councilor Dennis Robinson voted against awarding Northern Mechanical a $321,000 aggregate materials contract, saying the city discriminated against the other bidder, Bering Shai Construction, by including a per-mile road tax in the contract.

“That being 20 cents a mile to Department of Public Works, it puts Ugadaga quarry at an unfair advantage to any other quarry in the community, unless that quarry was built next to Public Works," Robinson said. "It is unfair, it is unethical in my belief. I have really serious problems with it and I think it should go.”

In response, Councilor Tom Enlow pointed out that even without the road tax, Northern Mechanical’s bid would still be $50,000 less.

The one-year contract with the option for renewal was ultimately awarded by a 4-1 vote.

Council also discussed a $215,000 contract for miscellaneous maintenance projects. Councilor Robinson questioned Public Works director Nancy Peterson about the cost of contracting the projects out, relative to hiring new maintenance employees.

“Because we could probably do it in-house a bit cheaper than this," Robinson said.

In a follow-up conversation, Peterson said any increases in the size of the maintenance staff would need to be discussed during the fiscal year 2014 budgeting process. She says the topic has been raised previously and that Public Works is looking into it.

Council also awarded two other contracts during the meeting – a $177,000 contract to R&M Consultants for resurfacing work and a $207,000 contract to All Wall Contracting for city-wide painting jobs.