The Cooke Field turf contract was awarded!

Happy that his company (Sports Turf Hawaii) won the bid to replace the turf at Cooke Field, Hamocon said:
"I'm obviously happy that we were able to pull off this bid. More importantly, I think the challenge was just being able to bid the job. Having that opportunity, that really was my battle from the start." (HSB)

HSB Note: "University officials awarded the contract to Hamocon even though he did not have the synthetic turf license recommended by the state Contractors License Board, which oversees contractor licenses. Before the bidding opened last month, David Hafner, UH assistant vice chancellor for campus services, said he was concerned about skirting the board's recommendations because it could lead to a protest, a formal objection that could delay work. But that concern was erased because Hamocon was the low bidder."

About how Hamocon had good recommendations for the job he did putting in the turf at Murakami Stadium, Hafner said:
"This is a fully capable low bidder." (HSB)

Hafner said that awarding the contract to the lowest bidder was:
"in the best interest of the taxpayer." (HSB)

HSB Note: "RMY Construction, a general contractor, and Hamocon's company, as subcontractor, bid about $21,500 less than the next bidder, Applied Surfacing Technology. A dispute on the Cooke Field project erupted last month when Hamocon said Denny Sadowski, a member of the Contractors License Board and the listed agent for Applied Surfacing Technology, tried to limit his competition by asking the board to require a special license for synthetic turf jobs. In October the board voted in favor of Sadowski's recommendation that contractors have a special license to install synthetic turf at sports stadiums in Hawaii. The decision reduced the number of contractors that can install synthetic turf at sports stadiums from hundreds to four, one of which was Applied Surfacing Technology."

About how what Sadowski tried to do to limit competition was wrong, Hamocon said:
"What it comes down to is, what he's done in his position is wrong. The fact is there's definitely a conflict of interest." (HSB)

HSB Note: "The board started tackling the issue in July 2007 when a contractor asked the board whether landscape contractors needed a special license to lay synthetic turf, said board executive officer Verna Oda. Sadowski, the synthetic turf expert on the board, brought up his special licensing recommendation in August, Oda said."

HSB Note: "Hamocon, who is a landscape contractor, said he did not know of the board's revised opinion until he began preparing a bid for Cooke Field recently. He worried he was disqualified from the project, despite having laid synthetic turf at Les Murakami Stadium. Mark Carr, who represents the synthetic turf manufacturer Domo Sports Grass, questioned why the board never requested input about synthetic turf work from him or Hamocon, who was working on the largest synthetic turf job in Hawaii at the time -- Murakami Stadium."

About how Sadowski should have called in him and Hamocon to discuss the turf qualifications issue, Mark Carr said:
"If Denny's the expert on this board, then he knew who should have been called in to talk about this. They never called Logan or me." (HSB)

About why they did not ask Hamocon and Carr to comment when they were studying this issue, Oda said:
"They (Hamocon and Carr) weren't even on the radar at the time." (HSB)