A five-member committee has been tasked to determine why a bid from a company to lease-purchase fire trucks was not included in a September bid opening and advise the board on the best way to resolve the problem.

Mayor George Flaggs Jr. on Monday appointed a five-member committee of Deputy Finance Director Sidra Burns, City Clerk Walter Osborne, Purchasing Director Ann Grimshel, Grants Coordinator Nancy Allen and City Attorney Kim Nailor to examine what happened and advise the board whether to open the bid or reject the bids and re-advertise.

“We voted (Sept. 29) to seek an attorney general’s opinion,” Flaggs said after announcing the committee. “The city attorney advised us that it takes 75 to 100 days and by that time, this rate will not be any good.”

He said the order to seek the attorney general’s opinion was rescinded with the committee appointment. Under state law, the board is not required to advertise for bids to lease-purchase equipment but has done so in the past to get the best interest rate.

The board in July advertised for bids to lease-purchase two fire trucks and opened four bids on Sept. 18: Cadence Bank, Trustmark Bank, Delta Bank and Baystone Government Finance of Leawood, Kan.

On Sept. 25, the board selected Trustmark Bank, which had the best interest rate of 4.91 percent, to do the lease purchase.

Four days later, at a Sept. 29 meeting, the board learned that a fifth company, Flagstone Public Finance of Towson, Md., which submitted a bid on the lease purchase on time for the bidding but was mislaid and not included when the bids were opened.

City Clerk Walter Osborne said a delivery service delivered the bid to the city’s purchasing department instead of the city clerk’s office. He said the bid package was delivered on time for the bidding but was not discovered until after the board awarded the bid to Trustmark, causing the board to consider the attorney general’s opinion.