City Seeks Arborist, Council Approves Budget Amendments

Know a good arborist? The city of Smyrna is looking for one after last night’s Smyrna City Council meeting.

Council voted Monday to approve the withdrawal of a bid from B+C Studio, the sole bidder for a contract for arborist and landscape services.

“They were the only ones that submitted and the more they thought about it they thought they’d like to withdraw,” said Ward 2 Council Representative Andrea Blustein. “They thought that more people had put in contracts so they’re just reviewing it and trying to decide if they’re going to resubmit or what.”

Council was supposed to vote to award the bid to B+C at the last Council meeting on Sept. 4, however the body voted to table the measure until this week’s meeting. Ward 4 Council Representative Charles “Corkey” Welch said there had been some talk during City Council work sessions that there might be a conflict of interest awarding the bid to B+C because one of its employees served on the Downtown Development Authority.

“He felt like rather than cause a conflict of interest Sean Murphy decided to come off the DDA—about a week ago,” Blustein said.

Murphy explained his reason for resigning in an email.

"The conflicts are that my firm is doing work for projects which the DDA has to review and same goes for the arborist services," he said. "As the reviewer I would have to review plans I created."

The contract will be readvertised and awarded in the coming weeks.

In other business, Council voted 7-0 to approve the consent agenda, which included approving use of Council chambers for a neighborhood meeting and amendments to the city’s general and contingency funds.