I asked Tony Coe a variation of that same question: Was the original bid unrealistic? He assured me that both the contractor and the city checked the numbers and the city had no reason to doubt that Ameca could do the job for that amount.

On your second point, the bid bond is 10 percent of the bid amount, about $20,000. The staff recommendation was, if the council chose to rebid the project, it would not be worth the cost of trying to collect on that original bid bond. Since the council decided just to award the contract to the next lowest bidder, they’ll use that $20,000 to make up a bit of the difference between the two bidders.