Southern Tire Mart has filed a lawsuit against the City of Odessa alleging the city has intentionally violated Texas law by purchasing tires from a competitor for the last year.
According to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Ector County District Court, Southern Tire Mart had a contract with the city to provide tires and service from 2020 up through July 2023.
The lawsuit alleges that Chris Adams, the director of fleet services, immediately began showing hostility toward STM when he was hired in June 2023, telling STM employees he had successfully been able to get STM barred from responding to requests for proposals from a government entity in the past.
STM was the only company that bid on a contract with the city in May 2023, but the bid was rejected and the city began buying tires and services from Forrest Brothers without a contract, the lawsuit alleges.
Moreover, the lawsuit alleges Adams falsely claimed STM double billed the city by more than $180,000 and did not retract that statement despite being shown documents disproving it.
The lawsuit states STM submitted the lowest of three bids for a contract in November 2023 and instead of granting them the contract, the city rejected all three bids and continued to buy tires and services from Forrest Brothers without a valid contract.
STM compared what the city should be paying for tires based on government pricing and determined Forrest Brothers was being paid $50,000 more than it should have been, the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit also alleges Adams made sure the request for proposals sent out this May was sent to Forrest Brothers “but apparently was unconcerned whether or not it was sent to any other bidders.”
“Based upon Adams’s intentional and knowing violations of Texas law by directing the city to purchase tires from Forrest Brothers without a contract and the fact that his email is only concerned with making sure that RFP#24-60010-17 was delivered to Forrest Brothers and no other bidder, it is clear that Forrest Brothers for some unknown reason (certainly not because it offers the best price to the city) is his chosen vendor for automotive tires – but a municipality under Texas law does not have the right or authority to purchase automotive tires from a ‘chosen’ vendor,” the lawsuit stated.
According to the lawsuit, STM underbid Forrest Brothers and Broadway Motors by roughly $20,000 during this last round of RFPs and Adams recommended the city go with Forrest Brothers during the July 23 city council meeting.
STM’s attorneys, Doug Perrin and Paul Sewell, allege the city used a point system to grade the bids — a point system that wasn’t mentioned in the request for proposals. That point system states the price accounts for only 20% of the total score.
STM is asking a judge to immediately stop the city from awarding any contracts related to the most recent request for proposals, to stop the city from purchasing tires from Forrest Brothers and for the city to rebid the purchase of tires.
STM is also seeking attorneys’ fees, court costs and to “recover such other and further relief to which it may show themselves justly entitled.”
The city has a policy of not commenting on pending litigation.
