Camden City Council passed six resolutions at the monthly meeting on Dec. 10. with the majority of the discussions focused around the issue of which company to hire for towing city vehicles.
The first resolution set before the board of aldermen was Resolution No. 58-24, to award the bid of purchase of oils and lubricants for the city of Camden in 2025.
The bid was awarded to Quality Petroleum for a one-year term. All aldermen voted in favor of approving the bid with the exception of alderman Marvin Moore, who abstained.
The second resolution set before the city council was Resolution No. 59-24, to award the bid of the purchase of tires and tubes for the city of Camden in 2025.
The bid was awarded to Bound's Tire Service in Camden with a unanimous vote in favor of the resolution.
The third resolution voted on by the board of aldermen was Resolution No. 60-24, to award the bid of the purchase of batteries for the city of Camden in 2025.
The bid was awarded to Smith Alternator, Starter and Battery in Hope with a unanimous vote in favor of the resolution.
The fourth resolution before the board of aldermen was Resolution No. 61-24, "a resolution awarding the bid for towing regular-sized city vehicles for the year 2025."
Three companies bid for the contract, OTM Wrecker Service, Kelly Towing and Ray's Towing.
The board discussed which company was right for the city with an initial focus on awarding the bid to a company located within the city of Camden but then moved on to discussing the types of trucks each company used.
City attorney Micheal Frey said the city gives a 5% credit to bids from companies located within the city limits.
Assistant to the Mayor Tom Vaughn recommended Kelly's Towing, but during the discussion Kelly took himself out of the running.
The aldermen focused their debate around the type of trucks needed and if each comapny had a roll back truck or a boom truck
Wesley Carter from OTM addressed the board and said to be on the State Police rotation for towing, a rollback truck is required.
"I mean if you don't have a rollback you can't be on the rotation," he said. "They don't even worry about the boom truck. So there's no call that we can't do with a roll back. The vice versa with a boom truck, the traditional boom truck. I didn't know if y'all realize that or not, I wanted to make sure."
The discussion by the board continued with alderman Lawrence Askew asking how the police station was able to have a rotation of towing services, but the city would not.
Askew was told by Frey the city could have a rotation, but the resolution would have to be reworded and bids would have to be resubmitted.
Alderman L.E. Lindsey asked about the 5% discount previously mentioned by Frey and was told it did not mean the company paid less, but that bids from companies inside the city were treated as if they cost 5% less than the amount of the actual bid.
Carter told the board the city website needs to be one centralized website instead of the multiple the city currently has.
"The bids going out, they didn't get publicized for the public to see," he said. "There's too many websites that Camden's got... There needs to be one central location. That's my recommendation."
The bid was awarded to Ray's Towing with a unanimous vote by the board of aldermen in favor of the resolution.
The fifth resolution before the board was Resolution No. 62-24, "a resolution awarding the bid for towing large-sized city vehicles for the year 2025."
The two companies who bid for this contract were Buddy's Towing Service and OTM Wrecker Service.
Vaughn said based on the bids and the way they were written it was difficult to determine which was the lower cost bid.
After some discussion the bid was awarded to Buddy's Towing Service with only one alderman voting to oppose.
The final resolution before the city council was Resolution No. 63-24, providing and adopting the 2025 operating budget for the city of Camden.
The board voted to approve the resolution adopting the budget without discussion.
Moore abstained.