It’s a move that could cost Dallas county at least $10,000, says a sales representative.

Representatives from an auction company left the room in anger, after quarreling with members of the Dallas County Commission during the commission’s meeting on Monday.

Mack Taylor, a sales representative from Ritchie Brothers Auction Company, quarreled with commission members after the commission decided to award a bid to J.M. Wood Auction Company to auction off surplus dump trucks and motor-graders no longer needed by the county.

Taylor said he assumed Ritchie Brothers would receive the bid after seeing the initial bid forms. According to Taylor, those forms showed that Ritchie Brothers had a bid of $565,000, while J.M. Wood had a bid of $554,280.

However, the commission showed Taylor an attachment on J.M. Wood’s form that showed a bid of $576,000, higher than the initial bid. Taylor, angered and visibly upset, said the same attachment was never mentioned to Ritchie Brothers.

“This is totally unfair,” said Taylor addressing the commission. “We were never told about this.”

Bryant Wood, vice president of J.M. Wood Auction Company, said that written on the bid form is a clause that states bidders can add an attachment.

“You can add anything you want, and we just added our normal proposal” on the attachment, said Wood. Wood, in an interview with The Times-Journal, also said only one bid was made by J.M. Wood Auction in the bid process.

Dallas County Commissioner Roy Moore, acting as chairman in Probate Judge Johnny Jones’ absence, said one of the reasons the commission decided to award the contract to J.M. Wood Auction is because the company has done a lot of business with Dallas County.

“To be honest with you, this is one of the main reasons why we chose J.M. Wood,” said Moore. Moore also noted that J.M. Wood Auction, located in Montgomery, is closer to Dallas County than Ritchie Brothers Auction, which is located in Mississippi.

Dallas County Engineer George “Coosa” Jones, addressing Taylor, told him that the attachment was mentioned to Ritchie Brothers.

According to Taylor, in the initial bid, without the attachment, Ritchie Brothers Auction Company bid higher on the trucks, while J.M. Wood Auction Company bid higher on the motor-graders.

“If the commission had gone with the initial bids, giving us the bid on the trucks, while giving them [J.M. Wood auction] the bid on motor-graders, that would have saved the county at least $10,720,” Taylor said later. “But apparently they decided not to do that.”

Dallas County Commissioner Kim Ballard said anyone has the “right to attach a supplementary form to the bid.”

“That is just something he [Taylor] should have known,” said Ballard. “Really, he got upset over nothing.”