The owner of the construction company that filed a lawsuit protesting the board of education's decision to award the new high school bid to an outside company wants the community to know his side of the story.</p><p>Greg Opinski, owner of Greg Opinski Construction Inc., cited fairness and community as his reason for asking the court to void the contract between the Los Ba&#241;os Unified School District and F & H Construction Inc., the construction company it awarded the bid to.</p><p>"We more than met all the requirements and definitely should have been awarded the bid," Opinski said. "You can't go and basically have this be a beauty contest, this is a taxpayer contract."</p><p>Opinski said his company met all the requirements the school district asked of its bidders -- price, experience and willingness to use local labor for the project -- making it the most responsible and obvious choice.</p><p>He is positive that Opinski Construction was the lowest bidder by at least a $1 million and said said his company's long relationship with the school district speaks for itself in terms of experience and work ethic.</p><p>In the past eight years Opinski Construction has completed an estimated $20 million worth of work for the school district that included the Los Ba&#241;os High School HVAC project. </p><p>"We've saved them (the school district) hundreds of thousands of dollars," he said.</p><p>Plus, he said, the company has a reputation for using Merced County workforce in all its projects.</p><p>In a previous article Superintendent Steve Tietjen said the interviewing panel's decision to recommend F & H Construction had a lot to do with the company's familiarity with the scope of the project.</p><p>F & H Construction was the general contractor of Westin Ranch, Lathrop and Kimball high schools, after which the new high school is being modeled.</p><p>In the lawsuit filed July 23 in Merced County Superior Court, Opinski alleges there was a conflict of interest in the interview panel that awarded the bid to his competitor.</p><p>Opinski alleges that members of the panel from the facilities subcommittee who interviewed bidders are also "team members" from F & H Construction. Opinski claims these "team members," who are with architectural firm, Urban Ernst Design Group, worked together to ensure F & H Construction was awarded the contract. </p><p>Tietjen denied the claim and said the only person in question, Sue Bell, is not now and has never been employed by F & H Construction. He said Bell's firm has designed schools that F & H Construction has built. He said the district consulted with one of its lawyers and checked the background of the alleged "team members." The attorney said there was no financial obligation between the team members and the construction company.</p><p>While Opinski affirms that the district's decision to use lease-lease back agreement to build the new high school allows the interview panel the option of considering other factors instead of cost in its recommendation, he said having these "team members" on the panel created an uneven playing field. </p><p>Opinski said his construction company has never undertaken a project as big as the new high school, but said the company's bonding capacity is $100 million and he is confident the firm could handle the job.</p><p>Whatever the outcome is, Opinski said he will respect the decision of the court. </p><p>He also said that he has thought about what his relationship with school district will be like afterwards but said protesting the bid was something he felt was right.</p><p>He has also heard the rumors insinuating that he is publicly sulking after losing the bid and said nothing could be further from the truth.</p><p>Opinski Construction bids two or three jobs a week, he said, sometimes they are awarded the bid and other times they aren't. Opinski said he has only protested about three bid awards in the past 18 years.</p><p>"You don't protest a job for sour grapes," he said. "This is more than that, this is a benefit for the community."</p><p>Enterprise reporter Minerva Perez can be reached by phone at (209)388-6565 or by e-mail at mperez@losbanosenterprise.com