Accused of improperly opening the library boiler bid, McDonnell points at the bid the city accepted

A resident called for an investigation after finding two document pulls under her name. Council Member Eileen McDonnell says what she opened was the city's public request for proposal, not anyone's bid, and that the site shows a registered user nothing about competing bids. She also says the company that won the work missed a mandatory pre-bid meeting and did not submit a signed bid bond.

Asked about her access to the Bennett Civic Center Library boiler bid, Council Member Eileen McDonnell said the documents she opened are public, and turned the focus to how the winning bid was handled.

In written answers provided Sept. 17, McDonnell said Guardian Environmental Services, the company awarded the boiler work, pulled the bid documents on July 8, after the mandatory pre-bid meeting, and was not at that meeting as required. The sign-in sheet she supplied places that meeting on July 1, and Guardian does not appear on it. She called that a fatal error that left the company technically non-responsive, and said the bid should not have been read at all. She also said Guardian did not submit a signed bid bond, that the bid document required a 5% bond, and that the council received a letter from the city attorney saying the bond was not necessary. She called that a gray area, noted that she is not an attorney, and said she knows of two occasions on which this bidder did not submit a signed bond.

Those are McDonnell's characterizations. She provided the pre-bid sign-in sheet, described below. Livonia Thrive has not reviewed the bid file or the city attorney's letter, and has not asked Guardian Environmental Services or the Law Department to respond.

The accusation that prompted it

At the Sept. 14 regular meeting, resident Jay Murray used his three minutes of audience communication to say he had gone through records online and found that about 45 companies opened the Bennett library boiler bid package, including one whose listed contact was McDonnell.

Murray said the account opened the package on July 9 at 1:48 p.m. and again on July 27 at 5:08 p.m., which he said was roughly an hour before a council meeting at which she would vote on the matter. He said he could find no public connection between McDonnell and the company but had determined it was registered to a member of her immediate family. He called the access "highly, highly unethical," said he had sought guidance from vendors and attorneys, and asked what agency would investigate and what she had been looking for.

McDonnell responded at the end of the meeting. She said the Michigan Intergovernmental Trade Network, the site municipalities across the state use to publish bids, is a free public site anyone can register for. She said she downloads and prints bid documents so she understands what the city is buying and can confirm the process is being followed, noting the city's rule that purchases above $30,000 go through a sealed bid process with the lowest qualified bid accepted by council. She said she uses an account tied to her son's business because she helps prepare his proposals, that she has shared documents with other council members, and that an ethics problem would arise only if her son bid on a city project and she failed to recuse herself. "I'm not going to apologize for anything. I'm just doing my job," she said, adding that anyone who disagreed could run for council.

What the file she opened actually is

The document at the center of this is the city's request for proposal: the package the city publishes describing the result it wants and how a company should respond. It is an outbound document. Each company reads it, works out how it would do the job, and sends back its own proposal and price separately. Those responses stay sealed until they are opened and read at a set time.

That distinction is the whole of McDonnell's answer. What she opened was the request itself, which is public and posted for anyone to read. She says she never saw another company's proposal, never saw who had submitted one, and never saw a price, and that the site does not make any of that visible to a registered user.

The login is public too. Any person or business can create a free MITN account and read posted requests. McDonnell already had one, set up for Paradigm Removal so that business could bid on and market for work in its own field, which is picking up deceased people. She says the company had no interest in the Livonia boiler project and never intended to bid on it; the account was simply the one she already had.

Her written answers

Livonia Thrive sent McDonnell the accusation as stated at the meeting along with follow-up questions. Her answers are below, condensed only where she repeated herself.

The record she provided

The screenshot shows the first 25 of 45 entries on the city's list of parties who pulled the Bennett library boiler documents. The two entries under McDonnell's name match the dates and times Murray described at the podium. Both list a Chesterfield Township address, consistent with his statement that the company is not based in Livonia.

What the sign-in sheet shows

Along with her answers, McDonnell sent a scan of the attendance sheet for the pre-bid meeting. Its printed header reads "Bennett Civic Library Boiler Replacement RFP Pre-Bid Meeting Attendance Sign In Sheet, Wednesday, July 1, 2026 - 10:00 AM." Seven people signed in, and the remaining rows are blank. A handwritten note at the bottom reads that the bid due date was extended to July 14, 2026 at 2 p.m.

Guardian Environmental Services and its contact, Michael Wedzina, do not appear on the sheet. That is consistent with McDonnell's claim that the company awarded the work did not attend. Three of the seven attendees appear in the 25 document-pull entries visible in her screenshot: Harper Mechanical on June 27, Havel on June 30, and Long Mechanical on July 1 at 12:18 p.m., about two hours after the meeting began. Goyette Mech, Engineered Comfort Sys and Detroit Boiler Co. are not among the visible entries; they may appear in the 20 the screenshot does not show.

The sheet also sets a marker for the two pulls under McDonnell's name. The first, on July 9, came eight days after the pre-bid meeting and five days before the extended July 14 bid deadline. The second, on July 27, came 13 days after bids were due.

One detail in her account does not line up with the sheet. Her written answers describe Guardian's July 8 document pull as coming "the day after" the mandatory pre-bid meeting. The sheet is dated July 1, a week earlier. The sheet as provided is a single page, and it does not show whether a second session was held or whether attendance was waived for any bidder.

Where the two accounts differ

On the central facts, the two accounts line up. Both agree McDonnell's name appears on the document-pull list twice, on the dates and at the times Murray read aloud, under a company that is not based in Livonia. The disagreement is about what that means.

• Murray said the access was unethical and warranted an investigation. McDonnell said viewing a public bid document is neither illegal nor improper, and that recusal is the ethics test that would apply if her son's company bid on city work.
• Murray asked what she was able to see. McDonnell said the site shows the request for proposal only, not competitors' bids, prices or identities.
• Murray said the company is registered to a member of her immediate family. McDonnell described the business and said she created its login for bidding purposes, but did not address ownership directly in her written answers.
• Murray noted the July 27 access came shortly before a meeting at which she would vote. McDonnell did not dispute either login. She confirmed both in writing and supplied the record showing them, including the July 27 entry, and gave the same explanation for both: the document is the public request for proposal, and she reads bid documents to follow what the city is buying.

How the boiler project got here

The Bennett library is Livonia's main branch, a roughly 70,000-square-foot building at 32777 Five Mile Road. The city's own bond materials describe it as having a failing roof system, inflexible meeting space and shortcomings in accessibility. In August 2025, voters rejected the $150 million Livonia Built bond that would have replaced the building, by 18,140 to 9,028. In the weeks after that vote, council members including Martha Ptashnik said the city would need to find a way to fund repairs to the building it already has.

Mechanical problems have surfaced since. The branch closed in January 2026 and reopened Feb. 4 after the Department of Public Works installed a new hot water tank. Earlier in 2026 the council approved an HVAC and boiler replacement at the Carl Sandburg branch, reported at about $122,000 from library millage funds, after a debate over whether to defer the work pending a long-term library plan.

The Bennett boiler work went out to bid over the summer through the Michigan Intergovernmental Trade Network, the e-procurement system Livonia uses to post solicitations. Under city policy, purchases above $30,000 go through a sealed bid process with the lowest qualified bid accepted by council. Forty-five parties pulled the bid documents. The sign-in sheet McDonnell provided puts the mandatory pre-bid meeting on July 1 at 10 a.m., with the bid deadline extended by hand to July 14. She identifies Guardian Environmental Services of Livonia as the company awarded the work. Murray told the council the project had been debated through the summer and was voted through at the council's previous meeting, held Aug. 31, with the repair now set to move ahead.

Sources: video transcript of the Sept. 14, 2026 Livonia City Council regular meeting; written responses, a MITN document-pull screenshot and a scan of the July 1, 2026 pre-bid meeting sign-in sheet provided by Council Member Eileen McDonnell on Sept. 17, 2026; City of Livonia bond and bid-process materials and city news releases; Detroit News coverage of the August 2025 bond vote; published coverage of the Carl Sandburg branch HVAC and boiler approval. Statements by Murray and McDonnell are their own and have not been independently verified.