A court has overturned a city of Dunkirk ruling that a Jamestown contractor is not a responsible bidder.

State Supreme Court Judge Grace Hanlon granted H.H. Rauh Contracting’s request to annul the city ruling.

Hanlon noted in her own ruling that the city claimed Rauh Contracting is not a responsible bidder due to past actions within Dunkirk, and attached exhibits to back up its position. However, she didn’t think the exhibits helped much.

For example, one exhibit was correspondence to Kingsview Enterprises — which is owned by the Rauh family, but not associated with H.H. Rauh Contracting. “This exhibit does not help the respondent’s claim,” Hanlon wrote.

There are also exhibits consisting of correspondence between H.H. Rauh Contracting and the city. However, “there is no mention in any of the paperwork, or any of the arguments by the respondent, that the work completed by the petitioner was substandard, only that paperwork submitted was not always in order.”

Hanlon then added: “From the face of this, it appears to be a conflict of personalities between an employee or two at City Hall and the petitioner. This does not make the petitioner a non-responsible bidder. The city has failed to set forth evidence that their decision was not arbitrary and capricious.”

Dunkirk Department of Public Works Director Randy Woodbury was a co-respondent in the suit, along with the city government as a whole. Woodbury defended himself back in September when the OBSERVER originally covered the filing of H.H. Raul’s court action. He said the city Planning and Development Department actually made the non-responsible bidder determination, and that he would personally be willing to use H.H. Rauh for DPW projects.