Ironically, there's a decent chance that they were required to pick an incompetent contractor by regulation. Many places in the US have requirements that public

Ironically, there's a decent chance that they were required to pick an incompetent contractor by regulation. Many places in the US have requirements that public agencies go with the lowest bidder without permitting them to consider things like "is this contractor capable of performing the work" or "has this contractor screwed us over in the past," generally because discretionary choice is seen as a vehicle for corruption.