Dixon city officials selected a different contractor for a water tower paint project Monday after the previously recommended contractor indicated they’d be unable to comply with an Illinois employment law that went into effect Thursday.

The city had recommended contracting L.C. United Painting Co. of Michigan for the project, but the council voted on May 4 to table the decision when the Painters Union provided documentation related to allegations it made that the company had violated wage laws. On Monday, the council instead awarded a $380,400 contract to Neumann Company Contractors, Inc., headquartered in Wisconsin.

The paint project for Dixon’s water tower near Moore Tires at 1315 N. Galena Ave. is expected to begin in the fall and, including the cost of engineering, comes out to a total of $405,100, Dixon Water Department Manager and incoming Public Works Director Matt Huyett said.

“This bid process has been unique, challenging, and we have asked these contractors to hold their pricing far beyond what they actually needed to,” Huyett said.

Neumann was the fourth-lowest bidder among eight companies that submitted proposals for the project in March.

At the May 4 council meeting, officials recommended accepting L.C. United, the third-lowest bidder at $367,000, but Huyett said Monday that they now recommended rejecting it because the Michigan-based company indicated they could not comply with the Employment of Illinois Workers on Public Works Act.

That law, often referred to as “the Illinois Preference Act,” is only enforced after the state unemployment rate exceeds 5% for two months in a row and requires at least 90% of employees to be Illinois residents for contractors working on state-funded projects. The unemployment rates for March and April were 5.1%, according to the Illinois Department of Labor.

At that May 4 meeting, Painters Union representative David Headley alleged that L.C. United has had multiple prevailing wage violations.

According to IDOL records, the department found L.C. United to have violated the Prevailing Wage Act in 2022 for a contracted project in Streamwood and again in February 2025 for one completed in Genoa.

That law requires contractors to pay employees on public works projects no less than that paid for similar projects in the area. A contractor found in violation of that law twice during a five-year period could be disbarred from public works projects for four years, according to IDOL‘s website.

L.C. United owed a total of $13,878.92 in unpaid wages and $2,775.78 in penalties for the Streamwood project that was completed in 2021 . For the Genoa project, completed in 2019, it owed $8,954.65 in wages and $1,790.33 in penalties, IDOL records show.

Two complaints were filed with IDOL alleging additional wage violations by the company. One was filed in 2023 for a project in Cary and another in 2025 for a project in Roanoke, IDOL records show.

On May 4, Dixon city officials said they found no documentation of any prevailing wage violations and received none from the union. The council delayed its decision to award the project to L.C. United after additional information was provided by the union at that meeting and City Attorney Rob LeSage said the city needed to review it.

At Monday’s meeting, Huyett said, Neumann has “extensive” experience doing this type of work throughout the Midwest and confirmed they can comply with the Illinois Preference Act. He added that Dixon engineering firm Willett Hofmann did some additional reviewing of the company and got positive feedback related to quality and reputation.

“We’ve looked into pretty much everything,” Huyett said, referring to Neumann. “They’re kind of the gold standard. We feel very confident that they’ll be able to get the job done and get it done well.”

Officials recommended rejecting the lowest bid for insufficient documentation to verify qualifications and the second-lowest bid for failing to include required alternate pricing, Huyett said.

“When evaluating bidders, we don’t just look at the lowest bid price,” Huyett said. “What we also look at is are they responsible and are they responsive.”

Huyett explained that “responsible” means the company has the qualifications, experience and ability to complete the project and “responsive” means the company properly submitted all the required bidding documents.