In April 2002, using a procedure for solicitation of competitive sealed proposals, the City of Atlanta issued a Request for Proposals RFP to construct and operate an expanded area of duty free shops in the international concourse at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. In response, Duty Free Air and Ship Supply Co. DFASS and Atlanta Duty Free, LLC ADF submitted proposals. The City’s Chief Procurement Officer selected DFASS, determining at the time that it was the most responsible and responsive proponent. ADF then appealed the selection to an administrative hearing officer who affirmed the selection of DFASS. Thereafter, the superior court reviewed the case on certiorari, reversed the decision of the administrative hearing officer, but determined that it could not grant any award of a contract. DFASS then appealed the superior court’s ruling to the Court of Appeals, which reversed the ruling because ADF failed to file a valid bond with its petition for certiorari. Duty Free Air & Ship Supply v. Atlanta Duty Free , 275 Ga. App. 381 620 SE2d 616 2005. While the case was pending before the Court of Appeals, the City’s Chief Procurement Officer informed DFASS that the City was going to cancel the RFP and conduct a solicitation for proposals in a new, revised RFP. Nonetheless, when the Court of Appeals issued its opinion, DFASS demanded that the City grant it the RFP contract. Instead, the City issued the new RFP, and DFASS filed a petition for writ of mandamus, seeking to compel the City to immediately execute a contract, which it argued had become vested and binding. To the extent that any remaining steps were required prior to execution, DFASS contended that all of these steps were ministerial functions and suitable for a grant of mandamus. The trial court denied the writ of mandamus, and this appeal followed.
The narrow query now before this Court is simply whether mandamus is an appropriate remedy in this case. Based on the Legislature’s explicitly stated intention in the Georgia Local Government Public Works Construction Law, OCGA § 36-91-1 et seq., “Construction Law” that local laws and ordinances control the manner of the City’s execution of and entry into contracts, we find that DFASS was not entitled to a writ of mandamus requiring the City to execute a contract in its favor as neither the Mayor of Atlanta nor the City Council of Atlanta had exercised their discretionary authority to approve any award which may or may not have resulted from the competitive sealed proposals process in this case.
