A contract dispute between the city of Langley and a contract employee was mended Wednesday at a Langley City Council meeting.

Irene Murphy had been a contract employee through the city of Langley since June of 2000, cleaning the city’s public restrooms, the library and city hall under two separate contracts. On Dec. 11, 2003, Murphy learned she had lost the contracts to bids submitted by Langley resident Corey Williams, who is the son of the city’s clerk-treasurer. The contracts represent 60 percent of her income.

After a half-hour executive session to discuss the potential litigation Wednesday, Langley city attorney Dale Roundy told Murphy — who was in attendance at the meeting with a number of supporters — that she would have both of her contracts reinstated. In reviewing the contracts, Roundy found that contracts to clean city hall and the library contract should not have been re-bid. Roundy also said it had been determined the restroom contract should remain in Murphy’s hands because her bid was identical to the bid submitted by Williams and she already had an established relationship with the city.

Williams had already begun working as a contractor for the city, as Murphy’s contracts ended Dec. 31.

According to Debbie Mahler, Langley’s city clerk and treasurer, awarding the job to her son Corey Williams put her in an uncomfortable situation. In consulting an attorney at the Municipal Research & Services Center of Washington, she said she learned the issue would not be a conflict of interest for her.

“I followed the same process that we had always followed,” she said. “All I did was what I was told to do by my superiors.”

In hindsight, said both Mahler and Mayor Neil Colburn in interviews this week, they could see how looking at the situation from the outside did not paint a pretty picture for the city.

“In retrospect, I probably should have given them to someone else,” Mahler said of the contract bids.

Colburn also said he had been naive in the way it looked to Langley’s constituents.

“It appeared that the possibility of improper behavior occurred,” Colburn said.

According to the conditions explained by Roundy Wednesday, Murphy’s contract for the city hall and library will be reinstated at the previous rate of $1,100 a month.

Colburn said the restroom contract will be reinstated at an increased rate Murphy had asked for in her bid — $1,200 a month — plus an additional $52 a month to cover the cost of her business insurance.

“We wanted to show that we want to do the right thing,” Colburn said. “We just thought it was the right thing to do, to reinstate the contracts.”

Future administrative policies will be instituted he hopes will prevent similar situations, Colburn said. He explained a lack communication between the changing administrations began the dispute. He said he did not know why the past administration, which left office in December, had put the city hall and library contract up for bid is unknown.

“I don’t know what they did or why they did it,” Colburn said about the decision to send the contracts to bid. “We did not follow the proper procedure, which was to give notice.”

According to Roundy, Murphy can begin work two days after she provides the city with her proof of insurance. Murphy said she hopes to begin work on March 1.

“It ended well in that I got my contracts back,” Murphy said Friday. “The only reason that I’ve got what I gotten is because I fought for it.”

What cannot be returned is the $4,600 she said was lost from the two months of lost work, and the hurt feelings created by the situation. But, Murphy said, that’s not a big concern.

“I’m just elated that I’ve got my job back,” she said.