CLAYTON – The St. Louis County Council has held up a move to award a $4.25 million no-bid contract to a firm for obtaining medicine for the county's clinics and its jail.

The council voted 4-3 Tuesday night to hold up the contract to LDI Integrated Pharmacy Services, based in Creve Coeur. It has held the county contract since 2006. A competing pharmacy benefits firm has told council members that it could save taxpayers up to $1 million if it got the job.

Dr. Dolores J. Gunn, director of the St. Louis County Health Department, had asked the council to award the contract to LDI, with an option to renew for two additional one-year terms.

Gunn said the fight against the swine flu had sapped the resources needed for a normal bidding process.

Council member Greg Quinn, R-Ballwin, called for open bidding on the contract. He noted that LDI had given $12,500 to County Executive Charlie Dooley's re-election campaign.

"When there is not a bidding process, the county is subject to complaints that political considerations, social relationships and campaign contributions play a role in awarding of contracts," Quinn said Wednesday. "The beauty of bidding is that it eliminates those considerations from the equation."

Voting with Quinn to delay the bill were Colleen Wassinger, R-Town and Country; Steve Stenger, D-Affton; and Barbara Fraser, D-University City.

Voting to move the bill toward passage were Kathleen Burkett, D-Overland; Mike O'Mara, D. Florissant; and council chairwoman Hazel Erby, D-University City.

LDI's services include negotiating with pharmaceutical makers to get the best price for medicines and coordinating the distribution in the county of swine-flu vaccine.

Gunn, whom Dooley appointed to the job in 2004, said responding to the flu has overtaxed her staff.

"We're in the midst of a pandemic the likes of which have not been seen in 100 years," Gunn said. "We must be able to secure and deliver the federal shipments of the H1N1 vaccines, Tamiflu and Relenza to pharmacies in our community. And to change a provider right now might delay that."

Wassinger said that budgetary prudence and providing vaccinations should not be mutually exclusive.

"I understand that the pandemic has put stress on Dr. Gunn and her staff," Wassinger said. "But we have obligations to taxpayers."

Wassinger said she will propose legislation that would allow LDI to hold the contract until the pandemic passes, at which time the job will be put up for bid.

One of LDI's competitors said he approached Gunn about bidding on the contract in 2007, shortly after the county had exercised the first of two one-year options to renew LDI's contract.

"When 2008 rolled around, we tried to go back and engage the county health department again," Keith Grimes, vice president of Value Pharmacy Services, said in an interview. "Dr. Gunn said she was satisfied with LDI's service but that she would be happy to take our bid in 2009."

Grimes said he met with Gunn again in July and was told that the county would begin taking bids in September.

"But when September rolled around, she said she didn't have time to go through bidding," Grimes said.

Grimes said he believes his company, based in Ellisville, can beat LDI on wholesale prices, rebates and dispensing fees.

"I think we can save the county anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million," he said.

LDI could not be reached for comment.

On Tuesday, Gunn said that Grimes would eventually get a shot at a contract.

"We intended to put this up for bid in September," she said. "But who knew a pandemic would come along?"