MSD: five firms bid below Rubin Brown on contract. (Metropolitan Sewer District; Rubin Brown Gornstein and Co.)

Rubin Brown Gornstein & Co.'s original accounting proposal to the St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District was the sixth most expensive of eight proposals the district received last fall.

After an MSD selection committee picked Rubin Brown, the accounting firm was asked to submit a lower bid. Rubin Brown's final bid, however, was $56,400 higher than the lowest bid -- one from incumbent Coopers & Lybrand. No other firm in the running was asked to submit a lower bid, according to an MSD trustee.

Rubin Brown's proposal also was the only one of the eight that originally did not mention sharing any of the accounting work with a minority contractor, according to the …