City Hall contractor keeps contract
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
Amidst various finger pointing over whose fault it was that construction estimates for the new Key West City Hall came in $1.8 million over projections, city commissioners found themselves stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place at their Dec. 2 meeting.
Half of the commissioners wanted to rescind their vote made two weeks ago to hire the lowest bidder, Burke Construction Group, to build the new City Hall at the former Glynn Archer Elementary School on White Street. The other half wanted to go ahead, albeit reluctantly. Mayor Craig Cates was the tie-breaking vote, choosing to stay with Burke.
“We’re in a pickle,” summed up Commissioner Tony Yaniz. “If we reject this [Burke bid], it’s going to cost more money. If we don’t reject this, we just screwed our citizens for $1.8 million. So we’re screwed either way.”
Architect Bert Bender, who signed off on the $15.5 million cost projection for the project, Assistant City Manager Greg Velez and David Martinez, owner of Burke Construction Group, all warned commissioners that rebidding the project might boost the project cost even further, even if commissioners cut back on the construction specifications. Bender said his estimate was a price increase of three to four percent if the project went out to bid a second time, due to rising materials costs. And Martinez waved an envelope he said contained $25,000 in cash, saying that was what commissioners had already cost taxpayers by waiting two weeks to debate the bid process again. Pushing the project back even two weeks will cost an additional $25,000 in added rent at the current City Hall offices in Habana Plaza, he said. Martinez also intimated that if commissioners rescinded their vote hiring his company, there might be repercussions at the ballot box in the future.
“People elect you to be responsible with their money. You people need to stop kicking the can down the road,” he said.
Commissioner Teri Johnston asked Martinez whether he could make cost cuts, called “value engineering,” once work began by changing some material specifications. She pointed to the windows called for in the request for proposal. The 174, three-by-eight foot windows cost $4,565 each, for a total of $794,000.
But City Attorney Shawn Smith warned the commission that it was illegal to hire a contractor, then go back and change the project specifications. If they want to do that, they must throw out all three of the bids and start over.
“You cannot go in and value engineer to the tune of $3 million and not run afoul of the legal rights of the two other firms that responded to the specified scope of you request for proposal… You expose the city to significant legal liability,” he said.
Commissioner Tony Yaniz asked Bender why he had thought the project would come in at $15.5 million. Bender said he based his assessment on a cost estimate given earlier by a construction consultant. But Yaniz said that Bender’s staff should have vetted those numbers.
“Is this a practice in the industry, that every project bids low and then all of a sudden goes through the roof?” he said.
Commissioner Billy Wardlow took City Hall building and planning staff to task, as well.
“In defense of the city commission sitting up here… the city commission gets the blame for it. But staff makes the recommendations to us. Our staff has to tighten up a little bit because we’re getting some bad information every once in a while,” he said.
Commissioners Rossi and Johnston both said that had they known the true cost of the project, they never would have voted to move City Hall to Glynn Archer but would have chosen to rebuild the existing City Hall on Angela Street.
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Tony Yaniz was right in his assessment when he stated, “…we just screwed our citizens…” he was incorrect about the amount, it was $17.3 million. The old City hall could have been repaired, but the inmates who run the asylum convinced themselves that they needed a whole city block to carry on the business of “screwing the citizens” when an upgrade was all that was needed.
The Glynn Archer school could have been put to better use.
Three Chinese cheers: Foo-ee, Foo-ee, Foo-ee!
Please, “kicking the can down the road” has been honed to a fine art amongst governmental entities in Monroe County. The School Board is exceptionally adroit at can-kicking. Leave the can kickers be!