Some fireworks and big questions are unearthed in this chapter….just slog through a few uneventful entries first….
Jan 9, 2017: Staff held initial meeting with Byron Hendrix, Hendrix Consulting Engineers. Hendrix met with City staff, reviewed plans and toured the facility. He said “his firm was capable of providing anything from a ‘basic’ set of plans to a more complex and thorough design”. City staff was generally impressed with his firm and approach and was hopeful that a proposal could be considered by Council by Jan 23.
Jan 23, 2017: deGraffenried presents Council a packet with the negotiated scope and fee for MEP services by Hendrix Consulting. The scope includes design and clean-up of electric feeds for the entire building, performance specs for the fire sprinklers and alarm, complete MEP for second floor and partial MEP for first floor. This will be a one-month project but would depend on plan specs by the architect. Councilman Williams moves to award Hendrix the MEP contract for $16,500. Seconded and carries unanimously.
Feb 13, 2017: deGraffenried provides Council a hard copy of the Old City Hall plan set. City Staff reviews the architectural plans, including structural plans, on Jan 31 and provided comment to JNW.
Discussion included timeline of bidding that could take 30 to 60 days and preference to bid by division and have City oversee the project, which would be a savings to the City. Talbert moves to authorize the project as presented…seconded and passed unanimously.
And here it finally is……
MARCH 13, 2017: Monica Wright explains to Council that the A/V system for Old City Hall will cover the main chamber area, executive session meeting room, and second meeting room. Wright says City Staff has been working with Azbell Electronics on a concept and design for this project that will be brought to Council at a later date. Chris Anelundi from Azbell is present for this meeting. Finley also reviewed MEP for the project.
[WOW!! Here it is…the very first mention of Azbell Electronics in the minutes going back 4.5 years. On Aug 25, 2014, Monica presented three bids for the AV system and Azbell was NOT the winner. The winner was Broadcast Works (who is still in business, by the way) and the price was $34,000. From that point until this day, there has NEVER been a mention of Azbell having the contract or anything about a price change. You can see EVERY post concerning the AV system for the last 4.5 years on this blog – starting with Part I of this series.]
So many questions! WHY is Azbell involved right now and not Broadcast Works? Who is the “City Staff” who have been working with Azbell, and why? Finley? Monica? Who authorized this? When did it start? There is STILL no mention of Azbell costing $100,000.00 so it must not have happened yet. After reading through 1000 pages of minutes, I watched City Council get bids on EVERYTHING (even $12,780 for 100 stacking chairs) so why is Azbell appearing now? If Azbell is a “buy board” company and other bids aren’t needed, then why did they get three bids the first time back in August of 2014? Why doesn’t City Council ask these questions NOW in March of 2017? I’d love to hear the answer – SOMEBODY has to know.
Furthermore, Monica and Finley keep yammering about “Azbell is a buyboard member so we don’t need other bids,” yet the LAST time they sent out bids for this very same job, Azbell was NOT the lowest bid and the bids varied wildly between $34,000 and $54,000 – so a competent person with an IQ over 90 should realize that since they weren’t the low bid last time, there is DEFINITELY a benefit to getting bids on this project, since it is quite likely Azbell’s bid would not be the lowest this time either.
March 27, 2017: Finley deGraffenreid reports that MEPs continue progress at Old City Hall. The City is planning to run emergency/backup power to the project – specifically the elevator. The city has also received the proposal for audio/visual equipment and is currently reviewing specs and scope of work.
June 12, 2017: Finley says the MEPs are 99% complete…that Bryan Ellis (building inspector) and Monica Wright are reviewing the plan set [what the hell does Monica have to do with this part??] They are in the process of drafting bid packets for Old City Hall.
July 24, 2017: City staff met with engineers from Hendrix Consulting to review and make final changes to Old City Hall rehab plans. Staff will finalize bidding documents in next few weeks with a construction start date of hopefully mid-September.
Sept 25, 2017: Finley says Old City Hall plans have been finalized…and they have received bids on phone cable installation, fiber relocation and audio/visual components [so where are the bids?]. He is putting RFPs together by division and hope to move into the building in 2018.
Oct 23, 2017: [This is unrelated, but…] applications are being received for the new Assistant City Manager position ($90,000 in salary and cost to taxpayer of $122,000 after including benefits and pension). The city received FIFTY-FOUR RESUMES. [I stand by my constant assertions that government salaries are TOO HIGH in Lampasas for MANY positions. Clearly, there is a LOT of interest at that salary – ergo, it is far too generous].
Nov 27, 2017: Finley says the basement demolition is completed at Old City Hall. Fire Marshall has been reviewing the space with fire suppression contractors to determine plans and pricing. Space is available for Council to tour.
Dec 11, 2017: City staff will begin utility work to bring the fire suppression line, emergency power and wastewater line. They have identified 13 different disciplines that will need to be bid and contracted including framing, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire suppression, finishes, insulation, drywall, plaster, data, flooring and millwork [OK – you will get bids on literally EVERYTHING except audio/visual??? Or does “data” cover that? Seriously…it REALLY looks like the fix is already in for Azbell. A/V is conspicuously left out of this list. How about it, Finley?? To paraphrase an old Wendy’s commercial from the 1980s: WHERE’S THE BID?]
Jan 8, 2018: Finley wants to update Council in anticipation of bid awards…share comments…review estimates…review trades/specialties that will need to be procured soon. Finley then gives some info out: $600,000 earmarked for this project…$86,348 already spend…bid docs prepared by staff. Partial estimates to date:
- Fire suppression: $60,000
- Elevator $125,508 [Hmm…this was bid $119,000 on Nov 14, 2016. Weird]
- Phone $3,300
- Fiber patch $4,210
- Audio/visual $82,759 [THERE IT IS! Where did this come from?? This is the first mention of a huge number that differs wildly from the Aug 2014 quote of $34,000 from another company altogether]
So we now have a number getting very close to the current [August 2018] $96,000 screw-job from Azbell. Clearly, somebody has taken it upon his/herself to just pick Azbell and unilaterally squander a ridiculously huge amount of money. We know it is ridiculous, because back in August 2014, Broadcast Works WAS AWARDED A BID FOR A/V for $34,000…City Council at the time VOTED ON IT!!!
Again…I ask Finley and Monica: how was this decided?? Why was this not re-bid? Why was Council not informed of any re-bids especially since the cost nearly TRIPLED. I ask City Council (especially Talbert and White since they were there in 2014 and voted to award $34,000 to Broadcast Works) WHY WAS THIS $83,000 NUMBER NOT IMMEDIATELY QUESTIONED RIGHT HERE ON JAN 8TH??
As an unrelated aside, also at this meeting, Finley is being grilled about the Water/Wastewater Lab/Shop by White and Talbert. Specifically, Talbert is asking how “a project that started at $400,000 is now going to cost the city $1.2 million”. [It sure seems like the price of just about every project TRIPLES in a short span of time. I’m going to call this The Finley Factor.]
Feb 12, 2018: Finley says there is a general lack of bidding interest in demolition, framing, and special construction scope. He’s asking for direction and possibility of revision of scope into one bidding package.
A contractor was invited to explain. Lesley Greer of A&L Sanchez said there were a lot of discrepancies in the bid, and without a General Contractor for all of the project, it stalls the project. She said that most bids similar to this project are bid as one with a GC that leads the project [you may recall that the City chose to NOT have a GC run this project to try and save some money – I sure recall it. Seems like SOMEBODY should have known that going into this.]
Finley asks Council to let him bid this as one package and also to rescind all plumbing and HVAC/Electrical bids. Council agrees to this.
March 12, 2018: Finley reviewed a status update of projects earmarked for funding with the 2016 CO (Certificate of Obligation) Issue. Discussions include the need to increase funding on the Old City Hall project [surprise surprise…the Finley Factor strikes again…how high will the number get??]
In the next, and final chapter, we watch the cost for this project balloon to over $1,300,000.00!!