On the
agenda for the upcoming Wednesday, March 18th City Council Session is an unbudgeted request for almost $400,000 to:
Authorize the City Manager to enter into a professional services agreement with CH2M Hill for Phase 2 of the new Construction Standards and Specifications in the amount of $387,041
Why? Because according to staff:
The City needs updated and modern standards and specifications. These documents are the foundation for all designing, contracting and construction of public infrastructure. Legal and contracting requirements that protect the City have changed dramatically over the past 10 years. In addition, construction methods and practices continue to improve. New standards and specifications are needed to better meet the needs of the community, properly protect the City, and provide clear and consistent requirements of the development community. The total budget impact to the Public Works Department for Phase 2 of the standards and specifications project is $387,041. This amount will be split equally four (4) ways and paid for out of the operational budgets in the Water, Water Reclamation, Stormwater and Street Operations Divisions. This is an unbudgeted expense, so each division will be reallocating money from other areas in their budget to cover this expense.
In this time of severely constrained resources all budgeted items are being intensely scrutinized, there have been three rounds of layoffs, and revenue shortfalls may force the city into another round of budget cuts and layoff later this spring.
Any new spending items, especially unbudgeted ones, need to be carefully scrutinized.
This item is placed on the Consent Agenda, where it will be voted in along with seven other items. The Consent Agenda normally sees virtually no discussion. Yet, even though little discussion is expected, the request is supported by a 50-page report and an additional 2,156 pages of appendices. Such a significant dollar amount would normally be viewed with much more scrutiny. Especially since staff anticipates spending another $300,000 next year to implement these new guidelines.
Just yesterday the Bulletin reported only seven building permits were issued in February, an unprecedentedly low number. Last February, when 34 permits were issued, was considered a disaster. Current economic conditions, especially with upwards of 30 months inventory of homes on the market, indicate the construction industry will be severely constrained for the foreseeable future. The Stimulus Package will provide several millions in forest thinning, deferred road and bridge maintenance, and other public projects, but the private sector is flooded with inventory, both commercial and residential. And that is not even counting the dozens of started and currently abandoned subdivisions littering Bend.
So what exactly is staff proposing to implement for the taxpayers $387K? According to the
Issue Summary:
The City needs updated and modern standards and specifications. These documents are the foundation for all designing, contracting and construction of public infrastructure. Legal and contracting requirements that protect the City have changed dramatically over the past 10 years. In addition, construction methods and practices continue to improve. New standards and specifications are needed to better meet the needs of the community, properly protect the City, and provide clear and consistent requirements of the development community....It is anticipated that there will be an additional phase of the current Standards and Specifications project. An additional $300,000 has been included in the 2009-10 budget for phase 3 of the work (split equally between Water, Water Reclamation, Stormwater and Street Operations). In the future, the City’s standards and specifications will be reviewed and updated approximately every two years.
So the real total is $687K, with $387K this year and $300K next. Reading through the
50-page "Final Stakeholder and Alternative Format Report" provides some details. First, the report lists
CH2MHILL, DVA Advertising and Public Relations, and Crane & Merseth Surveying and Engineering as its authors. The Executive Summary states:
The purpose of the City of Bend Construction Standards and Specifications project is to prepare an updated and modern version of Construction Standards and Standards and Specifications to be the principle document for design and construction of all public infrastructure in the City of Bend. This report summarizes the results and recommendations of the first phase of the project (Phase 1 – Assessment), which recommends a format for the updated documents. The second phase (Phase 2 – Implementation) will develop content for the documents based on the updated framework.
Phase 1 involved review of existing documents, broad research and compilation of standards used in other jurisdictions, internal and external stakeholder meetings and interviews, documentation of comments received in stakeholder meetings, and development of the recommendations included in this report. Following receipt and review of this report, an Alternatives Evaluation Workshop will be held with the City to evaluate these recommendations.
So if it has really been ten years since the Standards were updated, maybe this does make sense. It seems like there has been a lot of work already done, which a
Google search of the City website should provide a little more information about. Unfortunately, the first ten pages of results show nothing regarding such a study. It does provide a link to the
current Standards and Specifications, which indicates that they were last revised in January, 2007 with an accessibility addendum, which was an update to a thorough revision in June, 2006.
According to the City Engineering Division's Construction Management page:
The 2004 City of Bend Standards and Specifications follow closely with AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials) and other publications regarding streets, water and sewer installations. Modifications to the City Standards and Specifications are made on a regular basis to keep pace with construction practices and needs of the City. The Construction Division is responsible for all standard and specification modifications.
So according to the City's own website these guidelines were actually updated less than three years ago.
According to the Report:
The stakeholder meetings were held on September 29 and 30, 2008 at City of Bend facilities. Subsequent meetings and phone calls were conducted with City staff and one external stakeholder, who were unable to attend the scheduled meetings. Input from those stakeholders was summarized and presented to the City and incorporated into this report.
These stakeholders consisted of 26 staff members from various departments, and three contractors, four developers, and five consulting engineers as the voice of external stakeholders. No other documentation of these meetings is found on the City website. It is anticipated more stakeholder involvement, as well as training for both staff and external stakeholders, will be needed in the future as this process moves forward.
Several questions come to mind regarding the timing and budget impact of this process. The first question that comes to mind is how did we survive the intense level of building from 2004 to 2007 with such apparently lousy standards and specifications? What exactly is wrong with the current Standards and Specifications, as compared to the OSS? How has this process proceeded under the radar for so long? How much has already been spent on the study? (No mention of a contract for this report with CH2MHILL is found in a
Google search of the City website.) Is it truly necessary? At the current rate of construction, can it be slowed down and implemented over a longer time frame? All questions that should be publicly discussed by the Council before voting on such a significant expenditure.
