Arena contract takes a 180¡

WASILLA -- "Team Build" or "design/build" what's the difference?

Apparently not much, at least not enough to convince Wasilla's elected officials to switch from one building strategy to the other while the city's $14.7 million sports arena project is being designed.

The city backed away from the so-called "team build" construction strategy that would have doubled the value of its contract with Kumin Associates Inc., the Anchorage-based architecture firm that is working on the initial designs for the project. Kumin has a contract with the city for $437,000 to deliver the initial design for the building -- memos from the city refer to that design as being 30 or 40 percent complete.

The city council was approached by the city's in-house project manager Don Moore with a different strategy at the July 22 council meeting. Moore called the new strategy "team build" and said it was a variation of the design/build strategy. The change in strategy would also have granted Kumin another $456,000 to complete the rest of the architecture and stay on with the city during the project's construction. Moore said the team build plan would "eliminate one architect" and keep the project on schedule for completion in the fall of 2003. He also said it would keep Kumin answering to the city in a separate relationship from the construction contractor, whoever that might turn out to be.

Council member Noel Lowe questioned whether that idea was fair to contractors who might bring proposals for the upcoming design/build contract. The council tabled the matter to the next meeting, and it was tabled again -- this time indefinitely -- at the Aug. 12 council meeting. Moore, Lowe and Palin were not in attendance Aug. 12, but this time around, Palin advised the council to back away from team build. The administration had apparently put the kibosh on the team build idea before it came up on the agenda.

"[Palin is] recommending that we go back to plan A, which is the course we were originally on," said council member Judy Patrick, who serves as deputy mayor and holds the gavel when Palin is absent.

Palin said later that she didn't know if the council would go for the team build strategy or not and wouldn't guess as to how things would have gone if Lowe hadn't raised his concerns. She's against the concept now, she said, because it can't save the city money.

"There wasn't a whole lot of reasons for it and nothing quantitative that showed it was going to save the city money," Palin said.

When asked if she originally supported the team build plan, Palin said that she took it to the council for their input.

"I wanted to bring [the team build plan] forward to the council. That's my job. We're not going to guard our conversations in terms of holding things back from the council," she said.

At last week's meeting the council voted unanimously to table the matter indefinitely.

"That clears that up, and if there's another reason to bring it back we can always do that later," Patrick said.

No matter what happens with the team build concept, the council will be revisiting the sports arena plans as future contracts are awarded. Wasilla's city code requires the mayor to bring all contracts to the council that exceed $30,000.

Memos from Moore to the administration and council outlined the team build strategy and gave examples of team build jobs that Kumin has led. One of Moore's memos directly addressed the subject of budgeting.

Here's an excerpt:

"A word about costs. It is a misconception to think that either of these methods (Design-build or Team-build) will lower the total project cost. Total cost is fixed as a consequence of the bond issue approved by the voters. The effort now is to see that as much of the available funds as possible are channeled into the scope and quality of the construction and avoid losses due to delay, disputes, and change orders."

The memo goes on to say that the team build method is a good way to accomplish the project's goals, and that team build was recommended in the interests of the city.