Borough to rebid port plan update

MAT-SU -- The update of the Port MacKenzie Master Plan is on hold for now, as Mat-Su Borough staff prepare to reissue a professional services proposal.

The Mat-Su Borough Assembly decided not to award a scope of work and budget for the proposal after a question was raised about the cost of the contract, which was nearly double a "not-to-exceed" amount issued by the borough.

In November, the Mat-Su Borough issued a request for proposals, seeking qualified consultants to review and amend several planning documents relating to the port, both to incorporate changes to the borough-owned area, such as the addition of 3,000 acres in 2002, and to bring the plan into line with changing development plans for the area.

The proposals were returned to the borough by Dec. 30, and a committee ranked them according to four criteria: The experience of key personnel, project approach and experience, experience with growth scenarios and schedule. But it was an e-mail sent out to the bidders during the bid process that raised questions among some assembly members.

During the process, Mat-Su Borough Finance Director Tammy Clayton said, one of the proposers asked if there was an anticipated cost for the project. Clayton said her office issued an addendum to the proposal, sent out to all participating parties, stating that the anticipated cost was not to exceed $75,000. When the proposers were ranked, the Cornell Group, which has worked on several previous port-related reports for the borough, scored the highest, according to the borough's ranking sheet. Only the winning proposer's bid for the project was opened, and Clayton said Cornell's bid for the project was $149,750, nearly double the anticipated cost.

Clayton said borough staff worked to negotiate a lower price with the company, but lowering the price would mean cutting back the scope of the job.

"What we would have received was not what was requested and not what we needed," Clayton said.

The additional funding was found, Clayton said, in the borough's land management fund and was suggested to be set aside for the plan update. But assembly members wondered whether granting Cornell's proposal would leave other proposers feeling they'd adhered to a rule that didn't matter -- that of the anticipated project cost.

"If that limitation is put on it in negotiations, then it looks bad," Colberg said, adding that if a not-to-exceed amount was to be considered as part of the negotiations, it should have been part of the original bid package.

Clayton said the request for professional services proposals is handled differently than other bid processes -- the process is set up to determine who is most qualified for the project, not necessarily to determine the lowest bidder.

"You determine who's the most qualified and begin negotiations with that party," Clayton explained. "That [$75,000 amount] was an estimate, not a not-to-exceed amount."

She also said, of the four groups who applied, Cornell ranked significantly higher than other applicants.

"They usually come in within a couple points of each other," Clayton said. When the four vying to perform the master plan update were ranked, she said, the top two were split by more than five points, and nearly 20 points divided the first-ranked Cornell from the lowest-ranking applicant.

Assembly member Bill Allen asked Clayton whether the borough had any ceiling in place for funding when the project reached the negotiation phase.

"This is what we have to look at: Are there funds available?" Clayton said. "And in this case, there were funds available in the port operating budget for contract services."

Allen asked if the bid amounts were considered as part of the panel's process in reviewing and ranking the applicants. Clayton said the panel considered the scope of services and each applicant's past experience in performing similar tasks, but only the bid from the highest-ranking applicant was opened. The bids of the other applicants, she said, remain closed.

"It seems like there may be no ceiling," Colberg said.

"We have to see if there are funds available," Clayton said.

Assembly member Jim Colver, after further discussion of the issue, agreed to postpone indefinitely the approval of the budget and scope of work for the project, effectively killing the process so it can be started again.

"I don't think it can be viewed as a real straight-up process," Colver said. "I think it says we're not interested in the process -- not that I don't think the Cornell Group is a wonderful group to do this."

Assembly member Jody Simpson disagreed with the belief that the process had been anything but above board. The procedure followed during a professional services proposal, she said, differs from other borough contracts.

"We heard from the staff that the process that was used in this case, and in other cases, is standard operating procedure," Simpson said. "This particular question was debated very robustly at the port commission. I'm not sure I'm willing to go down the road of sending this back out, because we're operating under borough code."

The motion to postpone the award, essentially restarting the process of requesting proposals, passed with Simpson in opposition. Mat-Su Borough Manager John Duffy told the assembly it would likely take about two months for the proposals to come back to the assembly.

"Postponing will not cause us any undue problems," Duffy said.

Contact Rindi White at rindi.white@frontiersman.com.