Sports arena contract questioned

WASILLA -- The City of Wasilla's choice of local construction contractor Howdie Inc. for a piece of the action on the $14.7 million sports arena project was scrutinized by council member Noel Lowe at a city council meeting Dec. 10.

But after about 20 minutes of listening while Lowe questioned project manager Don Moore and architect Blase Burkhart, freshman council member Diana Straub called the question to a vote. Lowe was the only member to vote against stopping the discussion and the only member to vote against the award to Howdie.

After her motion to stop Lowe's inquiry, Straub told the council she had assumed each of the council members had already done research into the contract.

"As council members we're supposed to do our homework first and come to the meeting knowing what our vote would be. Then if there's any public comment that could change our opinion, you take that into consideration," Straub said this week.

Both Straub and Lowe were briefed by Moore in advance of the meeting, as were other council members. Lowe also spoke to Burkhart in the days leading up to the contract award. Proposal documents from the dozen contractors were made available to Lowe and to the public.

The contractor selection committee was made up of Burkhart, Moore, Public Works Director Don Shiesl, City Engineer Archie Giddings, arena consultant Dick Morris, council member Ron Cox, and arena steering committee chair Curt Menard. The committee winnowed the proposals down to three finalists and then chose Howdie for the job.

Burkhart works for Anchorage-based Kumin Associates, the architectural firm responsible for designing the arena and working as a construction consultant throughout the job. Burkhart facilitated committee discussions with the various contractors but had no vote, according to Moore.

Lowe started the discussion by saying that he thought the process was fair.

"I would definitely like to say that I'm not second guessing the work of the committee that did that, but I am going to do that," Lowe said. "I feel [the council has] the responsibility to at least understand how the committee arrived at the solution or the outcome that they arrived at."

The job will proceed under a design-build strategy, and Howdie's contract price isn't set yet. Moore estimates that between $11 million and $12.5 million worth of construction costs will be managed by the contractor out of the $14.7 million the city bonded for the arena.

Lowe also asked Moore about the potential for liability in the event the council refused to award the contract to Howdie.

"I would think you would need to reject all of them, reject the process, and somehow start over again rather than trying to substitute the council's judgment for the evaluation committee [decision]," Moore said. "If you do that, then you're going to have an agreed first-place finisher who will have as much legal recourse as the second-place finisher does now."

Moore then deferred to city attorney Thomas Klinkner who said he had reviewed the city's contract award process but not the individual responses. Klinkner agreed with Moore about rejecting the entire process versus awarding the contract to someone the committee didn't choose.

Lowe didn't recommend any action to the other council members during the meeting.

"The $60,000 spread on this scenario, between three different proposers or three finalists -- across an eleven-and-a half-million dollar contract -- is really saying that they are comparable. That they are even," Burkhart said. "… It's a snapshot saying that they are darn close."

Lowe then turned to equipment rental costs for the job. Burkhart said those were some of the most difficult costs to quantify on any project. As soon as Burkhart finished, Straub called for a vote on the original question.

"I think voting to call the question on this would be irresponsible," Lowe said. "I think that we don't do any harm whatsoever by asking questions like this to gain a better understanding of the process of selection."

This week, Straub said she wanted to move on the contract because council meetings often drag out when there could be members of the public to be heard.

"I've been the member of the public whose had to wait until 11 o'clock in order to be heard," Straub said. "I guess I just have a thing with that."