The San Angelo City Council awarded two construction contracts worth a combined $2 million to Stoddard Construction Management in their January 17 council meeting. The minutes show:
AWARD BID COSADC-01-11 BUSINESS RESOURCE CENTER RENOVATION AND CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT TO STODDARD CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT, INC IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $1,334,942.00 FOR CONSTRUCTION RENOVATIONS ON THE FORMER COKE BUILDING AT 69 N. CHADBOURNE
AUTHORIZATION FOR ADDITIONAL PROJECT FUNDS IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED$160,000.00 TO COVER COSTS OF ADDITIONAL WORK INCLUDING A NEW ROOF AND FACADE/GLASS STOREFRONT, INCREASED CONTINGENCY FEES, AND INCREASED ARCHITECTURAL FEES
AWARD OF A BID FOR PK-02-11 /RIO VISTA PARK RENOVATION TO STODDARD CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT, INC. (BULVERDE, TX) IN THE AMOUNT OF $572,500.00
Purchasing Manager Roger Banks explained the local preference option was not part of the bid process (in relation to the Rio Vista project).
Stoddard received over $2 million in business after council reconvened from Executive Session. The company already had a virtual lock on city construction projects:
City Hall Renovations - $9.1 million
Fire Station #5 and #7 - $3.9 million
City Hall renovations grew dramatically from the $9.1 million. For the week ending 7-16-10:
City awarded the $12,979,779 renovation contract to Stoddard Construction Management Inc.
In July 2011 the City approved a change order. Council minutes show approval of "Change Order #1, as amended for the total project amount of $1,874,135.96" for HVAC for City Plaza buildings, a central heating and cooling plant, and Auditorium renovations. This was new work for Stoddard, gotten without competitive bid.
What are the odds that one company would win nearly all of San Angelo's construction projects over a two year period? That's over $20 million in taxpayer funded business.
One local citizen believes a potential conflict of interest exists with Stoddard and Assistant City Manager Elizabeth Grindstaff. Oddly, two leaders who shepherded City Hall renovations may be gone when the new City Hall opens in April.
1 comment:
The COSA Development Corporation is a Type B Municipal Development Corporation as defined by the State of Texas Development Corporation Act of 1979.
Unfortunately, such development corporations are not subject to the same procurement requirements as the municipalities themselves.
If you do a little further investigation as to the bid of the Business Resource Center project, you would find that a local contractor was actually low on the project for a total price of $1,351,500 vs. Stoddard's bid of $1,389,000. The purchasing manager, Roger Banks, then initiated a "Best and Final Offer" request among bidding contractors, stating that the project budget was $1.2 Million and that all proposers were to submit value engineering ideas and prices to reach that budget goal. No disclosure has been made of the results of that Best and Final Offer process, and yet the project was awarded to Stoddard for $1,334,942 + $160,000 for additional work and changes to Architectural fees and Contingency funds. That amounts to just under $1.5 million, or $300,000 over the "budget".
This concerned citizen is very curious as to how our city management can continue to abuse their privilege as an "economic development corporation" and continue to hire out-of-town contractors (and their out-of-town subcontractors) thereby sending all of the money going to labor (usually half the cost of public works) OUTSIDE THE MUNICIPALITY.
Now that just seems more like economic devastation to me.
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