Loading...
2013.09.03_TC_Minutes_Regular TOWN OF HIGHLAND BEACH MINUTES OF TOWN COMMISSION MEETING REGULAR MEETING Tuesday, September 3, 2013 1.30 PM Mayor Bernard Featherman called the Regular Meeting to order in Commission Chambers at 1:30 PM. CALL TO ORDER: Roll Call: Members present: Mayor Bernard Featherman; Vice Mayor Ron Brown; Commissioner Dennis J. Sheridan; Commissioner Louis P. Stern and Commissioner Carl Feldman. Also present: Town Attorney Glen Torcivia; Town Manager Kathleen D. Weiser; Town Clerk Beverly M. Brown; Finance Director Cale Curtis; Assistant to the Manager Zoie Burgess; and members of the public. Pledge of Allegiance: The Pledge of Allegiance was given, followed by a minute of silence. Civility Pledge: The Civility Pledge was recited by the Town Clerk. 1. ADDITIONS, DELETIONS OR ACCEPTANCE OF AGENDA: Mayor Featherman asked for any additions or deletions. Receiving none, the agenda was accepted as presented. 2. PUBLIC COMMENTS AND REQUESTS: No comments received. 3. PRESENTATIONS: No presentations scheduled. 4. BOARDS AND COMMITTEES: A) Board Correspondence: • None B) Board Action Report: • Read into the Record Town Commission Regular Minutes September 3, 2013 Pa eg 2 of 9 C) Board Vacancies: • Beaches & Shores Advisory Board — One Appointment • Board of Adjustment and Appeals — Two Appointments • Code Enforcement board — One Appointment D) Monthly Board Meetings • Town Commission Budget Public Hearing — Sept. 5 — 5:01 PM • Beaches & Shores Advisory Board — Meeting Cancelled • Planning Board — Meeting Cancelled • Town Commission Budget Public Hearing — Sept. 17th — 5:01 PM • Bd. of Adjustment — No Scheduled Meeting for September • Code Enforcement — No Scheduled Meeting for September 5. PROPOSED ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS: A) ORDINANCE NO. 13 -002 O — Second Reading and Public Hearing AN ORDINANCE OF THE TOWN OF HIGHLAND BEACH, FLORIDA AMENDING ARTICLE III, "DEVELOPMENT REVIEW," OF CHAPTER 30, ZONING CODE," OF THE TOWN CODE OF ORDINANCES BY AMENDING SECTION 30 -46, "PUBLIC NOTICE," TO UPDATE THE PUBLIC NOTICE REQUIREMENTS TO ENSURE COMPLIANCE WITH STATE LAW AND TO CLARIFY THE WRITTEN NOTICE REQUIREMENTS FOR PROPERTIES SUBJECT TO A CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION; PROVIDING FOR CONFLICTS; PROVIDING FOR SEVERABILITY; AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE. Town Clerk Brown read Ordinance No. 13 -002 O, title only, into the record. Mayor Featherman opened the Public Hearing. Receiving no comments, Mayor Featherman closed the Public Hearing. No further comments were received from the Town Commission. MOTION: Vice Mayor Brown moved to adopt Ordinance No. 13 -002 O on second reading. Motion seconded by Commissioner Stern ROLL CALL: Vice Mayor Brown - Yes Commissioner Stern - Yes Commissioner Feldman - Yes Commissioner Sheridan - Yes Mayor Featherman - Yes Motion passed with a 5 to 0 vote. Town Commission Regular Minutes September 3 2013 Page 3 of 9 6. CONSENT AGENDA: Mayor Featherman asked if any item needed to be removed from the Consent Agenda. Commissioner Stern requested that Item #6C, be amended to read "commercial artificial fir tree." Town Clerk Brown read the Consent Agenda into the record: A) Authorization for the Mayor to Sign One -Year Renewal for Dental Insurance with Reliance Standard. B) Town Commission to authorize change in 2013 Holiday Schedule. C) Town Commission to authorize purchase of a commercial artificial fir tree in the amount up to $5,500.00 with monies being transferred from Reserve for Contingency Account #001- 590.000- 599.000. D) Minutes: July 30 2013 — Workshop Meeting August 6, 2013 — Regular Meeting August 7, 2013 — Budget Workshop MOTION: Commissioner Stern moved that the Consent Agenda be accepted as read by the Clerk. Motion was seconded by Commissioner Sheridan. ROLL CALL: Commissioner Stern - Yes Commissioner Sheridan - Yes Commissioner Feldman - Yes Vice Mayor Brown - - Yes Mayor Featherman - Yes Motion passed with a 5 to 0 vote. 7. NEW BUSINESS: None scheduled. Town Commission Regular Minutes September 3 2013 Page 4 of 9 8. MISCELLANEOUS — ITEMS LEFT OVER: None scheduled. 9. REPORTS — TOWN COMMISSION: A) Commissioner Carl Feldman — I would like to wish all the Jewish residents of Highland Beach a very happy and healthy New Year and a sweet New Year. B) Commissioner Louis P. Stern — No Report. C) Commissioner Dennis J. Sheridan - No Report. D) Vice Mayor Brown — No Report. E) Mayor Featherman - At the Palm Beach League of Cities Meeting in Riviera Beach on August 28�", I met and personally talked with Florida's U.S. Congressman Patrick Murphy. He expressed forecast of things to come that often ring hollow in Washington, D.C., when reviewed with the clarity of hindsight. I asked Congressman Murphy if he would speak to our residents of Highland Beach in the future and he said he would be happy to do so. Also, last Saturday night I had dinner with Florida State Representative Joe Gibbons. He was a former Commissioner in his town in Florida. He asked me an interesting question. How many people attend our Board's meetings? Was it generally five people or less like he had experienced in his town's meetings. Yes, I replied, and that is very troubling. I would like to solicit suggestions from those residents who watch this meeting on TV or read our board minutes afterwards for insight on how to get, not only more attendance; but results in your input on concerns for issues or services you may feel need to be addressed and solved. It is surprising that the most things change the more they remain the same. We need your input for positive attentions so our Commissioners and I can address, and hopefully solve, issues you feel are important to you and to the residents of Highland Beach. 10. REPORTS — TOWN ATTORNEY: No Report. 11. REPORTS — TOWN MANAGER: I want to report that I, my assistant Zoie, Police Chief Hartman and our Finance Director Cale Curtis met this morning with Mark Marsh, our Architect for the renovation of this area of the building and the Engineer. If you recall, what we asked them to do is go back, bring everybody in to look at this building and give us a number compared to what they gave us last year, if we go ahead and go out for a contractor. I am happy to report that particular number came in three percent of what they proposed last year at $775,000. The reason why it is going up is because more and more projects are starting, so the cost of doing projects is going up. What I am proposing to you, at this time, is that you authorize us to move Town Commission Regular Minutes September 3 2013 Page 5 of 9 forward with putting out what is called an RFQ (Request for Qualifications). If you remember, that is how we got our Town Engineer, our Town Attorney and the Architect for this particular building. It would be a Request for Qualifications for a contractor for the renovations. What we would put in that request is that we would like a contractor who is willing to give us a guaranteed maximum price for this building. That type of contract is called a CM at Risk meaning they assume the risk of anything involved with the project. It puts the management on them to make sure they come within our budget. This is not a new way of doing projects. Basically, we go out looking for the qualifications of a contractor. Then we negotiate with them, using our budget, for a guaranteed maximum price as opposed to putting out a bid that someone would bid with what they are going to do the project for. At this time, I am asking you for authorization to go ahead and put out the RFQ for a contractor once all the documents are completed, which I anticipate is going to be this month. Comm. Sheridan — I am in agreement at this particular time. We had the meeting this morning and it is three percent. If it is in our budget at this time, I do not see delaying this any further. Comm. Stern — Are we at risk for anything other than getting a contractor, or a number of contractors, to investigate? Town Manager Weiser — What we would do is put out the request. As we always do, once we put together a panel and narrow down the contractors, we come back to you with our recommendation of who we negotiate with. You receive their packets with their qualifications. I am guessing this should take place sometime in December. Comm. Stern — Is it possible for a contractor to figure his numbers without actual plans? Town Manager Weiser — When the Request for Qualifications goes out, the construction documents will be ready so they will be able to look at them. That is what is being finalized this week. The plan has not changed since you approved it. What is in the construction documents is things like lighting and electrical. When you go for a maximum qualified bid, you are only going to get qualified contractors who are willing to come in and do that, because they are assuming the risk. We talked to several cities that are using that process and they highly recommend it because then we don't have the risk; they do. Comm. Stern — I see no problem. Comm. Feldman — Wouldn't it behoove us to go out and get quotations and then qualify the specific builders? Town Manager Weiser — That is another way you can do it but we are not recommending that because you take on the risk of any changes in the contract. The way we are going about it is they assume the risk. When you go out and do it based on their qualifications, then you negotiate with them and come up with a final bid. Whereas the other way that you are talking about, which is the old way, puts a set of plans out on the street; but then you assume all the risk if there are any changes. Comm. Feldman — In that same plan, you could incorporate the same wording for changes for a quotation. If we go for a Request for Qualifications, we are only getting one bid once we qualify the particular builder and we don't have our three bids. Town Attorney Torcivia — You could do it either way. There is one way of doing it where you are requesting bids and another way of requesting qualifications. I believe what you are looking for is kind of a hybrid. Comm. Feldman — That is correct. If we don't have three bids, how do you legally place a bid this large with only one person bidding just because they are the most qualified? Not the best price. Town Manager Weiser — With the competitive negotiations bid process that we are going through, you may not ask for bids. It is based solely on what their qualifications are. You can do one or the other. Comm. Feldman — Then how do you spend your money? Town Manager Weiser — Once you pick, like we picked an architect, you are doing it on their qualifications. You look at their past record, if they brought things under budget and if they brought things in time. You go to them and negotiate what that package is going to be. The other way, what you talked about, is putting the package out and you get bids. Comm. Feldman — Legally can you get only one bid for $850,000? Town Attorney Torcivia — You can do it because you are going through this qualification process that is specifically authorized. I hear your concern, and that is where your architect should step in and say this is a fair price. You are in a negotiating world as opposed to a bidding world. Mayor Featherman — We normally get bids on anything over $25,000 and have three people bidding on it. Here we have something Town Commission Regular Minutes September 3, 2013 Page 6 of 9 over $750,000 and we should have more than one bid. Vice Mayor Brown — I think we should go out with the qualification bid because we need the cap, and with that we can have them assume the risk, not us. Finance Director Curtis — There are two major types of contract methods that we can go about for this type of construction. One is a general contractor form that Commissioner Feldman is speaking of, and the other is a manager construction contract form that has a guaranteed maximum price. With the construction manager method we are looking strongly at the qualifications of the firm. With a project of this size we don't necessarily want to take the low bidder that comes in. The guy that comes in and low balls gets the job and we have to essentially take him, as long as he meets all the qualifications on the paper work, and has the lowest cost in there. What is going to happen is, as you go throughout the project, you are going to get hit with change orders that he didn't anticipate and so forth. It is well within your authorization to do a contract like that, but we are strongly recommending that we look at the qualifications of a construction manager where he will set his fixed fee in his contract. He essentially becomes a part of our team rather than us monitoring a general contractor, trying to keep his cost in line and what is allowable. We have a cost estimate for this project and that becomes our negotiation tool. In essence, we will be looking strongly at that one proposal. If we don't like it we look at the next proposal. Comm. Feldman — The construction manager, is that a firm or a person? Finance Director Curtis — He essentially becomes the general contractor. Comm. Feldman - We pay him the $750,000 (or whatever the amount is) and he is responsible for it. What you are looking at is the qualifications of a construction manager and not a construction company? Finance Director Curtis — It is both. He is going to be a firm that bids on this. Comm. Feldman — Do we need a building permit to do this? Finance Director Curtis — The building will be permitted and inspected. Comm. Feldman — I would suggest you show the plans to the Building Inspector because there could be some problems that we don't know about. Town Manager Weiser — We will have Mike look at the plans before we put them out on the street. He has been involved with the project since we have started. Not so much with the intricacy, but he is aware of what we are doing. Permits are not included in that price. We still have to cover our own permitting. Mayor Featherman — If our policy is to get three bids on anything we buy, here is an installation that will run more than three quarters of a million dollars, and we are not getting three bids. Why are we not following the town's policy? I am sure we can get people who are reputable and put up bonds for when they do a job. I think we should consider getting bids from three sources. Comm. Stern — We have two sides of the coin again. On one side, if you go for the lowest bidder, then we are vulnerable should he have made mistakes. On the other side of the coin, you have a construction manager who finds that he can't do it either for the price and is now looking to find a lower price on an item. I don't know that three bids is one answer, and I don't know if finding a qualified construction manager is another answer. It is something we have to discuss a little further. Mayor Featherman - We have had a policy of getting at least three bids and we are throwing that policy out. Town Manager Weiser — No we are not. We have used this process when we hired our Town Attorney, our Town Engineer and our Architect. This is perfectly legal. State Law and it is in our procurement policies that we are allowed to do this when we do these kinds of jobs. In fact, the majority of cities who are doing these renovations and these projects use this process because it takes the risk off of the municipality and puts it on the contractor. You end up getting a better project then you would if you have to go low bid. Certainly if that is your policy decision and you want to do the other type of contract, we are not recommending it. Comm. Feldman — I see no reason why we couldn't use the hybrid type of quotation. Town Attorney Torcivia — I am not sure if we could. A construction company bids and they are going to be the manager of the project. They are going to come in, build this hall and guarantee you the price of X dollars. Comm. Feldman — Actually we are Town Commission Regular Minutes September 3, 2013 Page 7 of 9 guaranteeing the construction company dollar wise. Therefore, we are the guarantor and give them X amount of dollars. He has to come forth with a project and, if he finds he is running high on his end, what he would obviously do is somehow skimp down to get into the budget. Finance Director Curtis — We are guaranteeing up to a maximum project. We are not guaranteeing his fee is going to be this and that is what we are going to pay. He is going to have his overhead or profit fee built in there and then everything else is going to be bid out; it is going to be a cost of work. That is where the Town works with that construction manager to keep those costs down. He is going to have individual line items such as $10,000 for interior walls; he is going to have that in his bid documents. The cost of work may come in at $9,000. We are going to share in that in a pre- negotiated contract. We may receive all the cost savings or it may be shared with that construction manager. It all depends on how the contract is structured. Vice versus in the general contractor, if he puts a bid on it for $10,000 for that wall and it comes in at $7,000, he is still billing us the $10,000. That is where he will make up his fee. It is two methods and both are being used. The method that is being used strongly right now is this construction manager contract. We see it as a great opportunity to get a fixed cost, not to exceed cost, and not have to worry about change orders and have a great firm provide construction for us. Comm. Stern — Do we share Mr. Marsh's number with the manager we are looking for, or does he come back to us and say I can do it for XYZ? If we share it with him, we are letting the cat out of the bag. I don't think we can share that number. Town Manager Weiser — We work for the government so everything is public record. Our architect has built many town halls throughout the area. They are very comfortable with the number and what they are telling you is that they are part of our team. If that contractor comes back to you and is way over, they will say no and let's go to number two. Comm. Stern — I see no harm in going out for the RFQ. Mayor Featherman — A very valid point was brought up by Comm. Feldman that we are not getting competitive bids. Comm. Sheridan — We are only going out for an RFQ at this time. Comm. Feldman — If we go out for the RFQ now, it limits us in the future because we still only have one bid. Town Manager Weiser — We will come back to you with the ranking of firms. You can't mingle the two processes. Comm. Feldman — We didn't know about this before today and it gives us a chance to discuss this and express our thoughts. Town Attorney Torcivia — We will prepare a memo and send it out to everybody so you can see the two risks; and as Kathleen has said, this is certainly the trend. This is more of a negotiating process. There is a little bit less risk on both sides. We are going to probably spend a little more money in this process up front, but in the long run, it may be the final number. There is no risk for going out for the RFQ because you can reject them all. You are not obligated in any way. Comm. Feldman — What are the criteria on choosing one to the other? Town Manager Weiser — You put in your request as to what the qualifications are going to be. In this particular bid, you would look at things such as timeliness of projects, if they came in under budget on other projects, look at the qualifications of the different people who they would assign to the project and the proximity of other projects or similar type of projects. Then we have a team that gets together and ranks them on a number basis and where they come in under these qualifications. When we come back with the ranking, we give you what their submittals are. Mayor Featherman — Here we have a policy of getting at least three bids from a number of people and we should follow that policy. Vice Mayor Brown — I think there will be more than three quotes from people coming back with the RFQ. They present it to us and then we take a look at what they are offering. There will be multiple companies coming in on this. What we need to do, as a Commission, is to approve this and get the RFQ on the street so we can get this project into the budget and done next year. Mayor Featherman — We are not following our own procedures that we set up. Our policy is to get at least three bids for everything we put out. Town Manager Weiser — Mayor that is one way. On these particular projects, based on State Law and based on our procurement rules and regulations, this is another way you can do it. We are not going against our own procurement rules. There are two ways you can do it. One is going straight bids and one is this Town Commission Regular Minutes September 3 2013 Paize 8 of 9 particular process. We are recommending to you that you go with this process. You have the authority to go the other way; but we have explained to you why we don't recommend doing that. Finance Director Curtis — Getting three bids best serves when you are buying goods. One company provides the same product and they can reduce their profit margin on that accordingly to get our business. In this avenue we are purchasing the professional services of a company. You want to base that on their qualifications and not on the lowest cost to do it. Mayor Featherman — We are not talking about lowest costs, we are talking about the American way which is to give bids on jobs. There are a lot of people out of work today and would like to see them have an opportunity to work. But more important is our policy. Our policy is that we get more than three bids on every project we buy or do. If we would have a referendum today and it was only $350,000 or more, I wonder what the people would say on this. We have a referendum now of almost $1.3 million so it is out of the hands of our residents; but I think our Commissioners, being logical good thinking men, would look at that and what has been said here today. Finance Director Curtis — We are going to get multiple respondents to this RFQ. We are not going to solely look at rewarding that contract on cost. Our key to rewarding this contract is going to be based on their qualifications. We are not limiting this contract to one firm out there. Multiple firms who get a hold of our advertisement can respond to it. But again, we would like to base it on their qualifications and then negotiate a cost with them. Comm. Feldman — I think it is very important that we are discussing this so the residents can understand how we are making our decision. MOTION: Commissioner Stern moved to accept the proposal of the Town Manager to put out an RFQ for the renovations to Town Hall utilizing the guaranteed construction concept. Motion was seconded by Commissioner Feldman. ROLL CALL: Commissioner Stern - Yes Commissioner Feldman - Yes Commissioner Sheridan - Yes Vice Mayor Brown - Yes Mayor Featherman - Yes Motion passed with a 5 to 0 vote. Comm. Feldman — Did we put a timeframe on this so we can put it on a fast track? Town Manager Weiser — What happens from here is that the construction documents from the architects are expected to be ready by the end of September. They will move forward then with the Request for Qualifications. It should be put out shortly after October 1 Usually we have a 30 day response time. Once we get the responses back, they will be reviewed about sometime in November. Hopefully, we should then be able to bring this back to you for your November Workshop and your December meeting for approval of the ranking of the firms and who to negotiate with. Manager Weiser - The City of Delray Beach has asked me to assist them in their hiring process for a Human Resources Director. It is commonly done between different municipalities. I plan on doing that next week. My background is in H.R. so they asked if I could help them out. They let us use some of their staff before when we do hiring. Town Commission Regular Minutes September 3 2013 Page 9 of 9 12. PUBLIC COMMENTS AND REQUESTS RELATED TO ITEMS DISCUSSED AT MEETING: John Ackerman, 4202 Intracoastal Dr. — I am in the construction business and we almost never give bids anymore. If you are buying a table, three bids is a good idea. When you want to remodel this room, we work on what is called a scope of work. They give you the items of what you want to do; we come in with a proposal; the proposals are then negotiated and you come back. Basically you have the same thing but you are not bidding on an item but all the variables that go into remodeling this room. It is simply a different matter of doing it the old way. 13. ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business to come before the Commission, Mayor Featherman adjourned the Regular Meeting at 2:45 PM upon a MOTION by Commissioner Sheridan; seconded by Commissioner Stern. APPROVED: p dj cd . Bern d Featherman, Mayor Ro ' a Vice Mayor Dennis J. Sheri an, C mmissioner o 's to , C issioner rl Feldman, Commissioner ATTEST: Beverly M. Brown� MC Town Clerk Date