Council Awards $1.45M Change Order to Advanced Blasting, Shutting Down Bids
Wednesday, April 10 2013
Courtesy of City Hall
City council changed course on a rock stabilization contract last night, voting to give the contract to Advanced Blasting instead of putting it out to bid.
Council discussed the project in a closed-door executive session, which lasted more than an hour. When council resumed their regular meeting, councilor Dennis Robinson immediately moved to approve a change order with Advanced Blasting.
Advanced Blasting had been contracted to blast the wastewater treatment plant site, and get it ready for construction. But rock slides at the worksite threatened to cause delays. To get the project back on schedule, the city contracted an engineer to design a stabilization system.
Advanced Blasting originally quoted $2.1 million to install a web of wire mesh and anchors in the cliff face. The city council decided that figure was too high, and decided to put the project out to bid at a previous meeting.
Last night, though, councilor Robinson said the city should go with Advanced Blasting to save time and money.
"Advanced Blasting did sharpen the pencil as I requested at the last meeting last Thursday," Robinson said. "I'm happy with that. I'm happy with their work. I think they're well capable of doing that. They're proven. And that's what we need at this point in time."
Advanced Blasting is now quoting $1.45 million to stabilize the cliff face behind the wastewater treatment plant. Robinson said the project was more affordable.
Councilors Roger Rowland and Zoya Johnson said they had opposed using Advanced Blasting because of their expense -- not because the project was being presented as a change order. Johnson and councilor Tom Enlow said they were more comfortable with the figure Advanced Blasting presented last night.
Dave Gregory said he still couldn't support the measure.
"I feel that this particular portion of this contract needed to be bidded out, to make this a better way to use public funds in a more cost-effective manner," Gregory said.
The motion passed 5-1, with Gregory dissenting.
Advanced Blasting's owner, Julia Saunders, flew in from Anchorage to attend the meeting. She said she was able to lower costs by reducing the number of anchors that the company will install in the rock face, and by looking for places to cut costs in the engineering plans.
The Department of Public Works formally rescinded their call for bids Wednesday.
Best Contractor for The Job on Wednesday, June 26 2013:
Northern Mechanical came in with a last minute number but didn't even define the scope of their work. The $2.1 million figure was for a worst case scenario and conservative contract that was defined (unlike Northern Mechanical's random number thrown into thin air). You must all remember that Northern Mechanical's original bid of $3 million for blasting and excavation only was TWO TIMES the bid of Advanced Blasting's original bid of $1.5 million. So essentially we are getting the excavation, rock bolts, and mesh for less than we would've gotten just the excavation only from Northern Mechanical. The bolts were inevitable, regardless of who did the excavation. The geology is poor with rotten rock. You can tell by looking at the fault lines within the rock. Plenty of mud seams. The only place that has solid rock is along the west wall in the dark blue patch. That is the only place where you can see the definition of the drilled holes; everywhere else, the rock is crap.
Just Saying on Friday, April 19 2013:
Everyone made comments on the comments I made some many times before. Comments I made calling out the Mayor, City Manager’s, City Council, on their behavior, actions, dealings that have cost this community and its members. Well….now do you believe me people?
I am telling you, the aforementioned positions all have to be replaced. How….by not voting them in when their term is up. If we don’t stop voting these people in, they will continue with their back door politics, line their pockets, and run this community dry. The City Manager, Hladick needs to be held responsible for all of the wrong doings, and poor cost analysis that has gone on for far too long. He is the project manager, and he should be held responsible and…well as Trump would say, “you’re fired.”
There is no shame on any of their parts, how can there be? No one is holding anyone responsible. So the mayor, city manager, city management, Nancy, and city council…damn it, you got away with another one. And let me tell you this, it isn’t because we don’t have the time to go to the council meetings, it is because you cost us so much money, we have no choice but to work as much as we do. Sooner or later, you are going to stick us with your excess in costs etc. and come up with some bullshit reason why. The member of council, the mayor (right), city manager, should all be acting on behalf of the community…Right! Laughable! Pathetic! When are their terms up? Get rid of them all.
Just saying….
Another Taxpayer on Monday, April 15 2013:
"taxpayer" and "local taxpayer"... Sounds more like a city council member or city management trying to defend poor decisions.
I don't know a lot about this, but I am pretty sure all projects done by the City are put out for a public bid. Fortunately we have local contractors that will bid on those projects. From what I can tell they get the jobs because they are the lowest bidder. Not because of some closed door meeting and then giving it too them like what just happened with the blasting change order job. In fact, seems that without a local contractor bidding and being the lowest it would go to the next guy in line and we would be spending even more. Kind of like with what happened with the blasting change order. Wasn't our local guy offering to do it the cheapest? The out of town place was going to do it for $700,000 more? And you are trying to make that sound like a good thing?
Like I mentioned above... bet "taxpayer" and "local taxpayer" are either a city council member or city management trying to justify a very poor decision.
I for one appreciate out local contractors. I also like that projects should be bid on with the lowest place winning, not closed doors and back room deals.
taxpayer on Sunday, April 14 2013:
Its truly funny to read these posts about our city council. Has anyone actually seen the number of people from the community that attend these meetings? The place is empty. Yet it seems so many people have the time to complain about how bad our council members are, but don't have the time to get involved by attending a meeting once a month, sad! Dutch harbor is one of the only places in the state of Alaska that has been run as a monopoly by our local contractors for far to long (specifically one contractor), and its time for a change. By bringing in outside companies it keeps our local companies fair and true to the community (taxpayers) by keeping the bids lower, which in turn is good for us. The saying "ignorance is bliss" holds to true to this. We the people of Dutch Harbor have to get more involved instead of just sitting back and letting decisions get made and then after the fact complain about what just happened. COME ON DUTCH HARBOR COMMUNITY MEMBERS LETS GET MORE INVOLVED, AND LETS GROW!! OUTSIDE CONTRACTORS IS A GOOD THING!!
local taxpayer on Saturday, April 13 2013:
The council members are doing the job they were voted in to do, make tough decisions on the communities behalf. They are faced with a very strict timeline in which to get the job done. The slope stabilization project is a result of the substandard rock quality, not based on the quality of work of the contractor. If I remember correctly, a local subcontractor was involved in doing the majority of the work, the prime contractor spent money locally ie: hotel, vehicle rental, airline, barge lines, equipment rental, grocery store etc. so the idea of an outside contractor taking all the money out of town is simply not true.
The job at hand requires expertise and that is why the council made their decision the way they did. The more outside companies come in to bid on projects the better. This provides competition which in turn saves the tax payers money. If you attend the City Council meetings, it will be evident that this is exactly what the council desires.
The negative feedback is nothing more than sour grapes from a company losing it's monopoly status it has enjoyed for far too long.
The Council and administration has my full support in their decision making process as in this case and should be commended.
I am dumb on Friday, April 12 2013:
So..... they reduced cost by eliminating work and reducing engineering???? Is that enven reducing cost? Sounds more like reducing the amount of work they have to do so they get the same amount of cash in their pocket. Sounds like a great deal.... FOR THEM!!! Not the community!! I should have thought of that, less work for more!
Back Door Politics on Friday, April 12 2013:
Just watched the council meeting, how ridiculous was that?????? Why was that discussed in a closed door meeting? Isn't this stuff supposed to be discused in a public forum? What a bunch of crap. The mayor and city council should be ashamed for this. They have wasted our tax dollars once again. Hope everyone remembers this when election time rolls around for the mayor, Rowland, and Bong. Shame on you guys and gal. Closed door meetings and back room politics. This stinks BAD. Thanks to Mr. Gregory for standing up and defending our tax dollars. He has my vote, but not the rest of you. Time for a change in the council, mayor and city management.
Make a call! on Thursday, April 11 2013:
People! For goodness sake, make a call to your council members and let them know how upset you are about them wasting your money and hiring people that don't care about wasting it! Remember this, and don't vote those council members back in if they won't make a chage. Do we really have people running the City that care so little about us? So sad....
Unsure and Unaware on Thursday, April 11 2013:
Guess Nancy and the rest of the city staff are still unsure about what they are doing and unaware that us tax payers don't like them wasting our money!! I can't even believe how hard earned tax money just got thrown around like Monopoly money. The mayor and council should be ashamed of themselves. They let the city manager and staff control them. They are suppose to be the voice of the people and in charge of all city staff!!! So outrageous!
Janet on Wednesday, April 10 2013:
The council and managers are lucky that many of the town's residents work so many hours that they are not paying attention to what these people are doing to our town.
Ee on Wednesday, April 10 2013:
I could write out how I feel about it but I would just be echoing What the Heck?? and Clarence already stated. Time will tell but I strongly suspect that this most recent action will simply turn out to be another expensive band-aid to a bigger issue.
Clarence on Wednesday, April 10 2013:
What is going on at Public Works that such a huge expense wasn't forecast to begin with? Why are we in this position of spending an additional 1.45 MILLION dollars? Wasn't this properly engineered before Advanced did their original work?
Why would Council decide to award this as a change order to a company who went from quoting 2.1 million to 1.45 million. Seems like more than "pencil sharpening" to me. I see it as they either over quoted (by a LOT) the first time around, trying to get what they can out of our little community, or they are cutting costs that may come back to haunt us or maybe both, but either way, I don't trust it.
Why wouldn't Council consider local companies who put in bids? Wouldn't it be smart to go with a company who puts money back into our community, rather than taking it out of town?
I am usually a defender of Council, believing them to be hard working folks working to make our community a better place, but this time, I can't think of one reason to defend this move. I'm just so frustrated by this process and how it played out.
Shame on Council for not asking a few more questions and taking a little more time. Shame on City Managers who didn't see this coming and ask more questions of their engineers. Lastly, shame on the Engineering Firm handling this fiasco. By the way, why are we still using an out of town engineer for years and years? Does Management and Council really enjoy throwing our money away? Sure seems that way!
What the Heck?? on Wednesday, April 10 2013:
Who the heck is in charge of these projects????? They were about to give away $2.1 million. One of our good local contractors offered to do the same work for $1.3 million and then all the sudden Advanced blasting lowers their price by $700K and we give it to them? So instead of wasting $700K of our hard earned tax dollars they are only wasting $100K. Am I supposed to feel good about that?? And the bleeding is not even done. Advanced screwed up so bad already that the City will have to purchase property from OC. More money wasted. And they got rewarded with $1.4 million... Are you kidding me?? Is there anyone home at the City?? And then the council approved it, shame on you. Hope all of you that voted yes get voted out for not being responsible with our tax dollars. Again, who the heck is in charge of these projects? They are not looking after our tax dollars at all. Someone's pockets are getting lined. What the heck??