01-23-2017 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, January 9, 2017 7:00 o'clock p.m. 4. 2017 ENGINEERING SERVICES RATE SCHEDULE (continued) Walsh stated as it relates to general day-to-day engineering work, there is a rate schedule, but when there are issues on a particular project and the City receives an opinion from Bolton & Menk, the City may want to obtain a second opinion on the engineering fee portion. Martini stated the City has the ability to provide whatever checks and balances they want on that fee. Martini indicated one of his jobs is to make sure Bolton & Menk is providing fair and competitive fees for the work being completed and that he does that in a number of different ways. Currently labor costs are driving the fees and salaries and that the market is very competitive currently. Martini noted the cost of public employees has driven up private industry costs. Martini indicated they look at the hours that will be needed for a specific project and then see if it is proportionate to the amount of money being spent on the project. Martini indicated they work closely with Staff to make sure they are not including services that City Staff could perform. Martini stated they ultimately want to give the City an appropriate price up front so Bolton & Menk can continue to be the consulting city engineer. Martini stated he is certainly aware of the fact that the engineering bill often times will be the biggest bill from a consulting standpoint and that the fees will add up, which is why they are very sensitive to making sure fair and competitive prices are being charged. Walsh stated when he has an engineering project coming up for his business, coming to a good agreement is required, which is what the fee schedule is all about. Walsh noted Orono uses Bolton & Menk for all of their consulting engineering and that they are not able to go out and get separate competitive bids for each specific project. Walsh stated he would like to see it reduced to 2 percent to be more in line with what Orono's increases have been in employee salaries. Martini stated simply looking at those four individuals that work primarily with the City is an automatic 3.5 percent increase in cost. Walsh stated the range may need to be broken out better. Martini stated he can provide a list of the employees that the City mainly works with but that they typically have other staff that will do as much of the work at a lower fee as possible. Martini stated the Council needs to look at the bigger picture that makes up the fee schedule and that built in the fee schedule is the fact that the City saves money on not having to go out for proposals on each project. Martini stated he does not take his relationship with the City for granted and that he is trying to build and maintain a long-term relationship with the City. Martini noted a number of their proposals are for a not to exceed amount and that they have had a number of projects in the past that have exceeded the not to exceed fee but Bolton & Menk continues to work on the project. Martini stated when Bolton & Menk was initially retained, they committed to making a significant investment in Orono by getting the City's mapping system up and running. In addition, the first CIP document was prepared by Bolton & Menk at no cost to the City. Martini stated the CIP is a tool that can be updated periodically. Martini stated he is grateful for the relationship they have and that Bolton & Menk has tried to make it a fair relationship. Martini indicated he is happy to provide more information on the engineering fees but that he cannot commit to the 2 percent at this time. Page 4 of 17