2010-0303 Special City Commission Meeting

Home Browse Search

Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting March 3, 2010 Sunny Isles Beach, Florida Commissioner Scholl said he had a long talk with staff last week and one of the problems that he has been frustrated about is that the process has been nebulous. They had a meeting last month and he said to go to our vendors and ask them for specificity as far as when we submitted, when we have got replies, and we have gotten a very nebulous answer which showed him that somebody didn't want to be held accountable. When he talks about a scheduler for significant construction projects of his own, even though he can do this, he hired an outside firm that would basically be responsible for setting an initial schedule including dates, parties who are responsible, actions, and everybody signs off on it As the project moves along, that schedule gets updated on a regular basis, and if there is slippage, it gets reflected and the responsible party is shown on the schedule. At least that way we can hold these guys accountable and we can see when it is an outside agency, when it is internal when we are not turning things around, etc. Hopefully going forward, if we put the right types of mechanisms in place we can get specificity and at a meeting we will be looking at a chart with details instead of it is on time, we are close, etc. He prefers an outside scheduler, the cost is not significant, but the outcome is very significant. Mayor Edelcup said we are all frustrated and totally agitated about the whole project. In the future we need contracts that have severe penalties for missing deadlines and that we don't have contracts that are open- ended. When they are being reviewed by staff or legal, don't even present them to the Commission unless there is a clause protecting us for deliveries. Mayor Edelcup said as to the two projects in hand, we are where we are at and all we can do at this point is to deal with a situation that we are all totally unhappy with. Is there any way to pick up the gap on the Pier, to start getting the bid packages ready and tighten up the bid procedure so that we don't have to wait for that last permit. If everybody is fully expecting the permit is going to come can we get the bids out before the last permit is there, is there a procedure to shorten up that scheduling of putting out the bid package, reviewing it, awarding the bid, and finally get somebody out there. On the Bridge area, and Commissioner Goodman had touched upon the mitigation problems, we have heard about the mitigation problems late in the proceedings and there may be alternatives in solving mitigation problems. He knows that staff and our consultants are out there trying to get it at the lowest cost to the City and maybe the lowest cost isn't necessarily the best approach, it may be we spend a little more in dollars in getting the mitigation done sooner than trying to argue about the last dollar of savings. The Commission needs to be more brought up to date as to delays and whether or not there are alternatives that the Commission can say either yea or nay on to speed up the process and hopefully get us into a better position sooner. Vice Mayor Thaler said that the Commission has different channels to go to than staff does, and we went through this before with the Fire Station and the Commission was able to resolve it. City Manager Conner said that the Mayor did hit on a very important issue regarding time vs. money, and it is our nature to always worry about the money and sometimes it is not the best investment of money if it causes a great deal of time, and he thinks we are more keen to that than we may have been in the past and so we are looking at that as we move forward. Mayor Edelcup said that hopefully the schedule that is being presented today is not going to be another disappointment, if it is not met than he will start commenting to his fellow Mayors and Commissioners as to our experience because that is the only way to hold people accountable.