By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City council members on Tuesday voted unanimously to re-advertise for proposals for an ongoing rehabilitation project at the city’s Southern Depot facility.
The council unanimously approved a resolution authorizing “the city manager to approve the advertisement for a request for proposals for general contractor services for the Southern Depot Rehabilitation Project.”
The council during a meeting in August directed city staff to reject all three proposals it had received for the project and to re-advertise. The rehabilitation project includes replacing doors and windows in a city facility on Ogden Street. The building once served as the city’s transportation depot.
After City Secretary Mari Acosta read the heading of the agenda item during Tuesday’s meeting, Mayor Al Arreola asked if there was a motion from council. Councilman J.P. Sanchez made the motion to approve the resolution, and Councilman Jesus Lopez Jr. gave the second.
When the mayor asked if there were any questions, Sanchez called out, “Let’s rock and roll.”
The mayor then called for a vote, and the council unanimously approved Sanchez’s motion.
Immediately after the vote, Councilman Randy Quiñones asked if council had to pick one of the two options for the proposal included in the background information in the council agenda packet.
“Yes, Option One or Option Two,” Assistant City Manager Manuel Chavez replied.
Arreola asked Sanchez which option he wished to include in his motion.
As Sanchez quickly looked over the options and said he preferred Option One, Arreola invited City Transportation Director Esther Avila to address the council.
Avila asked if there were any questions.
“I think the question is what option do we want to go with,” Arreola said.
Sanchez then said he would amend his motion to include proceeding with Option One. Lopez said he would again second Sanchez’s motion.
Lopez also said he would like to hear what Avila had to say about the issue.
He then asked Avila to explain the differences in the two options.
“There have been some adjustments or work scope updates, and some of the revisions in both options are that we have the bidders come and do a walk-through (of the depot) with the project manager. And those are on both options,” Avila said.
She then asked City Purchasing Agent Luis Menchaca to join her at the podium to explain the revisions further.
Menchaca told the council, “Some of the changes we are doing, on Option One we are adding a mandatory pre-bid meeting that wasn’t included the last time. Another thing that we would be doing is we would be issuing, on the requirements for the proposal, for there to be the bid to be listed on there, because the last time it was not a requirement. Even though it was listed on the document, it was not listed on the proposal requirements.”
He said city staff would also be making sure that on the checklist “there is verbiage that says that the current conditions of the building are being considered as part of the proposal.”
“That was not listed last time. . . So once any proposer sends in their proposal, they will have to acknowledge that their proposal does take into consideration the current conditions of the building,” he said.
“So, we’re doing RFPs (requests for proposals)?” Lopez asked.
“Yes, this has been done as an RFP the last two times,” Menchaca replied.
Avila added Option One would take less time compared to the second option.
“So, failure to do any of these items in Option One, you will throw out the bid? If they don’t come to the mandatory pre-bid (meeting); you’ve got a mandatory pre-submittal meeting, if they don’t show up, don’t take their bids,” Sanchez said.
“Yes, sir, we will reject their proposal,” Menchaca replied.
“If they don’t turn in a bid bond, you shouldn’t take their bid,” Sanchez added.
“Yes, we will reject their proposal,” Menchaca reiterated.
“Thank you; I appreciate everything that you do,” Sanchez said.
The council then voted unanimously to approve the amended motion.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
