Tom Wacholz and Kim Barse—the two owners of Orb Management of Alexandria, MN—met with the county board Tuesday, February 15, 2011 to talk about what their firm could do for Cook County as it gears up for several projects to be funded by a 1% county sales and use tax. The board discussed a consulting agreement ORB had drawn up with County Attorney Tim Scannell for ORB’s oversight of some or most of the projects.
ORB Management will not act as a consultant for one of the projects—the community center—because it is already in a contract with the county as its owner’s representative.
The consulting agreement had been revised from one presented to commissioners several weeks ago after commissioners had raised concerns about how payment to ORB would be calculated. The revised contract has the county paying a fee of up to 2.5 percent of the cost of the projects plus reimbursable expenses (to which a 1.1 percent “administrative multiple” would be added) including mileage, lodging, meals, and support personnel at $62 an hour.
Seven projects have been identified for the 1% tax implemented last spring: a new community center, an addition to the Grand Marais Public Library, capital improvements to Superior National at Lutsen golf course, outdoor recreation improvements on current Community Center property and at Birch Grove Community Center, a biomass heating plant, and installation of broadband fiber optic infrastructure.
The consulting agreement gives Cook County the leeway to use ORB Management on any or all of the projects unless ORB is already acting as a project’s construction manager or owner’s rep. A separate sub-agreement will be drawn up for each project ORB assists with.
“It provides the board a lot of flexibility,” Scannell said of the contract.
Commissioner Sue Hakes asked if the contract gave the county an “out” if the county decided it no longer wanted to use ORB as a consultant. This year, Hakes transitioned into her commissioner role after finishing her term as mayor of Grand Marais. The city recently stepped out of any involvement with the new community center/pool facility because city attorneys advised the city council that they were still obligated to an aquatics design firm that provided pre-design work several years ago when the city was deciding what to do about its aging municipal pool. Hakes said she doesn’t want to go through another situation like they had just been through.
The contract with ORB states, “Either party may suspend or terminate this master agreement upon 60 days written notice to the other party.”
Scannell supported hiring ORB to help with the projects. “We just don’t have any staff member who can do these things for the county,” he said. County Auditor-Treasurer Braidy Powers said that the county has run into problems on projects when they have not used consultants.
The board discussed how ORB could help with the library expansion. Commissioner Jim Johnson told Wacholz and Barse that the library architect, John Geissler of DSGW architects of Duluth, didn’t think a project of this size would need a consultant, but, he said, this seemed to cause “a missing check and balance.” He said that when the 1% Committee was presented with the project before a referendum approved the new tax, the cost was estimated at $700,000, but now the figure is up over $1,000,000.
“Our role is not to come in and take over a project or to micro-manage it,” said Wacholz. He described ORB’s role as “the eyes and ears for the county,” an “advocate,” and a “liaison” between the county and architects, builders, and committees.
“I can draft contracts,” Scannell said, “but I have to know the standards the contracts need to meet.” For this he will use ORB’s expertise. “From my perspective, that would be a real value,” he said.
Wacholz said he had read a letter to the editor in the February 12 edition of the Cook County News-Herald in which the writer had asked what exactly the county would be getting for the money they would spend on ORB. “I like that,” Wacholz said. “It means that people care.” The revised master agreement outlines 32 specific things ORB is available to do for the county, from providing professional advice, input, and leadership on planning activities to creating a centralized costtracking and documentation system for all the 1% projects.
Wacholz said the fact that they will already be in Cook County as the owner’s rep on the community center project will provide an “economy of scale” and avoid duplication of some expenses.
Commissioner Fritz Sobanja wondered how they would know ORB would do a better job than some other company. “We seem like we’re getting a fine deal on the dollar amount here,” he said, “but I haven’t yet seen the board ask these questions, and I’m concerned about that.”
Commissioner Bruce Martinson said they would not want to take any chances with public money.
“My comfort comes from the contractual relationship we have with them,” said Commissioner Hakes.
Wacholz reminded the board that ORB had been interviewed three or four times and compared with seven other firms before they were hired to be the owner’s rep on the community center project. A committee of about 14 people reviewed their credentials and checked their references. The scope of their services for that project is even more encompassing than what they would do as consultant for the other projects, he said.
Commissioner Hakes pointed out that Sobanja was on the steering committee that hired ORB and that he went on a site visit to see firsthand one of the projects ORB had consulted on. Also on the community center steering committee, Hakes said she has worked with ORB enough to know that if she saw a problem, she could call them up and they would fix it. Questioning whether they were the right firm for the other 1% projects was unnecessary, she indicated. “That train left the station.”
The board passed two motions related to ORB, one approving the contract for consulting services on the 1% projects (except for the community center) and the other to create a sub-agreement for ORB’s assistance with the library project. The second motion also included authorization to hire DSGW architects for the library addition.
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