ORB Management, overseeing the Grand Marais Public Library addition on behalf of Cook County, expressed its concern over quality issues raised by County Commissioner Fritz Sobanja by showing up at a special county board meeting on Friday, September 9, 2011. At the meeting were ORB owners Kim Barse and Tom Wachholz as well as Senior Project Manager Wade Cole and Assistant Project Manager/Project Coordinator Rob Barse.
Although ORB had been working with Sobanja for close to two weeks to correct deficiencies Sobanja had spotted, Sobanja still had concerns. “How are we going to get out of this the quality Cook County wants?” he asked. “A crisis is occurring here: lack of quality workmanship. Over and over again I’m getting what is, quite frankly, a line of B.S. from the guy that’s down there managing the project. …I’m constantly getting guff from your team. …I’m totally worn out. I can barely think anymore.”
“The reason we’re all here,” said Wachholz, “is because this is really important to us. We take this very seriously. …Half our office is here right now because Cook County is important to us.” Every construction project has problems that must be responded to, he said. “I could walk onto any construction site in America and find problems.” They received Sobanja’s first voice mail on a Friday and were here from Alexandria on Monday morning, he said.
“If we make a mistake, when we make a mistake,” Wachholz said, “we’re going to fix it, and we’ll pull out all the stops to do it.” The county commissioners were each given a memo outlining the concerns raised by Sobanja and ORB’s responses to those concerns, which included consultation with the building’s engineer and architect.
Wade Cole pointed out that this is the first time in almost a year of working with the county that a problem has called their reputation into question.
Commissioner Bruce Martinson asked how far off level the original library building was when they attached the addition to it. Cole said it was an inch and a half off, and getting the addition attached was very complicated, requiring many adjustments out in the field as they went. “It was executed flawlessly,” he said. “I don’t believe this building has poor quality workmanship.”
“It doesn’t now,” Sobanja said. “It did before.”
Rob Barse said a collaborative approach is best as the project develops. “It’s important to have everyone review it,” he said.
“Can we trust you and can we trust [Site Manager] Tom Weaver to carry out that project?” Sobanja asked.
Cole answered, “I say absolutely.”
Sobanja said that if he hadn’t shown up when he did two weeks before, the problems with inadequate anchor bolts and gaps in insulation would have been covered over with sheetrock.
What will you be doing differently from here on in? Commissioner Bruce Martinson asked.
Wachholz said he visits every single client after every job they do. He trusts that the review on this job will be as good as the ones they’ve gotten in the past, he said. They do trust, to a certain extent, that the construction company is professional, but they will be watching the project “like a hawk” now. Nobody is perfect, he said.
Commissioner Sue Hakes said she appreciates Sobanja’s expertise. “I also appreciate the capabilities ORB has demonstrated,” she said. “I am disappointed that the framing wasn’t perfect from the get-go. …But now that you’ve been put on alert, I trust that it will be perfect from here.”
ORB asked the board to contact Cole directly if they saw problems they didn’t feel had been resolved after talking with Site Manager Tom Weaver. They discussed whether a county board representative should be involved in routine inspections of the work. Commissioner Martinson said he knows Sobanja cares enough to go down to the job site randomly and check on the work. That’s good enough, he said. Sobanja agreed to keep checking on the job.
“There’s no perfection in this business,” Commissioner Sobanja said, “but there’s good enough, and you go for that. There’s a happy medium, and you’re satisfied with that.” Per diems
After the ORB representatives left the meeting, Sobanja asked the board to grant him per diem pay for all the hours he had put in on this situation. Commissioner Hakes said she was not comfortable granting per diems for work outside of scheduled meetings. “We’ve all spent hours and hours and hours on projects we’re involved in,” she said. “I consider that part of my job.”
There’s a huge learning curve in this job, Sobanja said – Hakes is the newest member of the board.
“That’s our job,” Hakes said. “That’s what we do. That’s what we get paid for.”
With Commissioner Jim Johnson at a meeting in Wisconsin, the board voted three to one to grant Sobanja per diems for four of the days he had worked on the library issue. Commissioner Hakes cast the nay vote.
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