VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – The Valley City Commission approved of hiring the engineering team of KLJ and Moore Engineering for engineering and planning services starting in January.
City Commissioner Dick Gulmon served on the city engineering committee that made the recommendation.
Commissioner Mike Bishop questioned what is different from this agreement compared to the previous one.
Commissioner Jeff Erickson is concerned about who would oversee these engineering firms under this agreement.
And commissioners Dick Gulmon and Mike Bishop had this exchange before the final vote.
In a 3 to 2 vote, the commission approved of a three-year agreement with KLJ and Moore Engineering for engineering and planning services starting next year. Commissioners Bishop and Erickson voted against the motion on Tuesday, December 15th.
The full presentation and exchange of comments from the city commission concerning this agenda item are available here.
City Attorney Carl Martineck said the reason the City went through the Qualifications process for selecting an engineer was so that any work assigned to the contracted City Engineer for an eligible project would qualify for cost-share funds from the State Water Commission. The three-year term is the maximum allowed per State Water Commission policy before the City would be required to go through another selection process for a contracted City Engineer.
However, both the City and the Engineering firm will be able to terminate the agreement at any time with reasonable notice.
Under the contract there is no requirement that the City use the contracted City Engineer as the project manager or lead engineer on any project.
For example, the Procurement Services Committee recently went through the Qualifications process again to select an engineer specifically for the 6th Street reconstruction project scheduled for 2022. KLJ-Moore also submitted qualifications statement for that project, along with three other engineering firms. Final results will be presented at the next commission meeting in January concerning that project.
The committee includes three City employees and three commissioners. The City advertises, engineering firms submit their qualifications (bids or discussion of cost is NOT permitted by law). Interviews are held with the firms. The committee members score the firms according to specific criteria, and the scores are tallied. The highest scoring firm has 1st priority, and the commission then makes a good faith effort to discuss costs and services.
Again, this is what the City did for selecting a City Engineer, and has the option to do so for any project. The City also has the option, in their discretion, to assign any project to the City Engineer without going through a qualifications process. If KLJ-Moore is the most qualified team for a project, the City will contract with them. The City Administrator and applicable portfolio holders will review the work being done and invoices that are submitted. If there are discrepancies, concerns, issues, the City is able to contract with any other engineering firm to review the work and billing (and they have done so in the past). If everything appears to be proceeding appropriately pursuant to our engineering contract, I don’t foresee that the City will find it necessary to hire additional engineers just for oversight.
KLJ-Moore also have a detailed quality control system in place (as do all of the firms). As presented to the City, this is designed to keep costs down, and minimize risk. On the other hand, if KLJ-Moore is not the most qualified firm for a project, the City will utilize KLJ-Moore to oversee and review the work of the other engineering firm contracted for a project.
There are three areas of need and specific tasks/duties under each need: General Services, General Planning Services, and
Floodplain Administration. Other tasks would be related to specific construction or infrastructure projects as they arise.
Martineck said the City Commission agreed that building inspection services will continue to be provided through Midwest Inspection Services.