By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
“It is what it is,” sighed Hays City Commissioner Lance Jones.
City officials still don’t fully understand why the Wichita firm CDM Smith “absolutely dropped the ball,” failed to meet several deadlines, and ran $3 million over the $27.6 million budget for the Phase 1 design services and development of a GMP (Guaranteed Maximum Price) to rebuild the city’s aging wastewater treatment facility.
The Hays wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) was built in 1953. The rebuild to meet stricter state and federal effluent discharge requirements is being financed by the city’s State Revolving Fund loan from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). The work was to have been completed by July 1, 2018. KDHE has agreed to extend the deadline until August 1, 2019.
On the recommendation of Water Resources Director Johnny O’Conner and Project Manager Stan Christopher of HDR Engineering, city commissioners voted unanimously Thursday night to authorize a Request For Proposals (RFP) for lump sum proposals to the remaining two design-build finalists, Burns & Mac/CAS Construction and Black & Veatch/Garney, for the Phase 2 construction agreement.
“(CDM) is a world-wide company,” Mayor Shaun Musil pointed out. “What frustrates me, you guys (city staff and HDR) worked your butts off to make sure that we weren’t overpaying. You just wonder how many other cities they’re doing this to. We have no choice. We have to move forward with this.”
City Manager Toby Dougherty echoed the mayor’s frustration. “We had a very competitive short-listing process. CDM had people on site the most. Between Round 1 and Round 2 of proprietary meetings, they are the ones that continued to invest the time and the money and effort to find ways to save costs. They earned it (the contract award), and earned it in a way that made us think they would follow through,” Dougherty said.
“I think the capability was there. I think the ball was dropped on their end during the project, on the execution side, as Stan mentioned. It wasn’t a matter of capability. It was a matter of getting the job done.”
Although he thinks there was “a legitimate effort to offer the city more than you said you needed, they just lost control,” Christopher reiterated. “They lost control at the execution and didn’t know where they were and didn’t get the resources they needed to complete it.” He added that he understands “everybody in their Wichita office is gone now.” Christopher reported last week the CDM Wichita vice-president, who addressed the city commission Dec. 10, was fired four months into the Hays project.
“I do remember sitting here and them talking about being able to come in under budget and under schedule,” said Commissioner Jones. “Then when they came back at the 30% (design submittal/cost estimate) they kept adding all these things like effluent water tanks. I didn’t speak up because they came in around the budget, and thought, well, we’re getting this extra stuff.
“But we made it very clear that this was our price ($27.6 million). I was very surprised when we came back last fall and got wind of all this. I kept hoping this big of a company would come back and make it right with us….they would lose money…but I was hoping they would be able to still make the budget.”
Jones commended city staff for their efforts, and the other commissioners nodded their appreciation.
“I’m glad we pulled the reins when we did,” he declared. “It’s very upsetting but we have to move forward.”
CDM began work Jan. 2, 2016. The city terminated its contract with the company Aug. 18, 2016, after a meeting Aug. 9 in which the final Phase 1 proposal from CDM was a GMP of $30,748,102.