City of Ann Arbor SSWWEP - Citizens Advisory Committee Coordination

CDM Contract Extension

Posted by Nick Hutchinson on 25 Apr, 2014
Category: No category

CAC Members,

Many of you received an e-mail from Frank Burdick regarding a contract extension for CDM, who is the consultant that has been managing the FDD program.

In September of 2012, City Council passed a Resolution suspending the FDD program in the Glen Leven and Morehead study areas only. This did not affect FDD work in the other study areas, although most of the single family residences were completed in the other 3 areas by then. FDD work has continued on mult-family properties (such as condos and apartment buildings) in the Dartmoor area since that time. The Resolution also directed staff to continue with the DOM program.

The purpose of the contract extension with CDM is to continue their services managing these programs in the short term, until the SSWWE CAC can complete their work and make recommendations for moving forward. Once these recommendations are completed, CDM's contract will no longer need to be renewed, and we can instead focus on implementing the recommendations of the CAC.

Mr. Burdick presented this contract extension in his e-mail as evidence that the City has a predetermined outcome from the SSWWE Project, however I wanted to assure you all that this is absolutely not the case.

Nick

Comments

Judy Hanway on 25 Apr, 2014:

Nick,

With all due respect, if this Contract Extension was so aboveboard, why did you not bring up this Contract Extension on BaseCamp? The SSWWE has spent a great deal of time discussing the FDD program and I think it's safe to say that we are all interested in what is going on with the FDDP. Also, this is going to City Council well before the scheduled Joint SSWWE CAC/FDD CAC meeting in June.

The amendment that is going before council proposes an extension of CDM's contract to January of 2015 with a budget of $748,000. This money would come out of the Sewer Fund Capital Budget according to the resolution. The breakdown of the budget includes:

$36,928 for Citizen Support

$24,180 for FDD CAC support (mostly for managing meetings)

$93,707 for Information Management (updating the web site and monitoring sump pumps)

$95,213 for DOM Support (working with the developers etc)

$114,708 for continuing the Multi-Family FDDs and

$383,297 for paying for the construction work for the multi-family fdds

Also, the amendment states that the funds would "be available until expended without regard to fiscal year".

This last statement, as well as the large amount of the proposed contract ($748,106), don't seem to fit with Nick's statement that this is a "short-term" project and that once the SSWWE gives it's recommendations, CDM's contract won't need to be renewed.

I wish I could make $748,000 in 8 months!

I welcome others' opinions as well as further explanations of this resolution and it's timing. Thanks.

Nick Hutchinson on 25 Apr, 2014:

First, my apologies for not posting something about this sooner. I should have realized the interest you all would have, and for that I am sorry.

A couple of things to note. One of the things that CDM does is to hire and pay the contractors to perform the multi-family disconnection work, and that is where the largest piece of the money ($383,297) is from.

In regards to the phrase "be available until expended without regard to fiscal year", this statement needs to be included in the Resolution because the City's fiscal year ends on June 30th. So that statement needs to be there to make use of this extension beyond that time. We are estimating that we will require CDM's services through about January of next year, by which time we expect to have recommendations from this project and some time to figure out how to implement them.

Patricia Marten on 10 May, 2014:

I understand this was put on hold...? Please clarify, thanks.

Nick Hutchinson on 12 May, 2014:

Council postponed the item until the June 2nd meeting.

Patricia Marten on 27 May, 2014:

So the vote is this coming Mon, June 2. Was there discussion at the last meeting about some of the concerns raised?

Nick Hutchinson on 28 May, 2014:

Yes, there was an extensive discussion at the May 5th meeting. If you want to see it, you can watch the video of the meeting here:

http://a2gov.legistar.com/DepartmentDetail.aspx?ID=4166&GUID=695084DA-6854-4B69-A3E0-760D51EE2D71&Mode=MainBody

A modified version of the resolution will be on the June 2nd agenda. Since the revised version is not in Council's hands yet, I can't really go into detail on it, but it will be publicly available later this week as part of Monday's Council Agenda.

I would like to say however, that this amendment to CDM's contract will not have any effect on the SSWWE Project.

Patricia Marten on 28 May, 2014:

re Video:

Frank speaks at 0:21:30 (time line)

Jack Eaton starts discussion on "DS-1 Amend #4" at 1:40:00 goes until 2:25:00

Charlie Fleetham on 28 May, 2014:

Pat - thanks for marking the video. I watched both sections and learned a lot about Council's perspective on FDD, DOMP, etc.

City of Ann Arbor SSWWEP - Citizens Advisory Committee Coordination — City of Ann Arbor

CDM Contract Extension

Comments