CLEVELAND, Ohio – A committee appointed to oversee the replacement of Cuyahoga County’s antiquated jail voted unanimously Thursday to depart from the traditional bidding process to award work on a project expected to far exceed $500 million.
The vote by committee members - including County Executive Armond Budish, County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley and Presiding and Administrative Common Pleas Judge Brendan Sheehan - followed a consultant’s presentation during which they made no comments and asked no questions.
After the meeting, cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer asked whether the lack of any public discussion prior to the vote was the result of private talks among committee members. Jeff Appelbaum, a lawyer leading the committee, said he had not briefed the committee.
The Editorial Board for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer, and good-government advocate Common Cause Ohio have criticized the Budish administration for its recent use of no-bid contracts, arguing that obtaining sealed bids from prospective contractors helps ensure taxpayers get the best deal.
And cost is a major concern given that the county has not said how it plans to pay for the jail and floating a bond would seem especially burdensome given the financial condition of the county and the reluctance of voters to adopt new taxes.
The competitive-bidding process also helps reduce the possibility of political influence or corruption figuring into the awarding of contracts.
But the committee agreed to what Appelbaum described as a “design-build delivery method” that he said would result in greater transparency and less cost to taxpayers by having the administration award a no-bid contract to a “design builder” that would complete the project at a guaranteed maximum price.
The design-builder will then solicit sealed bids or proposals for the construction work and award the contracts. The county can monitor the process to make sure it’s competitive and to object in certain circumstances, Appelbaum said.
Sealed proposals are used when a subcontractor’s engineering or design expertise is desired. If the price to deliver the designed product exceeds an agreed upon target, the contract is put out for competitive bid.
A sealed bid is more concrete and almost exclusively determined by price, Appelbaum said, and generally involves simpler kinds of work.
Appelbaum noted that the county used the same process to build the Hilton Cleveland Downtown hotel, a $272 million project that he said would have taken more time to complete had the more traditional process been used.
After the meeting, Budish said the process recommended by Appelbaum is competitive, allows for collaboration among the entities involved, is flexible when it comes to making changes, and results in much less cost to the taxpayer.
O’Malley said Appelbaum is doing what the county hired him to do.
“I have no reason not to trust his expertise,” he said.
The first step in the design-build process will be for the administration to select a “criteria architect” that will assist with selecting a site for the jail. The committee has agreed that the jail should be separate from courtrooms and offices. Once a site is selected, the criteria architect will come up with design documents that will help lead to a guaranteed maximum price.
At the same time, the county will seek applicants to serve as design-builder. Applicants will present their credentials, including such things as past performance and success at meeting inclusion goals. The administration will review those qualifications to arrive at a short list of finalists.
The finalists will be asked to present proposals that have both a technical and price component.
The technical components will detail the approach to be taken. The price will be sealed to prevent collusion and will detail how much the design-builder will charge for its services, including profit and overhead, and how much staff will be paid. It also will include architectural fees and money obligated for contingencies.
The administration will then select a design-builder based on price and qualifications. Subsequently, the design-builder will estimate the additional costs of construction to come up with the guaranteed maximum price to be approved by the county.
The final step will be to hire the subcontractors based on bids. And if the final cost of the project exceeds the guaranteed maximum price, the overrun is absorbed by the design-builder.
“That is the protection we get using this approach,” Appelbaum said.
Appelbaum said this process is more transparent than the more traditional system because it itemizes the various components of the project. It also provides a sole source of responsibility, thereby protecting the county from certain types of litigation.
Appelbaum said that in 2011, when the state legislature approved the so-called “build-design delivery method,” Ohio was one of four states that still required public projects to be built using what he called multiple prime, sealed-bid contracting.
That system, he said, which still may be useful on smaller projects, often led to substantial cost overruns and a lack of transparency due to the lump-sum nature of the competitive bidding.
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March 26, 2021 at 03:48AM
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New Cuyahoga County Jail will not be built using traditional sealed bid process - cleveland.com
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