Council interviews, discusses program manager candidates at work session

Four of the five members of the Vestavia Hills City council spent nearly five hours Monday hearing presentations from five candidates to fill the program manager need to implement the Community Spaces Plan.

Because of his employment with the Associated Builders and Contractors, Place 4 Councilor George Pierce abstained from attending the interviews and will abstain from voting on the matter in order to avoid a conflict of interest, as many of the candidates are members of the association.

The council, with coordination by City Manager Jeff Downes, interviewed five firms: Capital Program Management, Brailsford & Dunlavey, Hoar Program Management, Robins & Morton and TCU Consulting Services. The delegation from each firm had precisely 45 minutes to make the case for the company to be awarded and to answer questions from the council.

Also in attendance, but who will have no vote on the matter, were Director of Public Services Brian Davis, and Tommy Coggin, a member of the Parks and Recreation Board and Community Spaces Committee.

During the request for proposal process, the firms were asked to put together an idea of the three major phases of the project, and how they would handle each with regard to organization, oversight and cost. Phase 1, which would last three months, would be focused on further vetting the Community Spaces Plan and determining exactly what the council wants to do. Phase 2, expected to last 12 months, would be the design phase of the actual construction and implementation projects. Phase 3, taking up to 24 months, would be the actual execution of the plan, potentially in various phases within the phase.

“These are estimates of the time frame,” Downes said, explaining that if things take longer than anticipated and laid out in the RFP, there would likely be cost implications.

Capital Program Management

Tim Coker, principle for Capital Program Management, presented what he referred to as "full scope services for development” that could be provided by CPM. He explained that CPM has worked with a number of municipalities, including Homewood and Wetumpka, as well as other recreation-focused projects for the YMCA and area churches.

"Digging into the complexities of a certain project, we’re not afraid to do that,” Coker said.

CPM would bill the city monthly, with rates dependent on the phase of the program, and Coker said – after Downes asked – that should the scope of the project change after Phase 1, the firm would be willing to renegotiate those rates if needed.

Brailsford & Dunlavey

A team from Brailsford & Dunlavey, the firm that assisted with creating the Community Spaces Plan, presented how they believed the firm could further the project they had a hand in designing.

“We think there’s been a good match,” said Joe Collums, one of the would-be program advisors.

Since the team already has knowledge of the history of the plan, Collums said that the team would focus on providing risk mitigation and putting the same planning skills used in the master planning process in the implementation process.

The team was also the only of the five presenters to emphasize that their firm would only be serving in a program management role, not in additional roles such as construction management.

Complexity in each phase would reflect proportionally in the cost.

Hoar Program Management

At least one of the representatives of the Hoar Program Management team was not wholly unfamiliar to the council. Greg Ellis, who would serve as the director of pre-construction services, is also involved with HPM's services to the Board of Education.

Ellis said that he is the one that "puts the pieces of the puzzle together," and that as a Vestavia resident himself, he sees the job as one that is in perfect tandem with the city's overall goals on quality of life improvement. He added, though, that the project is still pretty broad and undefined, and that HPM would help drill down to something that could be implemented.

“We’ve put some big parameters around a big dream. But now the question is, how do we make that dream a reality?” he said.

Downes asked if there would be a conflict of interest in the firm serving both the BOE and the city, because certain clauses in the firm's contract with the BOE indicate that savings for that project result in compensation for the firm.

Ellis and would-be project manager Clark Osborne, who is not involved with the BOE project, said that they view the connection as a benefit, not a conflict. Because they are familiar with the goals and limitations of the school projects, they can better bid – while adhering to bid laws – in a way that benefits both programs.

The cost would be proportionate to the number of man-hours invested in each phase.

Robins & Morton

In 1968, Robins Engineering was integral in building the Vestavia Hills Civic Center, which has been at the center of much debate as part of the Community Spaces Plan. 

“That building’s in pretty good shape to be 50 years old,” joked Richard Nelson, who would serve as senior program manager if the firm is given the contract.

The representatives walked through a scenario involving Wald Park to give councilors an idea of how they would work through each portion of the program. The idea, they said, is to focus on budgeting and scheduling in ways that seem boring and unspectacular, but that result in spectacular outcomes. In the end, they don't want the council to be surprised that they did a good job, scheduling expert Steve Moor said; they want them to have anticipated excellence.

The firm also uses Procore, a software application that allows stakeholders, like the city, to log in and view the status of various projects, ask questions and report issues.

The RFP response turned in by the firm indicates they would bill a certain number of hours per phase, which could be renegotiated as the project gets underway.

TCU Consulting Services

Ken Upchurch of TCU Consulting Services said that as the final presenter of the day, he recognized that the council had heard a lot of information, and that he would be simple.

“Every project that we’ve done so far, we’ve finished on time, and we’ve finished on budget or less,” he said, explaining how the team, who have been together for five years, have spent that time working with the Huntsville City School District on a long and complicated project, but have delivered.

With a master plan that answers some of the questions, but not all, Upchurch said that the city should be looking for a firm that asks the "what if" questions early and often in order to provide for contingencies and avoid change orders and rising costs.

Place 1 Councilor Paul Head raised for the sake of transparency the question of if Upchurch's history working with Downes in Montgomery would be a conflict of interest. Downes said he did not think it was a conflict of interest, and Upchurch said if anything, his history and knowledge that he can work with Downes is something that would benefit the project as a whole.

Moving Forward

After the delegations presented, the council refocused the meeting to discuss their preliminary thoughts and reactions. Coggin, who emphasized he has no vote and no influence, said that there were clear front runners in his mind.

Head pointed out that while HPM would be the "easy" choice because of the knowledge of the area, he was concerned with the potential conflicts of interest engaging with the firm would cause.

At the end of the discussion, there was general consensus that Downes should engage with Robins & Morton and TCU to further flesh out proposals that the council could consider at a later time.