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Tigard-Tualatin School District officials don鈥檛 want to talk about their new bus storage facility, but Tigard resident Michael Bednarek certainly has a lot to say about the project.

鈥淭his is another example of people in government who don鈥檛 have a clue about what they鈥檙e doing,鈥� said Bednarek, who runs a specialized tool sales and rental business that caters to electrical, mechanical and plumbing contractors.

Nancy Hubbard, the project manager for the district, said it is too early to identify specifications for the bus barn, but did say it would be a construction manager-general contractor project.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 have a contractor under contract yet, so it would be premature to say anything at this point,鈥� Hubbard said. 鈥淲e should have those details wrapped up in the next couple of weeks.鈥�

According to the district鈥檚 application for architectural review, on the city of Tualatin鈥檚 website, the cost of the project at 18340 S.W. Pacific Highway is $1.6 million.

The document further says the bus barn will be 3,584 square feet on 5.84 acres of land. Bill Conboy of Portland is listed as the architect and Matt Lewis of Portland is listed as the engineer.

Bednarek is upset that district officials settled on a construction manager/general contractor without putting the project out for bid.

There is a reason for that, Hubbard said.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a complex site involving three or four jurisdictional overviews,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t has a lot of debris and water issues. We are also working on a strict time frame.鈥�

She declined to elaborate, reiterating that the time for comments on the project is premature.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a bunch of (garbage),鈥� Bednarek said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e being (mistreated) by a bunch of part-time people who can鈥檛 do a job, so they run for school board.鈥�

Public agencies鈥� use of the CM-GC process has drawn criticism from professionals within the construction industry. Amendments to Oregon鈥檚 public contracting law are proposed in Senate Bill 254. The bill would outline specific conditions under which a public agency could use an alternative contracting method. It also would require the attorney general to adopt rules to specify the procedures for obtaining CM-GC services.

State Sen. Lee Beyer, D-Springfield, led a group of stakeholders in hammering out the bill between legislative sessions. He said he hopes it will lend transparency to the process. The bill has been referred to the Senate Business and Transportation Committee chaired by Beyer. A public hearing on the bill has not been scheduled.

As the law stands, public governing bodies must vote for alternative contracting methods and give reasons to back up their decision.

Tigard-Tualatin School District members last month passed a resolution regarding their decision. In their resolution, board members noted how they awarded a contract for the bus facility in May 2012, but the contract was terminated prior to project completion.

鈥淎 new contract to finish the bus facility needs to be awarded as quickly as possible to protect the existing work and to complete the project as expeditiously as possible,鈥� the resolution states.

The resolution says the decision will not encourage favoritism 鈥渂ecause it arises from the very rare circumstance where the district needs to contract with a new contractor to complete a project after the project has been partially constructed.

鈥淭he board further finds that allowing this contract exemption will result in substantial cost savings to the district because it will avoid project delay and potential programmatic and additional infrastructure costs that would be incurred as the result of having to conduct a full, formal process under the district鈥檚 rules.鈥�

Bednarek said that if district officials cared about saving money, they would put the project out for bid.

鈥淎sk anyone,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his is the best time to be buying anything. Anyone who is out there knows that this is a great time to be going out for bids because everyone is working so (darn) cheap.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know how anyone who knows anything about construction can believe anything in this piece of (garbage).鈥�

Yet the school board resolution says the public benefit is clear.

鈥淭he chief public benefit is more expeditious completion of the project, which will increase the efficiency and decrease the costs of providing bus services to the district鈥檚 Tualatin students,鈥� it reads.