By Alan Torres
Eugene Register-Guard

Springfield City Council has voted against pursuing an expedited process for city hall renovations, forgoing a staff recommendation, after urging from local construction industry leaders.

“I don’t know that this is the right process for Springfield,” said City Councilor Kori Rodley, joining the unanimous vote.

The process she referred to was Construction Manager/General Contractor.

Oregon law states government agencies in “shall make every effort to construct public improvements at the least cost” through a competitive bid process, but carves out an exception for CM/GC contracts.

Local governments choose CM/GCs because they’re faster than regular government contracts and because they can prevent cost overruns by capping the cost of a contract.

But leaders of local construction firms told Springfield City Council and the Register-Guard that recently, governments have been overusing the practice, which they believe favors larger, out-of-state firms.

Local contractors push back on expedited contracting

Jerry Valencia, owner of Lowell-based Bridgeway Contracting, was one of the local construction leaders who urged councilors to reconsider. Valencia told the Register-Guard he’s seen local governments in Lane County gradually increase their use of CM/GC since 2009, and the change has harmed local businesses.

“These large contractors keep getting a little bit bigger, and bigger and bigger,” he said, while fewer projects are awarded “to the general contractors that actually provide livable wages, family health care, and actually pay the taxes for that bond.”

At a June 22 Springfield City Council meeting, councilors were scheduled to approve a CM/GC process for the city hall maintenance project. The vote would have narrowed the city’s search from the seven contractors that applied to two finalists staff had scored highest (both of which were large multi-state) firms, before the parties submitted cost estimates.

At the City Council meeting, City Manager Nancy Newton said the CM/GC process is warranted because the city hall upgrades are urgent.

“The city has really tried to take this building as far as it can in the least expensive way for a very long time,” she said. “We have two portable air conditioning units that aren’t really working that well … the building itself is conveying some urgency to this decision and I’m really reluctant to postpone it any further.”

Staff also said they believe the CM/GC process saves money. Assistant City Attorney Kristina Kraaz told councilors she doesn’t think the city would find a cheaper contract if it opens up the competitive process.

Valencia disagreed. He said in his experience, CM/GC drives up the cost of contracting, because it’s less competitive and firms awarded a CM/GC contract will always charge the maximum allowed in the contract.

City council opts to give local contractors chance to bid

Councilors unanimously voted to pursue the longer process. They said it was important to give local employers an opportunity to bid for the city work.

“The construction industry right now is really slow, and they have crews and people sitting at home and families that they’d like to be supporting,” Councilor Michelle Webber said.

Valencia called City Council’s decision “a great victory for the Lane County construction community.” Valencia said he would bid for the contract, and he expects other local construction firms will, as well.

Most cases don’t get this outcome

In this case, local contractors successfully pushed back on the plan to award a CM/GC contract, but that’s not the typical result.

On June 26, Lane County notified the firms who had applied to build the Lane County Stabilization Center, that they had narrowed their search from the 10 firms who had applied, to three finalists in another CM/GC process.

In this case, the county didn’t rely on urgency to justify the CM/GC process. Instead in Lane County’s “Notice of Pending Exemption from Competitive Bidding,” the county said it pursued CM/GC because it wanted to consider “qualitative factors” in addition to cost.

“Variables such as unique attributes being required in the design/construction of such a stabilization facility, challenges inherent in new construction on undeveloped land, and the overall magnitude of the project helped inform this decision,” the notice said.

According to Lane County’s scores of these proposals, shared with the Register-Guard by Valencia and John Hyland Construction, two of the 10 firms that applied are based in Lane County. One of those: Eugene-based Essex, advanced, while Springfield-based John Hyland Construction did not. Instead, Lane County named Lake Oswego-based Pence Contractors and Skanska to the final round.

According to the scoring document, Skanska outscored Hyland on “firm history,” “qualifications and experience,” “project staffing” and “project approach.” They tied on “fee proposal.”

In an email forwarded to the Register-Guard, John Hyland Construction President Shaun Hyland objected to the scoring.

“Our local government should be picking on lowest price on a competitive basis, not based on how well our marketing department does,” he wrote.

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