The Yukon City Council and Yukon Municipal Authority on July 15 approved an agreement with Smith Roberts Baulch Wyler LLC (SRB) to provide program management and engineering support services to the city and the authority. The actions were approved in separate motions for the city council and the municipal authority; both passed by unanimous vote.

SRB partner Mark Long told council members the firm proposes a programmatic, risk-based approach rather than serving as a single “city engineer.” Long said SRB’s plan is to run two half-day workshops with city department heads, build an asset-prioritization scoring system and produce recommendations on team composition and capital program scheduling. “We would assist in the process of empowering the city departments and the city manager and the mayor and council in hiring and selecting and managing these engineering firms and other consultants,” Long said.

Acting City Manager Deckard and council members described the approach as giving the city flexibility to staff projects with subject-matter experts rather than relying on a single firm. “We can staff it up with outside consultants, outside engineers at the right cost, with the right expertise,” Mayor Brian Pilmore said in support.

The contract was described at the meeting as an hourly-rate, on-call program management agreement to start implementation with SRB providing initial workshops and recommendations. Council discussed the procurement timeline: staff issued a request for qualifications and conducted interviews in May–June and recommended SRB.

The motions authorized the mayor/chairman to sign associated documents and directed staff to begin the workshop process. No specific dollar amount for the contract was discussed at the council meeting; SRB said the engagement is hourly-rate based and intended to identify where outside expertise is required across public works, utilities, parks and development.