County owner’s rep STV lays out progressive design‑build timetable, jail capacity study and inmate input plan

Adam Johnson, senior project manager for STV, told the Justice Project Oversight and Planning Committee on April 7 that STV was serving as Whatcom County’s owner’s representative for the county’s jail and behavioral‑health facility project and outlined a progressive design‑build procurement and study timetable.

Johnson said STV signed its contract in February and moved quickly to submit a Project Review Committee (PRC) application, which the county received approval for in March. He said the county’s RFQ for the design‑build team “just hit the street yesterday” and that the county will shortlist firms from statements of qualifications and then issue an RFP to the three shortlisted teams.

The PRC process and procurement approach select a design‑build team based on qualifications rather than lowest bid; Johnson said the process is governed by state law (RCW) and requires PRC approval before moving to the qualifications stage. He described the procurement steps: receive SOQs, shortlist to three firms, issue RFPs that request management plans and a fee proposal, hold interactive meetings with proposers, then select an intent to award (planned for July) and finalize contracts in August.

STV confirmed it expects to have draft jail capacity and behavioral‑health analyses completed before bringing the design‑build team on board so the new team can begin design, programming and cost/scope validation immediately. The county’s capacity analysis contractor (Eric Ratz of DLZ) conducted an on‑site capacity/operations review March 31–April 1; Johnson said that review generated a list of roughly 30 required data points, many of which must be disaggregated by gender, that county staff are assembling to complete the analysis.

On engagement with people who are incarcerated, Caleb (county jail staff) said the outreach will include two phases: an initial tablet‑based survey available to incarcerated people and then at least three confidential in‑unit focus groups to gather more in‑depth feedback. Caleb said those activities should happen “within the next few weeks.” Sheriff Tanksley said the sheriff’s office was still compiling and providing requested data to the capacity analyst and asked that the office first provide a complete dataset to the consultant before distribution to committees to ensure a consistent data flow.

Johnson also described members of STV’s extended team who will advise on justice operations, behavioral health and trauma‑informed design, including Eric Ratz (justice operations specialist), Frank Green (architect with recent work on large urban jail projects) and Nathan Howell (behavioral‑health design specialist). He said STV’s work for phase 1 runs through August and that the county aims to complete a programming/validation phase in Q1 of next year with multiple scope and operational options presented to county decision makers.

STV said community engagement and subcontractor outreach will continue throughout design, and the firm described goals to prioritize local subcontractors and local hire targets where possible. Johnson said prevailing wage rules will apply; if federal funds are used, Davis‑Bacon requirements would also apply. He said there is no project labor agreement (PLA) for this procurement because the RFQ was already released and contracts are under way.

Questions from committee members included whether staff and corrections employees would be part of focus groups; Johnson and others confirmed the institutional review board (IRB) exemption covers staff as well as incarcerated people for the initial round of survey and focus groups. Committee members also asked for a copy of the list of data elements being requested for the capacity analysis; STV and sheriff’s staff agreed to provide it through the task‑force distribution channels once the consultant has received the full dataset.

The owner’s‑rep presentation emphasized that the progressive design‑build delivery brings contractor, design and major subcontractors into early programming so the county can jointly evaluate cost, scope and schedule tradeoffs and produce multiple facility/operational options for the county executive and council to consider.

Ending: STV plans an intent‑to‑award in July and contracts in August, with programming and validation work continuing through Q1 of the next year; the county is assembling data for a capacity analysis and will run tablet surveys and in‑unit focus groups with incarcerated people and staff to inform the programming and design.