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Altamonte Springs commission approves Gateway Drive settlement, authorizes procurement items
Summary
The Altamonte Springs City Commission unanimously approved a settlement to resolve remaining Gateway Drive litigation and approved three finance procurement items including single-source waivers for AECOM and ETM and purchase of police vehicle parts under an existing contract.
The Altamonte Springs City Commission voted unanimously Feb. 18 to approve a proposed settlement resolving remaining litigation over Gateway Drive and approved three finance items, including purchase of police-vehicle parts and two single-source vendor waivers.
City staff told the commission the settlement resolves outstanding claims against the road contractor and will require the city to release liquidated damages it has been withholding since 2015. "The settlement would require the city to finally release the liquidated damages," said Mike Sasso, the city's litigation attorney.
Why it matters: the Gateway Drive litigation dated to construction work completed in 2015. The city previously settled with the engineering firm for $425,000; the remaining case involved the road builder and paving subcontractor and included claims related to asphalt and brick pavers. The commission's action clears the way for the city either to negotiate repaving with the contractor's subcontractor or to release retained funds and seek new bids for full repaving.
At the meeting, staff described the city's retained liquidated-damages amount as $240,595 held since 2015 and said accrued interest on that money is roughly $50,000 (about 2 percent). "The remaining claims had to do with the pavers and the asphalt. Those claims totaled $376,188," Sasso said, referring to the face amount of the contractor's remaining claims. Because of road age and wear, staff said they applied a 50 percent credit when valuing those claims.
Under the terms discussed at mediation, the subcontractor that performed the paving, Middlesex, has agreed to "aggressively bid" the repaving work and to negotiate a price with the city to remove the problematic brick pavers and replace the section with straight asphalt. If the city and that contractor cannot agree on a price, staff said the city will release the retainage and re-bid the work. Because the original 2015 construction contract remains open (retainage was withheld), staff said the city can proceed by change order if it negotiates directly with the contractor, which purchasing staff had cleared as procedurally acceptable.
Mary Snead, a city staff member, introduced the settlement and noted the parties participated in mediation Jan. 31. Sasso recommended the commission approve the settlement and said the contractor had been apologetic; he also thanked city staff who worked on the case. The commission made a motion "consistent with the city manager's memo of February 11" and approved the settlement unanimously.
Also on the consent/finance portion of the agenda the commission approved three procurement actions unanimously: (1) purchase of spare parts for police vehicles under an existing agreement with Avon Enterprise Inc., contract no. 010720AXN; (2) a waiver of solicitation and approval of AECOM Technical Services Inc. as a single-source vendor for specialized water-resource services (SSDASH25-020-RS); and (3) a waiver of solicitation and approval of England, Tims & Miller Inc. (ETM) as a single-source vendor for digital-twin feature-set development (SSDASH25-022-RS). The commission also approved minutes from the Feb. 4, 2025 regular meeting by unanimous vote.
Votes at a glance: - Approval of minutes, regular meeting of Feb. 4, 2025 — approved unanimously. - Finance items a, b and c (Avon Enterprise contract parts purchase; single-source AECOM; single-source ETM) — approved unanimously. - Gateway Drive settlement per city manager memo (Feb. 11) — approved unanimously.
What the action does and next steps: staff said the city attorney will provide the settlement document for execution. If the city negotiates a price with Middlesex for repaving, staff indicated the work could proceed by change order under the original 2015 contract; if negotiations fail, staff will release retainage and solicit competitive bids for repaving.
No public hearing was required for these items; the discussion and votes occurred during the regular agenda. Several commissioners offered separate brief announcements after the votes; no additional substantive debate about the settlement terms or the procurement items was recorded in the meeting transcript.
