Council declines to authorize contract development for current City Hall design proposal

The City Council voted not to move forward with the current City Hall design proposal, after members raised concerns about not soliciting new bids for the work and about the size of the design contract.

Councilors and staff reviewed the proposal from ISG, an engineering and architectural firm that previously worked on the city's space-needs and preliminary design efforts. ISG representatives described earlier work dating to a 2019 space-needs study and follow-up structural analyses and construction-manager support. Staff said the current step would be to accept ISG's proposal and then develop a contract for the council to consider.

Why it mattered: several council members said residents and local firms had questioned awarding a substantial design contract without a contemporary request for proposals. One councilor said constituents had contacted them asking why the city would not allow other firms to compete. ISG and staff pointed to the earlier RFP and five years of subsequent work as reasons to continue with the same firm; council members were split on whether that was sufficient.

Council debate focused on the procurement approach and on ensuring transparency. One councilor said the fee in the proposal was "about 6 and three quarters percent," a figure some members wanted to see compared with other bids. ISG representatives and staff replied that an RFP had been issued in 2019, that ISG had been selected then, and that the firm had since done the planning and preliminary work. Staff also noted the proposal would be followed by a formal contract to return to the council.

Outcome: Councilors moved and seconded a motion to accept the proposal and proceed to contract development; the roll call produced a split that left the motion without the votes to carry. The motion failed and the council did not authorize staff to finalize a contract with ISG at this meeting.

Next steps: Councilors discussed adding a request-for-proposals process to a future agenda to allow competitive submissions; staff said that until a contract is signed the city remains free to consider other proposals. A councilor also asked staff to include site and parking-layout questions in the next design discussion to reduce disruption during construction.

Quotes from the meeting: "I have some real heartburn about not putting it out to other companies... it's a lot of money," a councilor said during debate. "There was an RFP back in 2019 and ISG was vetted then," Josh Buckenhern of ISG replied, noting the firm's prior work for the city.

Speakers cited in this article: - Josh Buckenhern, presenter, ISG (business) - Eric Eigenberg, project manager, ISG (business) - Brian (last name not specified), City staff - Council Member Fish - Council Member Johnson - Council Member Coe - Council Member Lawrence - Council Member Marcel - Council Member Steen

Topics: city-hall-design, procurement, municipal-construction