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Council approves $189,000 AV change order for Stephenson Building; some members question contingency use
Summary
Council approved change order No. 1 for audiovisual equipment at the Stephenson Building with a proposed cost of $189,000 to be funded from the project's contingency; council members debated contingency depletion and whether some items should be deferred, and meeting record notes one recorded 'nay' on the motion.
Council approved change order No. 1 on Feb. 17 to add audiovisual components to the Stephenson Building project. Staff said the requested change order totals $189,000 for materials, labor, overhead and bonding, to be performed by QA Construction with QA Systems as subcontractor. Staff said the project contingency (about $444,000) would cover this change order and identified a possible additional change order (about $15,000) for insulation under the flooring.
Council discussed the cost, the risk of reducing contingency on a historic building project and the tradeoffs between buying higher‑quality built‑in AV now versus renting equipment later. Some council members expressed concern that the amount was high and would consume a large portion of contingency; others argued that better sound and scalability would avoid repeat expenditures as happened with prior municipal projects.
After discussion a motion to approve change order No. 1 passed. The transcript records 'Motion carries. There's 1 nay. 5 4 ayes.' The transcript phrasing is ambiguous about the final numeric tally; no individual roll‑call tallies were read into the record in the transcript text.
