Commission approves stormwater contract change orders and splits CDBG‑DR work between top two vendors
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Summary
The board authorized change orders to PCS Civil stormwater culvert contracts for Eastern and Western Hillsborough and directed staff to split a major CDBG‑DR recovery contract between Ernst & Young and Horn LLP following procurement rankings and committee reviews.
The Board approved two change orders to existing stormwater culvert contracts and authorized selection and negotiations with two top‑ranked firms for the county’s Community Development Block Grant‑Disaster Recovery (CDBG‑DR) program.
Josh Belotti (Engineering & Operations) described two first change orders to the PCS Civil stormwater culvert replacement contracts — one covering Eastern Hillsborough County and the other for Western Hillsborough County — citing a significant share of initial contract capacity dedicated to emergency and high‑priority hurricane work and asking for additional capacity and a time extension through October 2026. Staff said sufficient funding exists in the culvert replacement program in the adopted CIP. Commissioner Cohen and the board moved to approve the change orders; both motions carried 7–0.
Procurement Services (Scott Stormer) presented the evaluation committee rankings for the federally funded CDBG‑DR implementation services solicitation. The committee scored Ernst & Young highest (81.2 points) and Horn LLP second (77.6 points) among seven firms. Commissioners debated whether to award one large contract or split work among multiple vendors; several members advocated dividing tasks to mitigate risk. The board directed staff to negotiate with and split the work between the top two firms based on evaluation scores; motion carried 7–0. Staff noted federal procurement rules require careful documentation of evaluation factors and that failure to follow those rules risks financial penalties to the county.
Votes and next steps: The change orders and the procurement direction were approved by unanimous votes. Staff will proceed with negotiations, document evaluation rationales, and return with contract terms for board consideration.
