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Ione council awards wastewater master-plan contract amid objections over duplicated work and consultant spending
Summary
The Ione City Council voted to award a contract for a wastewater/tertiary-plant master plan to Community Engineering after heated debate about whether the RFP duplicates past consultant work and about prior consultant spending. Critics urged rebidding with accurate documentation.
The Ione City Council on May 5 voted to award a contract to Community Engineering Incorporated to prepare a wastewater treatment facility master plan and a permit-amendment study for linking the city's sewer and tertiary plants.
The project, intended to produce an updated capital improvement plan and to provide the documentation needed to amend the city's permit to use an interconnection pipeline, drew sustained criticism from some council members and members of the public who said the request-for-proposals (RFP) duplicates analyses already completed by prior consultants.
Council member Lefane said the RFP includes tasks and background that, in her view, had already been performed by earlier contractors and by city task orders. She told the council that the RFP contained factual errors (including incorrect acre-foot capacity figures) and argued proposers should have been given a complete record of prior work so bids would reflect only unfinished tasks.
"There's a bunch of stuff that is duplicate that's already been done," Lefane said, urging staff to compile a clear list of what has been completed and what remains.
Supporters of moving forward said the RFP updates and consolidates old materials (many dating to 2013) so the city can secure a permit amendment that would allow use of the interconnection pipe and plan for future needs. Staff noted two responsive bids were received and presented the low bid from Community Engineering; West Yoast submitted a higher bid and was the subject of many criticisms from council members and the public about past performance and overlapping task orders.
After further public comment urging the council to provide proposers with all prior documentation, the council moved to award the contract to Community Engineering and authorized execution of the contract. The motion carried with recorded opposition.
The contract award authorizes staff to move into the next procurement step; council members who pressed for more documentation said they expect staff to provide a clear accounting of prior expenditures and a scope-of-work reconciliation in the contract and future staff reports.
What happens next: staff will execute the Community Engineering contract and return to the council with contract documents and, as requested during debate, additional documentation clarifying what work has already been done and what remains to be completed.
