Council approves $660,000 change order and $355,000 furniture package for municipal service center

City staff told the council that a job-order contract approach was used to renovate a roughly 20,000-square-foot former bank into a municipal service center to house multiple citizen-facing services. During demolition and early construction staff and the contractor identified three major unscoped items: a backup generator (about $245,000), replacement electrical panels (about $175,000) and an on-site project-management line item (about $240,000). The proposed change order of $660,000 would raise the project estimate from $2.9 million to about $3.56 million; staff said funding is available within the original certificates-of-obligation funding source.

Project manager Hutt said the generator was missed in early scoping and the electrical panels were found to be noncompliant once walls were opened; he described the project-management line item as an oversight in the original estimate. "These are 3 large expense items that aren't able to be incorporated in the existing contingencies," Hutt said while asking council to approve the change order. Council members stressed that future change orders should be rare; one councilor expressed particular concern about the $240,000 project-management line item but the change order passed on a 4–1 vote. The council also approved a furniture and equipment package with Martin Office Solutions for up to $355,000 to fully outfit the new municipal services center, a purchase staff said will reduce downtime and accelerate the move-in process.

The record includes several public opposition cards filed on the change order and furniture purchase (James Martinez, Travis Johnson, Vanessa Taylor and others) that staff entered into the record. Staff said the renovated facility is expected to be operational by the start of fiscal 2027 and that project management and funding will be coordinated with finance to absorb these costs within the bond-funded program.