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Commission presses staff on engineering invoices; approves payment and orders contract review
Summary
After the mayor flagged Stantec invoices as potentially overbilled for brief line items, staff defended the work but the commission voted to pay the invoice while directing a contract and fee-structure review to reduce hourly-billing risk and consider 15‑minute increments or lump-sum work.
Mayor raised concerns that engineering consultants were billing hourly for work that appeared to take minutes, prompting an extended discussion on oversight and contract structure. "If any of our engineering contracts allow us to be billed a full hour for sending one email, that is obviously problematic," the mayor said.
Public Works Director (Steve) and CIP staff explained the Stantec work addressed prolonged coordination across FDOT, the BayWalk project and sign redesigns, and recommended maintaining the existing invoice payment while implementing additional controls. Steve said staff will move away from hourly, not-to-exceed contracting where feasible and tighten invoice review practices. The commission approved payment for the invoice but directed staff to review engineering contract terms, explore renegotiation to shorter billing increments and tighten oversight on deliverables.
