HB 1849 and SB 2376 Legislation – A Different Perspective
As delivered to the Governor, Senate, House, Media and others:
I believe that HB 1849 and SB 2376 are a move in the right direction for the City of Cape Coral and all of the State of Florida. I believe that modern construction methods have outpaced the statutes and it is time for an update of the statute.
I have seen a position statement which claims the word may in the statute allows the City to choose to ignore all of the wording that follows. I disagree with this position vehemently.
“The construction-management entity may retain necessary design professionals selected under the process provided in s. 287.055. At the option of the local government, the construction-management entity, after being selected and after competitive negotiations, “MAY” be required to offer a guaranteed maximum price or a guaranteed completion date, in which case, the construction-management entity shall secure an appropriate surety bond pursuant to s. 255.05 and shall hold construction subcontracts.”
The only “MAY” is for Guaranteed Maximum Price or Guaranteed Completion Date. If they choose to select of those options, they are then required (Shall) gain a surety bond and hold construction subcontracts. Therefore I believe the new wording is completely correct and follows the spirit of keeping competition and low prices for construction manager at risk projects.
I believe that the Construction Manager at Risk methodology is serving our city well. I believe that we receive a lower overall cost of delivery of services. Florida DOT uses Construction Manager at Risk. Many counties are using Construction Manager at Risk to build school buildings. The American Institute of Architects has an excellent compendium on Construction Manager at Risk, (http://www.aia.org/SiteObjects/files/cmatriskcompendium.pdf), where they endorse this construction methodology as “a cost effective and time conscious alternative to the traditional design-bid-build process”.
There is research to back up my assertions as well. The City of Cape Coral’s Financial Services Director, Mark Mason, has created two memorandums recently. Each of the memorandum show a lower cost for delivery of services to Cape Coral than neighboring communities of Bonita Springs and Marco Island. Surely if the result is lower cost, the taxpayers are served well by this methodology.
In addition, Price Waterhouse Coopers performed an audit at the behest of MWH (Montgomery, Watson and Harza our Construction Manager at risk for our UEP) and also uncovered lower costs of service delivery for Cape Coral as compared to neighboring utilities. They also clearly showed a healthy, competitive bidding environment for all subcontractors.
The net result is a win for our taxpayers. Please consider passing these bills and allowing the law to catch up with effective, efficient construction management techniques.
Thank you for your kind consideration in this matter.
