It wasn’t exactly a victory dance, but it was as close as you’re likely to get from a Baltimore bureaucrat.

A beaming Jamie Kendrick, deputy director of the Department of Transportation, accepted a round of handshakes and subdued fist-bumps this morning after a feared protest to a new way of awarding some city contracts failed to materialize at the Board of Estimates meeting.

Relief (and surprise) was also apparent among the five-member spending board, which unanimously approved the new contracting method before adjourning the six-minute-long meeting.

At issue was a change in the city charter that will allow agency heads to use a “design-build” model for certain public works projects, bypassing the traditional competitive bid process.

Under the current system, the city gets a design for a project together and then opens it up for competitive bids. The “lowest responsive and responsible bidder” must be chosen, according to the city charter.

Under the new rules, one company will do both the architectural/engineering and construction work under a single contract. Contractors would submit their unified proposals to the city.

Rather than go through open bidding, the proposals would be ranked in-house by a design-build executive committee consisting of three agency heads (Public Works, Transportation and General Services) and two members of the city solicitor’s office.

Final approval of the contract would still reside in the Board of Estimates.

Designed to Save Time

Protests against the new contracting system had been lodged by the Community Churches United for Baltimore Jobs and the Maryland Minority Contractors Association.

But when neither group answered to the call by Board of Estimates President Bernard C. “Jack” Young to come before the panel, the board ratified the change to the city charter without discussion.

All members, including Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, City Comptroller Joan M. Pratt, City Solicitor George Nilson and Young, voted for the change.

According to Public Works Director Alfred H. Foxx, who spoke after the meeting was adjourned, the new contracting model will streamline completion of complex construction projects, such as stream restoration and bridge rebuilding.

“The process will be a lot faster. The construction and engineering work will be hand-in-hand. They will work as one team.”

He said the new delivery method could result in cost savings “because of the reduced time” and could result in fewer cost overruns – known as “EWOs,” or extra work orders – because the contractor, not the city, will be responsible for handling the “risk” of unforeseen conditions.

“The risk is with the partnership [of designers and contractors]. They are responsible for issues that come up on the project because they were the ones who designed it.”

Asked if the partnership could still come back and request EWOs from the city, Foxx said, “There would have to be very unusual circumstances and conditions for them to come back to us.”

Wide Discretion for new Design-Build Committee

In a memorandum submitted to the board today, a range of projects was described as suited for design-build contracts. They include:

• emergency and repair projects.
• projects supporting economic development or “enhancement.”
• projects using innovative designs or construction methods.
• projects “deemed by the City to have expedited scheduling requirements.”
• projects that “do not lend themselves to normal design-bid-build procedures.”

The memorandum notes that these examples are “not intended to limit the decision-making authority of the design-build executive committee.”

Addressing the issue of whether the new rules might shut out smaller or minority contractors, Foxx said there were various safeguards.

They boil down to the continuation of the city’s minority business enterprise (MBE) and women’s business enterprise (WBE) program.

MBE/WBE participation goals, he said, would be assigned separately for the design and construction phases of each design-build contract, thereby giving smaller contractors a chance to get a slice of the larger contract.

The city generally calls for 27% minority participation and 10% women’s participation in city contracts, although these requirements are often reduced or waived for a variety of reasons.

Foxx estimated it would take at least several months for the new contracting model to be put in place. He said he did not expect the model to be used for “non-complex” city contracts, such as street paving, which would continue to be competitively bid.

$2.26 Million in EWOs Approved

The spending board also approved the following expenditures under its “routine” agenda, which allows all of the items below to be voted on collectively without discussion:

• $1,857,000 to Mid Eastern Builders Inc. in an EWO (extra work order) at the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant. The original contract called for the cleaning and painting of five primary settlement tanks.  According to a report to the spending board: “Upon inspection, it was discovered that the exterior concrete walls of the effluent trough of PST Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 were badly deteriorated and in need of repair. The contractor was directed to remove and replace the walls for each of the five PSTs.” The original contract for was $9.7 million.

• $240,807 to Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. for an EWO involving the city’s Central Garage project. The original contract with Whiting-Turner was bid for $17.95 million, but has undergone 84 EWOs, which have hiked the cost of the project to $30.95 million, according to city records.

• $159,300 to R.E. Harrington Plumbing & Heating for an EWO involving “water appurtenance installations” for the bureau of water. This is the 8th EWO on a contract originally bid at a little under $5 million. The EWOs have together added up to $367,575.12.

• $2 million to Delta Chemical Corp. for the supply of aluminum sulfate to the bureau of water. This is a third-year extension of a $1.4 million contract originally awarded to Delta.

• $1,616,122 to the St. Jerome’s Head Start program administered by Associated Catholic Charities to provide services for 276 low-income children and their families.

• $1.5 million (maximum) to Hord Coplan Macht Inc. for “on-call” services for the Department of Recreation and Parks. The three-year contract will provide architectural design work for “various city park and recreation facilities.”

• $900,000 to Second Chance Inc. for the relocation of its non-profit salvage business from several city-owned buildings on Warner St. The Baltimore Development Corp. (BDC) requested these funds as part of its plan to demolish the city buildings to make way for a proposed video slots facility in South Baltimore.

• $328,371 to IBM for maintenance of computer software and hardware for the city. This is a no-bid extension of a sole-source $460,000 contract that the city struck with IBM last November.

• $300,000 to the Department of General Services to repair the roof of the historic McKim Free School and replace the roof of the 1781 Friends Meeting House. These funds will also be used “to perform a market assessment of 15 historic properties for the future maximum beneficial use.”