Engineering fees raise questions
By Kevin O’Brien
An engineering firm that does a lot work for the city of Abbotsford came under heavy scrutiny Monday by public works director Craig Stuttgen, who questioned the firm’s billing practices and convinced the city council to hold off on approving a proposed contact amendment.
MSA Professional Services, which is currently handling multiple city projects, faced several pointed questions from Stuttgen, who accused the company of overcharging the city for the work its doing on recent street projects. He took issue with a request from MSA for an additional $22,800 in services on extensions of Grabe Drive and East Linden Street.
Dan Borchardt, project engineer for MSA, defended his calculations and said the billings reflect the full work his company has done and is expected to do for the city later this year.
Stuttgen went through the engineering costs on two past projects, including an extension of Swampbuck Drive awarded to MSA and a reconstruction of Elm Street awarded to a competing firm, Cedar Corps. He said the engineering fees on both projects fell within the normal acceptable range.
However, if the contact amendment were approved, MSA’s fees for the Linden and Grube projects would total $100,000, when they should really be closer to $70,000, Stuttgen said. Otherwise, he said the city would be agreeing to pay way more than what it normally does, based on previous proposals presented by Borchardt.
“We don’t pay 25 percent engineering,” he told the council. “So, if you accept that, you’re either accepting that you’re going to pay 25 percent engineering on a $300,000 job, or he’s not honoring the contact that he gave us when he bid against (Cedar Corps).”
When the city council approved a $57,000 contact with MSA for the Linden Street project last October, Stuttgen said that was based on the total construction being $660,000. Since then, the project has been scaled back to $300,000, but the engineering
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fees have not changed, he said.
Borchardt said MSA still had to complete designs for the entire length of the project based on the original plans.
“So, design was for 100 percent, even though you didn’t do a large portion of that project,” he said.
Stuttgen and Borchardt went back and forth on the reasons why the prices are where they are, but eventually Stuttgen gave Borchardt an ultimatum.
“I’m just going to make it simple: if that bill for those two projects is over $75,000, you're not working in town,” he told Borchardt. “We’ll finish out our contracts, and that’s it.”
Aid. Jeremiah Zeiset, however, said he was reluctant to say that the city was no longer going to do business with MSA, especially since the firm has helped the city obtain many crucial grants for various project.
Stuttgen agreed with Zeiset. “Absolutely. There’s no one who gets more grants than them, but this isn’t a grant project,” he said.
Stuttgen accused Borchardt of consistently undercutting engineer Brian Chapman at Cedar Corps, which bids on many of the same projects as MSA but with a fuller accounting of its costs, according to Stuttgen.
“Every time that you bid a project, you leave something out and always leave a door open,” Stuttgen said to Borchardt.
In response, Borchardt said he’s never seen a list of services that compares MSA equally to other engineering firms, and he also noted that prices can change over time if a project is delayed for several years.
“It’s a guess,” he said. “A crystal ball is only so good.”
In the future, Stuttgen said the council should consider setting a limit of 15 percent for engineering costs, which is the most he’s ever seen the city pay since he started.
Ultimately, the council voted unanimously to table MSA’s contract amendment to give Borchardt and Stuttgen more time to go over the numbers before the council’s next meeting on April 16.
“I’m glad you caught it, and that you’re looking at it,” Zeiset told Stuttgen.
No action on rental properties
The council decided not to make any changes to the city’s occupancy rules for rental properties, which are currently allowed to have “no more than five people not related by blood, marriage, adoption or legal guardianship” in the same dwelling.
Since the council first discussed the issue in February, city administrator Josh Soyk said he found another section of city ordinance that requires a minimum of 150 feet of living space for the first occupant of a dwelling unit, plus 100 feet for each additional person.
Soyk also presented the council with an ordinance from Black River Falls that limits dwelling units to no more than one family, defined as an “individual or two or more persons related by blood or marriage, adoption or legal guardianship.”
Aid. Selenia Gomez said she’s split on whether to make the limits stricter, as she doesn’t want people living together in a way that creates a fire hazard but also understands why so many decide to live that way.
“We already have a housing issue where we don’t have enough space for families,” she said.
After further discussion, council members agreed to keep the existing limits in place and make sure the police department is enforcing them. Soyk said he’s sure there are rental units that are currently violating the limits, but it can be difficult to prove.
In a related matter, the council directed Soyk to move forward with a new ordinance that would allow the city to charge a $ 100 inspection fee if the police or city officials responded to a complaint regarding a residential property and found a violation, whether its exceeding the occupancy limit, creating excessive noise, or some other infraction.
Soyk said he would bring the proposal back to a future meeting to be voted on.
Other business
■ The council accepted a $591,134 bid from Haas Sons to extend Grube Drive in the new western industrial park and East Linden Street in the eastern industrial. Haas submitted the lowest of three bids, which came in as high as $773,000. Construction is expected to start in May on the road extensions, which are needed to accommodate business growth.
■ Council members gave Stuttgen the goahead to get prices for additional paving projects this year, including one in the alley between Fourth and Fifth Streets and another in the alley behind the fire hall. Stuttgen said the city has about $700,000 to work with after it pays for its other projects.
■ The council approved a final pay request of $19,680 from CTW Wells & Pumps for abandoning two test wells used to establish the city’s newest permanent wells.
■ The council approved a $7,500 contract with MSA to write a PFO minimization plan, as required by the Wisconsin DNR after the city’s wastewater effluent exceeded acceptable levels of so-called “forever chemicals.” Soyk said the city will start by changing its sampling methods, and if the levels are still too high, it will try to identify a source of the chemicals, which can come from manufacturing a variety of products.
“It’s not in the drinking water at all,” he emphasized. “It’s in sewer discharge.”
■ The council renewed the city’s contract for legal services with Wolfgram, Gamoke & Hutchinson, with a $5 increase in the hourly rate for attorneys, bringing it up to $200 per hour for the next year. The law firm primarily handles the city’s municipal court cases and also assists with ordinance revisions.
■ The council approved a series of four resolutions required for the city to apply for a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), to be used for a planned reconstruction of Fifth Street, from Spruce to Maple. A required public hearing on the grant application will be held during the council’s next meeting on April 16, and the application deadline is May 17.
■ The council approved an ordinance that prohibits residents from leaving any personal items within six feet of the sidewalks along STH 13, Business 29 and North Fourth Avenue. Stuttgen said the city is responsible for clearing snow and ice from these sidewalks, so any obstructions will result in fines starting at $25 and increasing from there. For all other sidewalks in the city, the adjacent landowner is responsible for removing snow and ice removal within 24 hours of a snowfall.
■ The council met in closed session to discuss tire city’s litigation against Chelt Development, owner of the East Town Mall, over an unpaid loan issued to the company. The council voted to accept a $125,000 settlement in exchange for the city agreeing that a previous court judgement and a 2010 developer’s agreement have been satisfied.
