Brandenburg said the city is too small to hire in-house engineers because it would still need to contract out for various services.
The council requested Brandenburg provide a report before moving forward with any further engineering service tasks at its Nov. 21 meeting. He noted that processes need to be reviewed and training considered to ensure fiscally responsible management.
What they’re saying
“What we’re spending on engineering is quite a bit,” Brandenburg said, noting the need to shore up processes.
He said before any work is commenced, the contract needs to be signed off on by the department, then approved by the finance department before going to the deputy city manager.
He also recommended specific bimonthly project reports to City Council, breaking down engineering costs by vendor and firm. City Council needs to consider whether the public works committee should get more involved with contracts and making recommendations to council, Brandenburg said.
Regarding contract management, he said, “I believe that we immediately need to work on contract management training for all of our applicable staff that are dealing with these contracts.”
“We’re talking millions of dollars here; it’s not thousands or hundreds, it’s million-dollar contracts that we have to have a handle on,” he said.
According to agenda documents, some of the costs facing the city are directly attributable to prior engineering that is having to be revisited and corrected.
Brandenburg also said the city should consider hiring a dedicated position to monitor engineering contracts.
Quote of note
Signaling support for contract management training, council member Diane Williams said, “We need to make sure that we’re managing contracts, contracts are not managing us.”
Regarding increased input from the public works committee, she said staff should not be handing this kind of work off to committees.
“In my mind, I believe staff should be accountable for these contracts, and I believe we should leave accountability with staff,” she said.
