Hays County commissioners will mull a cost proposal that puts the construction of several public safety projects over budget following a presentation from Turner Construction Company Tuesday.
Mike Kaiman, vice president and general manager for Turner, told commissioners construction expenses for the addition and renovation of the jail, the new public safety building going behind the Hays County Government Center and the new training building are about $7.15 million over budget.
Turner submitted a guaranteed maximum price proposal, in which Turner is compensated for actual costs incurred and there is a cap on the county’s total liability for the costs of construction. The county is obligated to pay Turner for the actual costs of construction up to a certain sum. If the construction costs exceed that sum, the Turner is liable for the cost overruns.
The current estimate of $79.5 million does not include design and architecture costs or the fleet maintenance building project, which is already underway.
Kaiman said based on several contingencies, including increasing construction costs because of the damage caused by three hurricanes in the last few months, the construction price for the public safety projects has likely increased.
He said at this time, there is also only one contractor qualified to design the jail cells specified by the county in the project, with another contracting company currently working on meeting the qualifications.
He proposed several "project alternates," or cost-saving options—most of which would require cutting the scope of the project or deferring project construction by several months—to get to the budgeted construction costs of the projects.
Kaiman said the Hays County Sheriff's Office opposes these proposed deferrals.
Right now, the project timeline is as follows:
- Fleet maintenance project: Sept. 25-Feb. 20
- Jail addition: Feb. 21-Sept. 27, 2019
- Public safety building: Feb. 24-Aug. 21, 2019
- Training building: Feb. 18, 2019-Aug. 2, 2019
- Jail renovation/bonding: Sept. 7, 2019-Dec. 30, 2019
Kaiman also suggested cutting the number of workstations 911 call-takers and dispatchers have in the Combined Emergency Communications Center from 25 to 20 to save money.
According to Kaiman, the project has been fully designed. in December, he expects to be able to go out for contractor bids. He said at that point, Turner will have a better estimate of what subcontractors will charge.
The projects will be paid for through a $106.4 million bond
approved by voters in November 2016.
Turner's Guaranteed Maximum Price proposal kickstarts a 90-day period in which if the court deems the proposal "not acceptable," it can go back out to the market to see if another company can offer a better price.
Commissioners will consider taking action on the proposal at their meeting next Tuesday. Mark Kennedy, counsel for the county, said commissioners could vote to delay taking action until the construction documents are completed and Turner is ready to go out for bids.
Comm. Lon Shell—who until Oct. 17 served as county chief of staff and
was appointed to Will Conley's place on the dias after Conley announced his run for county judge—said he wanted to thoroughly vet any proposed cost reductions that could delay project.
"We're going to spend over $70 million tax dollars [so] we don't want to be left with a product that does not meet the needs of our citizens and what they voted on," he said. "So I'm going to take that very seriously."
Correction: This article has been updated to show Will Conley is running for county judge, not mayor.
