Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Moreland, Altobelli "no bid" contract explained.
When this first came up the other day, I e-mailed Commisioner Berry asking for the real poop on this bone of contention. He immediately e-mailed me back telling me that he was turning the explanation of the matter over to the county administrator, Mr. Howard.
Just this morning, I got the following explanatory letter from Mr. Howard. The original, sent as an attachment, was on a county letterhead template. Techno dinosaur that I am, I could not get the template portion of the letter head to copy, but here is the text of the letter.
Thanks to both Commissioner Berry and Mr. Howard.
As you will see, things are not exactly ( or even remotely) like the way they were first portrayed by critics.
E- mail:
Mr. Moreno,
In response to the complaints you have received on your blog, attached please find a letter concerning the Kingsland Bypass project. Please feel free to contact me should you have any further questions regarding this matter.
Thanks,
Steve L. Howard
Attachment:
March 24, 2008
Dear Jay Moreno:
In response to complaints you have received on your blog, I would like to provide you with a brief history concerning this subject. On June 21, 2005, the Board of County Commissioners and the Cities of St. Marys and Kingland approved a Joint Resolution to participate in preliminary engineering for the widening of Colerain Road (Phase I). On December 1, 2006, the Board of County Commissioners entered into an agreement for the assignment of existing contracts between the Camden County Joint Development Authority (CCJDA) and Moreland, Altobelli & Associates, Inc. (MAAI) that included the Kingsland Bypass project, as well as other projects. Within the context of the agreement, the Camden County Joint Development Authority’s desire was to assign the County its rights and obligations under the following:
- Agreement No. 1: On August 20, 2001, CCJDA entered into an Agreement for Consultant Services with MAAI for the performance of certain services related to the Horse Stamp Church Road Interchange Project at I-95.
- Work Authorization No. 1: On November 30, 2005, CCJDA issued MAAI a Work Authorization for additional services on the Horse Stamp Church Road Interchange Project to complete preconstruction activities and to obtain a Nationwide COE 404 permit for compensation. (Ongoing)
- Work Authorization No. 2: On November 9, 2005, CCJDA issued MAAI a Work Authorization for the performance of certain services related to preconstruction activities and right-of-way acquisition for Ella Park Church Road. (Ongoing)
- Work Authorization No. 3: On November 9, 2005, CCJDA issued MAAI a Work Authorization for the performance of certain services related to a project justification study for the Kingsland Bypass. (Complete)
- Work Authorization No. 4: On November 30, 2005, CCJDA issued MAAI a Work Authorization for a conceptual design, traffic analysis, survey and mapping, and environmental clearance for the Kingsland Bypass. (Ongoing)
The County acknowledged and accepted such assignment of rights and obligations, of CCJDA, under the contracts as outlined above by executing the agreement for the assignment of the existing contracts between the Camden County Joint Development Authority (CCJDA) and Moreland, Altobelli & Associates, Inc. (MAAI) on December 1, 2006. As noted above, Work Authorization No. 3 has been completed in Phase I of the Kingsland Bypass (Colerain Road) project. Work Authorization No. 4 in Phase I is ongoing.
There are two phases to the Kingsland Bypass project. We are now beginning the preliminary process of project implementation for the second phase. Our first step is to have a Joint Resolution between Camden County and the City of Kingsland agreeing to participate and sharing the cost of the engineering and pre-construction for the widening of Colerain Road. The conceptual estimate has been received from MAAI. The City of Kingsland is in receipt of this conceptual estimate as well as the Joint Resolution document. A competitive bidding process (request for proposal) for Phase II will be conducted in the latter part of 2008. To ensure that the County receives valuable input and feedback concerning this project, the City of Kingsland will be providing a point of contact for the duration of this project and have been asked to participate in the future bid opening(s), as they are a valuable partner in this project.
Please feel free to contact me should you have any further questions regarding this matter.
Sincerely,
Steve L. Howard, CPM, CPPO
County Administrator
Cc: Scott Brazell, Director Camden County Public Works Department
Board of County Commissioners
SLH/jmb
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7 comments:
Once again someone has went off half cocked with very little factual information. Jay we appreciate you looking into and posting the facts.
Thats great, I'm glad to read that proper protocol will be implemented for Phase II.
Great journalism, Jay.
Thank y'all.
Actualy,about 43 years ago, when I graduated high school, my "dream" was to go to, if memory serves me, the "Grady(?) School of Journalism at Georgia, but that was not to be.
Ol' dad, a union man, wasn't much on higher education. I went into the Navy instead.
Help me to understand this. The letter says that the JDA entered into a contract with Moreland, Altobelli on December 1, 2006. But the body of the letter states they started doing things with this company from 2001 to 2005. Are things done before you enter into a contract.
This is alot of responsibility for the JDA. It explains why they don't have time to bring jobs. Why don't the Commissioners oversee stuff like this.
Didn't take long for Berry to roll the bus over the JDA. I think the Commissioners should be responsible for stuff like this. The contract with the City of Kingsland alone was almost TWO million dollars. Who knows what St. Marys signed off on.
Mr. Howard stated that a bid process will take place on phase II. Did they do bids on phase I?
Anonymous said...
Help me to understand this. The letter says that the JDA entered into a contract with Moreland, Altobelli on December 1, 2006. But the body of the letter states they started doing things with this company from 2001 to 2005. Are things done before you enter into a contract.
This is alot of responsibility for the JDA. It explains why they don't have time to bring jobs. Why don't the Commissioners oversee stuff like this.
okay, I've got a hard copy of Steve Hopward's letter in my hand. Let me see if I can parse it and answer your questions.
It seems that, at the behest of the county commission - or at least at the insistence of the then ruling Terrible Troika of Rainer, Rhodes, and Herrin, the county, absent a real manager, had tasked the JDA with all contracting for all major highway projectsa in the county. The JDA, as I understand it, as an independent authority, is not required to seek bids in the same way the the county government is.
In the area of contracting, they can function pretty much like a sole proprietor can. The JDA aparently had had a long and satisfactory relationship with Moreland, Altobelli, and Associates, dating back to at least 2001. In the letter, you can see listed one "agreement" between JDA and MA&A dated in 2001, then another 4 "work authorizations" dated in November of 2005. These were all issued during the Terrible Troika's mad rush to be the most big developer friendly county on the east coast.
Now, for some reason, on December 1, 2006, exactly 0ne year and a day after the last "work auhtorization (No 4) was signed buy the JDA, it was the desire of the JDA to assign its rights and obligation under the five aformentioned agreements with MA&A to teh county commission. On December 1, 2006, the county commission (read Terrible Troika) agreed to assume those rights and obligations.
It appears that "Agreement No. 1 has been completed, though not stated specifically. Work autorizations N0s. 1, 2, and 4 are specified as being completeed.
Work authorization No. 4 is ongoing. It is part of phase one of the Colerain Rd. / Kingsland by-pass project, which was intially handled sans bid - as they were permitted to do - by the JDA at the behest of the Terrible Troika.
Perhaps former Commissioner Feller can chime in and tell us what the rationale /motivations were at the time.
At any rate, the whole project is now back in house, where it has beeen since Dec 1. 2006, and is now being managed by a real county manager, Mr. Howard.
Note Mr. Howard's last paragraph about the implementation of Phase II. Phase II will indeed be subject to the normal county bid process.
Hopefully, under Mr. Howard, the sole function (in theory) of the JDA will be to bring jobs to Camden County.
Anonymous said...
Didn't take long for Berry to roll the bus over the JDA.
Remeber, the JDA assigned it "rights and obligations" back in 2006. The Terrible Troika had total control of county actions at that time.
Hopefully, Mr. Howard will roll a steam roller over the JDA and tell its current top dog to put out or get out.
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