2022 01 18 City Council

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The Department received an amended draft proposal for review and has developed the following 
conclusions for consideration by Council as to its approval: 
 
1. Kevin Helms ran t he school transportation improvements  project through the TDOT consultant 
fee estimator and came up with the appropriate fee being 9.1%.   However, the fee was still high 
at 12%. They are projecting $360,000 in fees for a $3,000,000 project.  
2. The breakdown still has $50,000 for Concept Scoping for Design.   This could  be part of the 
preliminary engineering with up to two submittals as part of that phase for us to approve before 
they complete final design.  If this line item was removed from their budget, it would bring their 
proposed fee down to 10.3%. 
3. Kevin Helms ran the Historic Downtown improvements project through the  TDOT fee estimator 
and came up with a fee of 10%.  However, their fee is 12.5% for this project based on a $1,500,000 
project (I used this budget as part of the TDOT estimator) 
4. There is terminology that states if the budget and scope end up being significantly different than 
what is in this proposal, then the later stages may require renegotiating a higher fee.   If this is 
based on the same percentage basis for a higher budget, t hen I could see that as being a fair 
compromise if a starting point is also correct 
5. This project also has $19,000 in Concept Scoping for Design.  If you remove that from the budget, 
then the percentage drops to 11.2%.   
6. There are several contingencies note d in the proposal which could cause the cost to increase if 
certain conditions are encountered.   
7. Lastly, NEPA is only included as part of the Downtown project.  The Department has made the 
decision to forego any potential supplemental state or federal funding for the school 
transportation project due to the time sensitive nature of the improvements and the significant 
delays grant funding requirements would have on the project timeline 
The proposal as submitted, will cover all necessary phases of design in order to proceed to construction. 
They include all remaining concept ual design, public engagement, preliminary and final design, 
construction documents, estimation, bidding, and construction inspections/administration (CEI) services 
during construction. 
 
By procurement guidelines, the City should be assessing acceptance of the proposal  on a qualifications 
basis and based on the firm’s ability to complete the work in a satisfactory and timely manner as opposed 
to negotiating purely based on fees. There is a certain element of uncertainty  as to what may be 
encountered with both projects despite an already overwhelming amount of work being performed to 
assess any roadblocks, alternatives, and concepts. Because of this,  a more conservative stipulated sum 
fee to ensure they are adequately covered in the event unforeseen circumstances arise is fair and justified. 
 
With that in mind, the Department would state that despite the slighter higher than standard fee 
percentages, approval of the proposal is recommended contingent upon establishing clear and concise 
language and expectations on completion deadlines for all phases identified  within the  proposal &  
contract so as to keep projects on schedule as has been identified. 
 
Action Item 
 
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