Builder speaks out against bidding plan for new justice center.

Byline: CITY BEAT/SPRINGFIELD By Jack Moran The Register-Guard

SPRINGFIELD - John Hyland is bound and determined to have his hometown construction company involved in the building of a voter-approved municipal justice center, even if it means playing second fiddle to a larger firm hired to lead the project.

Hyland, owner of John Hyland Construction Inc. on Laura Street, told the City Council this week that he opposes Springfield's plan to bypass the normal bidding process and instead hire a contractor for the justice center job. Hyland said that process eliminates local firms and ultimately will cost the city far more than it should.

"You've pretty much excluded the locals from this," Hyland said while testifying during a public hearing that ended with the council deciding unanimously to move forward with the construction manager/general contractor method.

Instead of bidding individual pieces of the project, city officials will advertise for and hire a contractor who can provide them with a guaranteed maximum price for all work before construction begins.

Under the city's plan, the formula for choosing a contractor is weighted heavily on the side of a firm's experience with justice center construction and familiarity with the CM/GC approach. That doesn't sit right with Hyland, who said he knows of no local company that would qualify for the job under that formula.

City staff members recommended approval of the "alternative-contracting" plan because of the justice center's budget limitations, time constraints and specialized security needs. State law allows jurisdictions to sidestep competitive-bidding requirements in cases such as the one involving Springfield.

City Manager Mike Kelly told the council that the CM/GC strategy was preferred for one main reason: certainty of price. Going that direction, he explained, ensures from the outset that the justice center will be built for no more than the $28.7 million that the city is collecting as a result of a 2004 voter-approved bond measure to fund construction of the facility.

"Our primary responsibility is not necessarily local business, but the citizens," Councilor Anne Ballew said during the meeting.

The center would house Springfield's police station and municipal courtrooms. The plan also calls for construction of a 100-bed city jail, but that portion of the structure would not be built until the City Council figures out a way to pay for jail operations, which were not included in the bond issue.

But even if a jail with extra security requirements is a component of the project, Hyland said it's nothing his crews can't put together.

"A jail's a jail, and anybody can build it. It's just got to be designed right," Hyland said during a telephone interview. He added that the city's requirements, which provide more weight to large-scale projects a company has completed in the past 10 years, wouldn't give his company much credit for building the Coos County Jail in 1987 or for completing several high-profile projects in Lane County, including the new Eugene Public Library in downtown.

"It's ridiculous," he said. "That (justice center) can't be half as the Eugene library job was."

In response to Hyland's comments, councilors adjusted the CM/GC hiring formula to give slightly more weight to a firm's initial fee proposal and less to prior justice-center construction experience. Hyland contends that a larger, outside company would demand a much higher fee for guiding the project than would a local firm.

The minimal changes approved by councilors don't mean much to Hyland. "That was a token, just to make us feel good," he said.

But if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Still hoping to get a piece of the action, Hyland said his company is now trying to partner with a national firm experienced in justice-center construction, with the larger outfit taking the lead if it was hired for Springfield's project. He would not identify the larger company.

Arresting development

The council on Monday will hear a presentation on a recently completed study outlining possible funding options for a municipal jail.

Finance Director Bob Duey will brief councilors on a report by the city's Jail Operations Funding Task Force that discusses two ways of approaching voters in 2006 and asking for approval of a new tax to cover costs of running a jail.

One option involves levying a personal income tax on Springfield residents, while the other would raise property taxes. Neither option was widely supported by residents surveyed by the task force, the report states.

Before looking to taxpayers for help, the task force suggests that the council find out whether the city could dedicate internal funding sources to a jail once a municipal justice center is built. Leasing 25 of the jail's 100 beds to outside jurisdictions could generate $675,000 to $1 million annually, the report states.

The council will not decide Monday which, if any, option they would support.

One month after Springfield voters approved a November 2004 bond measure to cover construction costs for a justice center, the council passed an ordinance creating a utility surcharge to fund jail operations. Voters overturned the ordinance in an election last May.