Split vote follows criticism, support of firm resort has used for years
By BILL BARLOW /Special to the Sentinel
OCEAN CITY – In a rare divided vote, Ocean City Council on Thursday rejected the city administration’s pick to design a flood mitigation project for West 17th Street.
Mayor Jay Gillian’s administration has looked to the firm ACT Engineers, Inc. of Robbinsville for multiple major projects, including for work designing the back bay lagoon dredging and a long-term management plan for the back bays.
On the council agenda for Thursday, April 8, was a contract with the firm for $224,000 to design a flood mitigation project. After City Council this year pushed for a more competitive process to award contracts, the city reached out to six firms about the project. ACT was the lowest of the four that submitted bids.
In the past, city officials have praised the work ACT has performed.
But the company has come under fire from the advocacy group Fairness In Taxes. In a letter to Mayor Jay Gillian and administration members April 5, FIT President Dave Breeden raised questions about ACT’s billing practices, suggesting the firm has been overbilling Ocean City. That included comparisons to the top hourly rate the firm charged Brick Township.
In comments both in the letter and at City Council meetings, Breeden described it as taxpayer abuse.
“A primary responsibility of the mayor is to advocate for the community along with representing the interests of the taxpayer,” Breeden wrote to Gillian in the letter. “In this case, your actions lead me to believe that you (are) representing the interests of ACT Engineers at the expense of the community.”
Contacted after the meeting, Carol Beske with ACT Engineering, who has been the most visible public face of the firm in Ocean City, declined to comment on the matter.
Gillian did not attend the meeting on Thursday. Before the council vote, city business administrator George Savastano described the process undertaken to recommend ACT. He said the generally accepted practice for choosing an engineering firm is called qualification-based selection, stating that several factors are used to evaluate the firm, including the firm’s experience and understanding of a particular project.
“That doesn’t mean that cost is not a consideration. It absolutely is. What it does mean is that we first ensure that we’re obtaining proposals from qualified firms,” he said.
Savastano said he had explained the process to council members and thought members agreed.
“Council did make it clear earlier this year that they were seeking competition for engineering services,” Savastano said. He asserted that any previous contracts recommended by the administration were fair and reasonable, “I understood your desire for straightforward competition.”
He said the four proposals were very close in cost, with ACT coming in the lowest.
He also addressed the matter of hourly rates.
“First of all, from everything I’ve seen, ACT has been transparent in their submission of proposed rates to Ocean City,” he said. According to Savastano, the comparison of rates to those in other communities were not appropriate. A review of projects in the region reveals that ACT’s hourly rates “are not unreasonable,” he said.
“I trust you as an engineer yourself to do what’s best for the city,” said Councilwoman Karen Bergman. “I would love to move forward with this with ACT Engineering. They’ve done great work for us in the past.”
But Councilman Keith Hartzell had doubts.
“I think the most disconcerting thing for me on the ACT proposal, there was a lump sum but no breakdown,” he said. The other firms included a breakdown of proposed costs on the last page of their proposals. “I would never spend money with anybody that didn’t break down the actual scope of the work.”
He had oversized printouts of each proposal, including an all-but-blank page from ACT.
“This is unacceptable,” he said.
“Can I just clarify?” said Savastano.
“No. No. No,” interrupted Council President Bob Barr.
“That page was preceded by 70 pages of explanation,” Savastano said.
“No. No,” continued Barr.
“Listen. I did not interrupt you. This is what I printed off,” Hartzell said.
It appeared to be a significant shift from last summer, when Hartzell pushed Savastano to respond to an accusation from a resident that the city had become too comfortable with certain contractors, including ACT. That exchange came at an August City Council meeting, when Suzanne Hornick spoke during the public comment meeting.
This time, Hartzell had praise for Hornick.
“She’s an advocate. She’s an in-your-face advocate and I mean that with all due respect,” he said.
At the recent meeting, Hartzell also raised questions about the work performed at Merion Park, which had previously been held up by the city as a model of how flood control projects can work. In his lengthy comments, he also said other firms proposed more public meetings.
Barr went further, saying he would not support giving any further contracts to ACT. He suggested the firm lacked a basic understanding of the Merion Park work.
“I cannot, in good conscience, ever support another contract to be given to this firm. Never,” he said. “It took a while for me to get there. It’s very, very serious.”
He cited Breeden’s complaint, and suggested ACT be removed from the city’s pool of qualified engineers.
But Bergman questioned why it would matter how the numbers are broken down if the firm is going to perform all the work requested.
“They agreed to do everything in our scope,” Savastano said.
The council voted five to one against awarding the contract, with Bergman voting in favor. Councilman Peter Madden, who has praised ACT’s work in the past, was not at the meeting.
Hartzell pushed for the Michael Baker International Company to get the engineering contract. The firm has worked on previous drainage projects in the city. Hartzell said everyone in town has been happy with Baker’s work, including Hornick.
“I’m going with the safe bet,” he said.
Savastano said any of the firms contacted would be capable of performing the work, adding that the success of projects comes down to the city’s engineering staff.
“Regardless of who we go with, it’s going to be a success, I’ll tell you,” he said.
Hartzell had sought to vote on a resolution giving the contract to Baker. City attorney Dottie McCrosson advised against that, saying it would not have the same force as a resolution included on the agenda and prepared before the meeting.
“In my opinion, we’d have an open public meetings problem,” she said. Instead, she said, it could be included on the agenda for the next meeting.
“Basically, this just gets tossed back two weeks,” Councilman Michael DeVleiger said.
Barr sought to also suspend all work involving ACT engineers at Merion Park, but McCrosson said that may have legal ramifications because of existing contracts. Barr agreed to further discussion.