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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0860.002 1998-2000 v /C / A>rff L TO: The Chair and Members of the Hawaii County Council Hilo MEETING.,29 SEP. 2000 RE: NEW COUNTY JAIL AT HILO MAIN POLICE STATION fir or Herd A. Rps Arguments against Bill 289 (Comm.860), Finance Committee Report FC-316 negative This bill was before the Council on 7 Sgp.2000, and deferred with a vote of 3/3 and 3 absent. I could not testify because I was seriously indisposed. Please regard the following as some loose notes on this important subject, as I have not been able to properly compile what follows. As this is a first reading there is time to complement the information. As Mr Stanley Takemura of the Building Department is expected in this meeting he can answer further questions that you may have and rectify inaccuracies. I also consulted Mr Bill Gray of Finance. It would behoove the Council Clerk at this point to gather all the information about the subject so you may have a proper overview in the matter, that is now apparently scattered over many documents. I have attached a reportage of the Hilo paper of 18 August 2000 when this matter first came to public attention (for whatever it is worth). It is rather confusing the real issue here, and partly self-contradic- tory, and is mixing up a number of different projects that have nothing to do with the new Hilo jail. With my background in design, engineering and construction of large projects, I have tried to unravel some of the facts as presented to me, which needs to be completed with more and better numbers. In the first place my impression is that this bill and its subject is rather premature, and should wait till after the election when there will be a new mayor and a new chief of police, instead of ramming this through, moreso because bids for the construction of the project have not been invited, and what you see at the corner of Ululani Street is nothing more than dozing a new parking lot for the police, which is a separate project and meant to then later ripping up the existing lot for the new cellblock, which could be a waste of space and material and should he studied by the new administration that will have to live with it. No time will be lost doing this, while proper parking for Civil Defense must be taken into the overall consideration. Personalities must be taken out of this total planning effort and the Council must take an appropriate part in the final decisions on behalf of all people whose taxes are used and maybe wasted. Hence my above advice to have all documentation of this portant city block gathered for proper scrutiny. The situation seems to be as follows: Oda-McCarty was without bidding selected as the "design consultant" (read: architect) for the new cellblock project as approved by the mayor, for the sum of $300,000. The whole project is estimated to cost $3,500,000. The plans, specifications and contract with the architect are in the chief enginee#s office, whom I could not contact, but will have to be approved by the Council, unless that was already done. The engineering department did not take part in the design or specifications except maybe to verify if building codes were met. Everything was exclusively worked out between the police depart- ment and the architect. The exact number of cells was not available as little as the exact location of the Comm. No. CF0. 60Z. Mle No. J*b Ref. To: FAMMKi Ref. Date -W 2 0 2000 cell block in the old parking lot or its connection with the police station and whether interrogation will be done in the new cell block or the police station which involves personnel and safety problems. Normally the architect inspects the work of the contractor at his cost and usually that amounts to 10 % of his fee. He also at his cost pays for liability insurance in case anything happens like design errors or contractors' mistakes or cutting cprners. The County oversees globally if everything is kept in order.In this case we are made to believe that the obligation of all inspection rests with the County. Architects are usually paid a fee of 6% of the construction cost. In this case Oda-McCarty's fee is about 8% and that is ample to pay for inspection of the contractors, which its insurance company would require them to do anyway. So why should the Council be asked to shell out another $243,000 for inspection? There are too mM loose ends here, lots of money requested and a private owner-principal would have his estimators go over all this with a sharp eye. But this is a public project and nobody feels the direct grab for his money, and above all this creates treat opportunities for sticky fingers. It is the Council's solemn task to guard the public's money and whatever it cost to check it all out will be well spent. There are many more problems. There is nothing definitive about "change orders". On projects like this especially subcontractors (for plumbing, painting, air-conditioning, furniture, electricity, etc, make lots of money on every little change that the owner (here the police) may come up with while building. This must be established from the very start in contracts along with time schedules, critical path problems, and the like, that apparently is all more or less done in a buddy-buddy fashion, which is why time and money overruns are common and very costly. Union problems must be solved ahead of time too. There is a one year warranty in the contract which may not be enough, as prisoners will sue the county over every little deficiency that hurts them, while they have nothing else to do and mistakes, especially with air-conditioning can become very costly after years. And what about a kitchen, is there one in the plans? Big problems. And how many cells are we going to get? 18 or 24 cells? If 24 that comes to $150,000 per cell, and seems high in comparison to luxury hotels. Do we have to Day at least $10,000 per cell more for a superfluous inspection that was already Daid for? If anything happens between the architect and the contractor who disagree over specifications or plans all the county can do is issue a stop-work order unless stiff penalties are provided for in the contracts with the architect and the contractors that still must be invited. And by the way, who has read through the specs and looked over the plans? I mean which outside authority has advised the County that nothing has been forgotten or is basically wrong. And for example: Has anybody tried to ascertain that Oda-McCarty has ever designed a prison, a specialty job? Some outsider should check all technicalities very carefully. I have seen very famous architects and engineers make gross mistakes. And in this state there are legally no engineers necessary to stamp the plans unless the County requires it by contract. The architect can sign all plans, unbelievable but true. Usually their insurance companies keep them honest, but air-conditioning is something most architects think they can do themselves, hence all the trouble, among others, in the local county and state buildings and not to forget the new state hospital in Hilo, where for example the operating room has caused iatrogenic infections. There is much more that I could Dresent but as this is still a first reading. I will leave it here. County wants to hire inspectors for cellblock job ~ V H~j T 9 ®0 ~ By Jason Armstrong g Tribune-Herald Hawaii County has too few inspectors to manage construction of its new Hilo cellblock, so it wants to pay a private company up to in Hilo, now are inspecting some cellblock project, their work Sill $243,000 to do the work under a nn pid West Hawaii projects, requiring a would have to e c ec ed by the 1( con half-day's travel time for each trip, county, which also must do the final e money would pay the combined Takemura said. inspection of the completed building, yearly salaries of four employees the coun- He estimated it would cost between Takemura said. ty would need to hire to manage the con- $200,000 and $250,000 a year to With preparation underway of the struction itself, said St n-ley Ta~kemur-a, hire four more workers to inspect site located at the corner of Ululani Building Division chief. the building or renovation of all and Hualalai streets, Yamashiro has Takemura said his four-person team count facilities, includin the cell- asked the County Council for per assigned to the building of county facilities bloc mission to spend 0 to $243,000 to is too busy with other projects to oversee con- Noting his staff has been the same hire a private company to manage con- struction of the cellblock building. size for years, Takemura said a hir- struction. In fact, the lone inspector, single engineer 'n freeze-implemented b Mayor That is more than enough money and two draftsmen are unable to do thorough Stephen Yamashiro as prevented to hire inspectors to work daily at the reviews of their assignments, which now the ursuit o a larger work force. job site, Takemura said, adding, con- include about a dozen park projects along with Also, wr construction b' o the struction management is usually county renovation of the former Hilo J.C. Per- cellblock expect to son tin the about 10 percent of a project's total ney store for use as government offices, he next _w T emura sazd he said. does not have th yearit would take The cellblock is expected to cost So what always happens is we do to gain approval to create new jobs, $3.9 million, said Gary Maesato, spot-checks:' Takemura said. "It's not as hire the added employees and then Police Department business mangy good of an inspection as we would like" train them. er The county employees, all of whom work if private inspectors are used on the That estimate does not include hGin rivate ins ectors, which the council. would be one under a no- i rocess The request for permission to hire Takemura sal a private company to inspect con- He said that the work will be struction of the Hilo cellblock is set more difficult than the inspection of to appear before the council's Finance ~I many county facilities because far Committee during its meeting Tues- more steel and concrete will be use day in Hilo. The committee recent- to make the cellblock. lv recommended a ainst a tL1 The 10,868-square-foot deten- Yarnashim'srequest tospend 122,000 tion facility will have 18 individual to hire a private com~any to inspect cells in which police will hold pris- the renlacement of leaking tanks in oners overnight or for the weekend, ~h the county stores gasoline at according to design plans that eq , the its Kealakehe Police Station. Al county 00000 While Takemura said he is re- The responsibility for detainees examining the scope of that project, awaiting their initial court appearance the county will likely need to hire a was shifted from the state to each construction-management company county under a 1995 state law, to inspect the building of a new $3 md- e The move has overburdened Hilo's lion gymnasium approved for Hilo's `~ji. t five cells now used to house up to 24 Keaukaha area. %'y~ detainees during long holiday week- Based on his estimate, hiring pri- ends, police Maj. Morton Carter has vate inspectors for that project could l aid in previous testimony before boost the total cost by $300,000.