AGENDA #5b
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Proposed Position for Construction Management
DATE: April 23, 2001
RESUBMITTED: April 25, 2001
The attached resolution would direct the Town Manager to include $65,000 in the operating budget to fund a new Construction Management position.
During the Council’s January 19, 2001 planning session, a Council member asked whether a new construction management position could save the Town money. During that session, the Council also emphasized its high priority for completing the deferred maintenance project for Hargraves Center and A.D.Clark Pool. It is in relation to both of these comments that we propose funding the position of construction manager.
In 2000 we commissioned a study of all the Town’s buildings to help us assess their condition, identify currently needed maintenance items and project capital maintenance needs into the future. Applied Management Engineering, Inc. provided a very detailed assessment on which we have based much of the recommended Capital Improvements Program. It lists both areas of deferred maintenance and future needs for capital maintenance, such as replacement of HVAC system elements, painting, and roof replacements. The recommended CIP includes funding for such a survey to be done every five years.
As the Town’s inventory of buildings ages, the cost of and need for capital maintenance increases. We believe that such expenses are simply a prudent investment in the very considerable initial investment that the Town has made in its real property inventory, which now includes about 452,000 square feet in 37 buildings. A listing of our real property inventory is attached for information.
Our deferred maintenance needs have been organized into projects that include work on Hargraves Center and the A.D. Clark Pool, the exteriors of the Post Office/Court Building and the IFC Shelter; and Fire Station #2, all of which have been funded in the current year’s CIP. Additional deferred maintenance projects include work on the Estes Drive Community Center and the interiors of the IFC Shelter and the Post Office/Court Buildings. A major deferred maintenance project is underway now, funded by 1996 bonds, to renovate the Police Headquarters. In addition, we have identified and included in the recommended 15-year CIP major maintenance needs which will occur in Town buildings over time.
The implementation of each of these projects includes selecting and working with architects and engineers to develop detailed specifications, bidding the work and then closely monitoring the work of the contractors. Work on aging facilities usually brings with it the consideration of many change orders as the contractors uncover unexpected conditions, and decisions need to be made on a timely basis.
The capital maintenance items which will need to be addressed over the term of the CIP will also need to be accomplished with the use of contractors, each of which will need to be carefully chosen and monitored.
This work cannot be completed without the addition of a construction management position. We believe that the filling of this position in the coming year would make it possible to complete all the work originally funded in 2000/01 by January 2003. We are concerned that the projects identified need to be implemented before conditions deteriorate further and before the 2000 assessment document becomes obsolete.
We project that this position would cost $65,000 in the first year. This number includes salary and benefits for 47 weeks, supplies and computer, and the first year costs of a vehicle. Second year costs would be about $70,700.
We are unable to quantify how much money such a position can save the Town. However, we believe that the savings would accrue in at least two different ways:
- additional funds not required to be spent on renovation projects, through careful management of change orders and close coordination with contractors and designers
- extraordinary maintenance funds not needed so quickly or so often because this position allowed other staff to implement routine and preventive maintenance schedules
We believe that the services provided by this position would be in addition to the management oversight we now have of all the Town’s construction projects. It would be closer and more technical supervision, and it would be focused on of the types of projects which we have not implemented to date.
We propose to fund this position in the first year from moneys available in the CIP Fund. The delay in implementing and financing the first four deferred maintenance projects have made this funding available.
We propose that the person’s time would be allocated completely to various projects and that in future years the costs of the position would be taken from these project budgets. After the first year we would have a more realistic idea of the hours needed for different types of projects and would include the project management expenses in the project budgets and the CIP.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
We believe that this position is essential to the implementation of the recommendations of the Building Condition Assessment survey. It will make such implementation possible even while we continue our present building maintenance program, which is expanding because of the expanding floor area and the increasing age of Town buildings. The position would help ensure that the conditions uncovered during the planned deferred maintenance work will be handled in a prudent, efficient and cost-effective manner. And, it should help us to keep us with capital maintenance and continuing assessment surveys, so that we do not again find ourselves in the position of having several facilities facing major deferred maintenance projects.
Recommendation: Because we believe that this position would increase the value of our contracting dollars and help preserve the structural integrity of our buildings, we recommend adoption of the following resolution, which would direct the Manager to include this position in the budget.
1. Town of Chapel Hill Real Property Inventory (p. 5).
A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MANAGER TO INCLUDE FUNDING FOR A CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT POSITION IN THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PROGRAM (2001-04-25/R-1)
WHEREAS, the Town of Chapel Hill has commissioned a Building Conditions Assessment which identifies deferred maintenance needs as well as future extraordinary maintenance that will be needed in Town facilities; and
WHEREAS, the Town does not have sufficient staff resources to select and work with architects and engineers to develop detailed specifications, bid the work and then closely monitor the work of the contractors while still managing our routine building maintenance program for a growing and aging inventory of buildings;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the Town of Chapel Hill that the Town Manager is authorized to include funds for a construction management position and related expenses in the 2001-2016 Capital Improvements Program.
This the 25th day of April, 2001.