Travis County Commissioners Court
December 5, 2006
Item 7
7. Consider and take appropriate action on budget and contract issues regarding the keith ruiz building at 5555 airport boulevard: . Contract award for interior renovations for Travis County offices, ifb no. B060356-rv, to the low bidder, trimbuilt construction, inc.; b. Funding for its infrastructure improvements; and c. Discuss security improvements options and funding.
>> good morning, I'm alicia perez, manager for executive operations. I will have the facilities staff in here momentarily. You received backup for 515 and -- 5555 and 5501. The backup provides a background and overview of the building. On 5555 the county bought the building in March of '06, it will house the sheriff's office, currently galt building, the fire marshal, currently at a lease space on 9th street and its disaster center, a new surface. The sheriff is scheduled to move to reese building early in may, which will maintain a schedule for renovations at galt, then the d.a. Will move into galt and then space in the cjc will be converted to new criminal courts. Which was a necessity that -- that really the ultimate goal was to -- to have a -- for the -- for the courts. Last time that we brought this item to the court, the court requested that any project that comes in over the 20% escalation during the budget we -- we spoke with the court about -- about a need to have a 20% escalation amongst these projects. Anything that goes over that, the facilities management staff was tasked with providing memorandum that outlines the -- the component of cost savings or value engineering that had gone into the project previously. We have provided that -- that for you in -- in detail in terms of what the staff facilities management staff has done to -- to reduce the cost of the project and provide value engineering. This particular item, there is also a -- a b and c to it. Judge, if there's any questions on the award, I can move on to b and c.
>> okay.
>> b is funding for its infrastructure. And that is in the amount of $219,000, 7523 -- I'm sorry, 219,752. And that is to complete its structure, this is a sheriff's facility, it will need connections to gatn and also a switch, a telephone switch which is dedicated to that particular building. On security items this is 37,117. The majority of that has to do with providing cameras, control panels, motion detectors and -- and labor. A large amount of that is labor. And cable for the connections. On a last week you transferred the funding for that particular contract. On b and c we don't have funding identified. On c, on security, in fy '05 and '06, there was 150,000 and about 200,000 respectively put aside for security improvements. This year there was no reserve for security improvements in talking to p.b.o. That was just put into the allocated reserve and not in a particular set aside. And so we would need to identify a source of funds for b and c, I think that you have -- that you have choices that we spoke about. Diana is here, but allocated reserve and car reserve are the two choices to fund those expenditures.
>> so we have enough in car reserve to cover the -- the its plus security? The 219 plus 37,000?
>> move approval of a, b and c with the car reserve being the source of funding.
>> let me ask this question then.
>> all of the necessary expenses to -- in other words, is there any other department, anything else that's going to come at us that we do not -- do not have a handle on? This is -- let me -- that we put our arms around this project, these are the expenditures, all of the departments that have been -- have been involved in this process, all -- all of the things that have come to the table, funding-wise, is this --
>> I would say yes.
>> that's what I wanted to hear because -- I don't want -- I don't want you to come back roger and say hey Commissioner we forgot. I want to make sure this is it.
>> that's it.
>> Commissioner, what we really need to be mindful of, effectively what this is telling us is how expensive it is to do these projects and if you are trying to go down through this page, I mean you are -- you have either got to either restoke other things drastically, or you have got to move some of these things to 08, 09, so all of these times that we are doing budget, when we have these larger numbers that we say you know what take and get those in the reserve. As long as we are in the phase of -- of buying and I think that, you know, that we -- that we are making -- I think that we are making prudent decisions you know what we are doing with ownership in buildings versus leases, I mean, but bearing in mind that those things on the front end are extensive, especially at the base. Today -- you know, building cost is just -- just, you know, beyond guests. So this is -- this is a wakeup call for us. I mean, we have been having these wakeup calls for about a year. But I mean if you ask the building professionals, they are telling you that even though some things are -- are flattening out somewhat, they are still flattening out with a high bar. So -- so I think that's what we really need to be careful of.
>> okay.
>> and Commissioner Davis, just so -- so that you are aware, this is -- there is a 3% contingency in the project for about $60,000.
>> okay.
>> okay? And going back to what you mentioned, Commissioner Daugherty, I just want to -- to mention to the -- to the court that -- that the ultimate goal to moving to the airport building, the 5501, was to move out of lease space, to take services into the neighborhood and then to meet the growth, the need for a growing population. But in phase 1 you saved almost $7,684,000 of annual lease costs that were saved by moving into phase one. $684,000. In phase 2 the amount was almost 400. It was 378,000 in annual lease savings costs that you will realize by the construction of this particular phase.
>> any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, December 6, 2006 9:34 PM