Travis County Commissioners Court
April 24, 2007
Item 9
9. Consider and take appropriate action on contract for construction management of visitation center with the Travis County housing finance corporation. Roger sent me an e-mail last Friday that indicated that our current estimate of the cost to construct the visitation center significantly exceeds the amount that we have been working with. Right?
>> that's correct. Judge, good morning, roger el khoury. Director of facility management department. We started early on, before we put the pen on paper and then we estimated that it's going to be 18,000 square feet of the buildings. It's going to cost about $150,000. And we had the mind to do something in house, so this became -- cut down on the costs. We look -- this was about like a year and a half ago. Now we look at the current market, look at if we have to go totally and give it to the contractor, outside. And what the costs would be for the designed visitation center right now. We already finish the architectural design. Jim from my fault finished all of the architectural design. I did all of the structural, civil and mep, engineering work. As it's designed right now, 10% contingency turned out to be $213,000, $213,000 to construct this facility.
>> that's 63,000 over what we have been -- is that that's correct.
>> using.
>> that's correct.
>> and the reason for the increase, is it materials?
>> it's a construction going up, you know, from year to year, you know, and then that's -- that's how it goes. Besides first I had intention with talking with another department that they could do some work for me. In house. I did some work in house. But turned out to be the workload we cannot do it at this time. Therefore if we have to go for the contractor on the outside that's how much it's going to cost.
>> what if we were to go ahead. We had the design. Go ahead and bid it. And there are two advantages I think. One is we will see the actual amount. The bid will be locked in for how long?
>> I think 90 days. I'm correct? 90 days? Yeah, it's 90 days. I mean, any construction --
>> typically the bid --
>> 90 days.
>> typically.
>>
>> [indiscernible]
>> all right. Let's shoot for 60 days.
>> okay. But will give us an exact amount of money, will give us 30 days or more to figure out how to -- how to generate the additional money.
>> okay. We could be talking about 60,000, could be a little less, could be a little more because we are working on projections, right?
>> that's right.
>> this is one where we were taking 50,000 from one of the corporations at a -- at a citizen who pledged $100,000. So that's how we got to 150,000. If we need 60,000 more, I think we know that but we need an exact amount. And then it would help to have a -- an exact date and if we get a -- a bid for that, we will know if we get that amount of money, we can execute the contract, go ahead and issue the notice to proceed and if the bid comes in unexpectedly high, we simply cannot afford to do that, at least we have a hard number that we are working with. It's pretty important, though.
>> I think that it's important enough to go ahead and make the investment, you know. But I think that if we -- the longer we wait, the more the prices will go up. Because it's happening everywhere for everybody, so I think that it might be a good idea to go ahead and do bids and lock in a number.
>> that's the beauty of the bid, I mean, we are -- we will have a company that says we will build this project for you for this amount of money. If we can lock that in for -- for a month or two and give ourselves a few weeks to kind of identify the source of funding, I think that's the best of all possible worlds. If we need to revisit the need -- we talked about that four or five years --
>> yes there's for doubt about that. In fact I was going to ask the next -- the question that I need to find out an answer to is if when it does go out for bid, all of these other kind of things, when would we be looking for a completion date. Folks are still having to deal with this that go out there. Some -- I'm looking for the whole nine yards on this. The bid process, plus --
>> this is a very simple construction. It's going to take about five months.
>> after the biddings out.
>> after we award the contract.
>> why did we wait a year before coming back?
>> the unusual part of this was really sort of coming one a contract with the -- where
>> [indiscernible] I don't want to blame the state. The state had different standards, we had our standards we were used to dealing with. The contract is done. But we were before the board more than a year ago saying we had this strategy, do you approve it, everything was -- you know, please invite us to the grand opening. But it's taken longer than usual. But like you said, I mean, the cost is not going down.
>> going to keep going up.
>> so -- so unless there are other questions, my motion would be for us to proceed with the issuance of the bid.
>> second.
>> and Travis County still doing contract management, so we would issue the bid?
>> that's correct.
>> the bid documents, accept the bids, bring those back to court and -- and the funding and stuff would be -- housing finance --
>> I guess my question would be does the contract between the county and the corporation need to be approved today?
>> within that
>> [indiscernible]
>> [inaudible - no mic]
>> it's not necessarily tied to just a bid. If that's the constructions that you all are giving them, then that's fine. But the first step would be to approve the construction management agreement. Excuse me. Not required to do anything at this point.
>> that's what we are posted for.
>> the agreement
>> [indiscernible]
>> you are saying we need another item next week for the issuance of the bid?
>> no. It's built into the contract.
>> got more power than you thought, didn't you?
>> so the motion that the judge made was not sufficient to cover --
>> no, what he just made was fine. I'm sorry -- what Commissioner eckhardt just made was fine.
>> okay. All right.
>> but to approve number 9 is fine, he's saying incorporated in this is issuance of the bid.
>> right.
>> yes, sir?
>> then I guess that I can tell the folks now that -- that from what I hear you saying roarj, five months.
>> after the award of the contract.
>> five months.
>> after the award of the contract.
>> after the award of the contract.
>> seven would be safer. Now seven or eight.
>> seven or eight.
>> we would normally have the bid on the street about a month, right?
>> yes.
>> bids are due 30 days from -- from issuance.
>> normally you want to put the bid on the street, relegate two months. 21 days, about a month on the street, then when we receive the bid, the evaluation to bid, bring it back to the court, that takes two months.
>> okay.
>> in a very abridged description, tell me what takes place right now and, I mean, I'm assuming that -- that this would just be a new facility for people that are -- that are wanting to come out to see their incarcerated family member or whatever, what are we doing right now.
>> very little.
>> tdcj they did have like an army tent sitting out there. They took that down. Let me back up, anywhere from 3 or 400 people from our community that go out there to visit the confinees at the state jail every single weekend. But what I'm trying to say is very little in terms of when it's starting to get warm outside, hot, very cold during the winter months, these people have to sit out in their cars and it's very, you know, it's very hard to them at times. And oftentimes they have to sit there and wait three or four or five hours to see their family members.
>> you sign up, and they let visitors in 20, 25 at a time.
>> for two hour increments.
>> you can visit for two hours.
>> yes, sir.
>> but if you get there first you are in good shape. But if you get there, if you are like number 50, you have got to wait until the first group of 20 to 25 finish their visits. And so you -- you are on the waiting list and you go in as they get to you. And if you -- if you are person number 105, then you could be there for two hour increments, which is -- when the weather is tough, if you can sit in your car and run your air conditioner that's good. But you can't go inside the building. So you are in the parking lot in your car, can you sign in and leave?
>> I guess you could, but, you know, your name comes up, then you are again at the bottom of the list.
>> when they had the tent there was some covering, but it was pretty hot in the summer. And the winters can get cold. If the rain is blowing at an angle, it's not a good situation, especially if you are trying to get families to visit inmates for the family therapy part of it.
>> [one moment please for change in captioners]
>> again, it's got to fall on Travis County to take on the need.
>> well, I think the state is required to provide a room for visitation, which they do. It's actually where the people actually wait to -- for visitation is the problem. Even access to restrooms are not available to these people that sit out there for hours on end. But again, I understand your point.
>> how many Travis County --
>> it's about 60%.
>>
>> [overlapping speakers].
>> it's 50%.
>> 50% of the people out there --
>> 600 people.
>> are Travis County residents?
>> yes, sir.
>> and these folks who live in Travis County also are visitors to these inmates out there. And of course, when you're there you see it. It's very obvious you've got folks living right here and don't come from out of town. Some do come from out of town and it is a hardship for them. And of course, again, there was just -- dealing with the Travis County inmates who are actually finishing their sentences and stuff out there and the closeness that the community is trying to have with that type of situation, of course they need to have a situation where they need to see their loved ones. So it's no problem for me to go ahead and move forward with this.
>> the thing with the state is that the state precedent is not to provide the visitation center.
>> right.
>> and they have 10 or 11 state jails. And actually, if you go to one of the state prisons, part of the tdc, I know you're either in your car or inside the building, except there's secured fencing.
>> right.
>> so it's a statewide -- they don't provide the visitation center, you sit in your car and when it's your time to visit you go inside.
>> but most of the time are these thing taken care of privately, you're saying? If we were to go to each county and -- I guess each county doesn't have a jail -- does each county in the state of Texas have --
>> no. Travis County is quite unique. We have to understand also 10 years ago when we were trying to build this facility out there, one of the reasons why we wanted it so that we could keep our state jail inmates here at home. So when luke at houston state jail or the state jails in the panhandle or in oofs Texas, it's very easy for our community to travel five or six miles a road to see their loved one as opposed to five or six hundred mile. So the visitation at our state jail is quite high on the weekend as compared to other prisons, if that makes any sense.
>> it does.
>> I have volunteered out there many times on the weekend for visitation, and to see five or six hundred people come through there on a 10 hour period is nothing. And given like on christmas or mother's day or things like that, it's very, very high.
>> the reason why we have our inmates here is because the success of re-entry of where your released from -- if you're released into a community where have you a support system that you've been able to maintain while in prison, you have a much less -- a lower likelihood of returning to jail.
>> completely agree.
>> plus the drug and therapy counselors encourage the bringing in of children to visit their parents if they're incarcerated also. Whether you like that or not, those who oppose it say if your goal is to keep the family together, you want children visiting too. And I do recall seeing some. I don't know what percentage, but there were little kids.
>> we'll see what the hit will be, if this motion passes. All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you.
>> thank y'all very much. John deemed mine inappropriate. John said the county judge's motion was void.
>> so I'll withdraw my second on that one.
>> the ekt eckhardt motion was to approve item number nine. Commissioner Davis and I don't like what john did... But he did it.
>> [ laughter ] now, claire had suggested that we wait until this afternoon --
>> if the court wishes, I can come back and is speak on this item any tievment I wanted to invite her and that's when she said she was available.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, April 25, 2007, 8:34 AM