Travis County Commissioners Court
December 4, 2007
Housing Finance Corporation
Now let's call to order the travis county housing finance corporation one item with three parts. 1. Consider and take appropriate action regarding construction of a visitation center at the travis county community justice center, as follows: a, contract for construction management between travis county and the travis county housing finance corporation; b, construction agreement for the center; and c, final action on donation and corporation contribution to complete budget. Good afternoon.
>> good afternoon, I知 harvey davis, manager for the corporation, I知 here with cliff blunt our attorney. The first item is the agreement between the corporation and the county for the construction of this. This agreement was approved by the county back in april of -- of -- of this year and -- but the corporation has never approved -- approved its part of the contract.
>> okay.
>> let's talk money before we talk that contract, mr. Davis, make sure the court still -- the court and board still want to proceed with this matter. The money has changed a little bit, hasn't it?
>> yes, sir. The -- the board has authorized $113,000 commitment towards this construction at the center. The -- the bid came in at $269,700, $100,000 we expect as a donation. So the -- the amount -- there's a -- there's an amount of $56,700 that's -- that we don't have funds for yet. I do represent that the corporation has the resources to increase the budget for this from 113,000 to -- to $175,000.
>> let me mention a couple of things and i -- that i believe are real important. We have experienced cost escalation in the housing finance corporation, same with travis county. This project started about two years ago and the construction market has changed significantly since. And prices have increased. The other thing is that -- that when mr. Wheel was with us he convinced joe gieselman that t.n.r. Should contribute in kind materials, supplies, some other things and we have since received a legal opinion that the road and bridge fund may not be used for such projects. Right, mr. Gieselman?
>> that's correct.
>> now that mr. Gieselman has gotten tighter over the last few months, we have gotten another legal opinion. So let's let joe off the hook. But last time we looked at this we committed the 113,000. Since that time the need to add an additional $56,680 has surfaced. And i did communicate with the agent for the -- for the anonymous contributor a few days ago and they are still on board. So we had that $100,000 and we need from -- from the corporation 113,000 plus 56680. That would be $169,700. Right?
>> right. I would request that the board approve up to $175,000 because there may be a few other costs that will occur.
>> would that basically cover it, though, harvey? In other words you wouldn't run to a situation -- cost escalation, as we are sitting here things are still going up. We will have to revisit it and take care of the project itself?
>> i think major roger would be better equipped to answer that question.
>> roger, okay. Roger?
>> good afternoon, judge, commissioners, roger el khoury. Facilities management department. Yes. With that $269,700 would cover all of the construction of that visitation center. It's about 1800 square feet. It could cover all of it.
>> in a display of incredible generosity, mr. Davis has recommended that we add another 6,000 or so to get to a rounded figure of 175,000.
>> i really appreciate that. I consider that as a contingency to run the project. Thank you very much, mr. Davis.
>> but we think that will cover it if we move expend expenddish showsly.
>> right. We have the schedule. The notice to proceed, 100 days, that facility will be completed.
>> there's still a great need for it. I didn't feel comfortable giving the go ahead with this additional amount. But i still think we ought to do the project and the benefit --
>> i think we need to get busy and do it because as time goes on, the price is going to go up again.
>> second the motion, judge.
>> that was the money, which was c. Any more discussion?
>> well, i thought we were still on a. I do have a couple of questions.
>> we will go back to a. The money i thought was if we didn't land on the money, we wouldn't need to do a.
>> [laughter]
>> c is what -- okay.
>> right.
>> any more discussion of c? That's adding this money from the housing finance corporation funds.
>> judge?
>> yes, sir.
>> the reason that i want to ask a couple of questions is because it may affect how i want to vote on c. I mean, can we go to the questions that harvey posed in his backup to us? I mean, and -- and if you look at -- at harvey's december 4th piece and he had -- looks like seven bullet points, if you go to the second page, points 5, 6, 7, we did just discuss the building requirements may cause unplanned cost increases on the project. I guess, you know, our contingency is our additional six grand and so you are still thinking that that's the answer to point 5. Is that correct? Harvey or --
>>
>> [indiscernible]
>> then go to 6, the corporation has no insurance to cover on-the-job injuries or damages to the state's property. What is the answer to that?
>> well, the answer is that we -- the contract that we would execute with the contractor would require appropriate insurance to cover those contingencies
>> [multiple voices]
>> the responsibility of the trim build.
>> yes.
>> corporation.
>> correct.
>> okay. And then 7, the private donation with regard to the income tax deduction, have we run that by legal? Just making sure that, you know --
>> we went by legal, there is not a way to get that done by having the money funneled through a non-profit corporation. That that corporation's board sign-off on months ago. I did not touch base with them during the last few days, but if that doesn't work we have a glitch. The last time we discussed that with the corporation that had been approved by all concernedment I知 assuming that those approvals are still in place.
>> that's my understanding, also, although i have not talked to anybody in the last couple of months.
>> yeah.
>> but i assume that's still the case.
>> okay.
>> i kind of forgot about that. But --
>> i think the way it works.
>> that was the way for us to get it done. I made sure that the contributor still had the money available. The answer is yes. But so we would have to do that. If not we have to figure out a way to work it out.
>> i hear you. Okay.
>> austin community foundation seemed very agreeable to accommodate --
>> okay.
>> yeah.
>> all right. I知 ready for c.
>> you know the board -- the cjc board blessed this thing probably a year ago when we -- before them, so I知 sure they are wondering what's going on.
>> at least that long.
>> okay. I知 ready for c.
>> any more discussion of c? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. For 175,000. What's not used will remain in the account of the corporation anyway, right.
>> yes, sir, will go to ending fund balance.
>> that's a real nice place for it, too. Mr. Davis.
>> a, the matter involving the contract. That's between travis county and the travis county housing corporation to get it done. We would do construction management for it. Mr. Barr has been the engineer working --
>> I知 the architect of record on the project.
>> even better.
>> I知 the engineer of record.
>> okay. Discussion? Move approval of a.
>> second.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. That leaves b. Which is the construction agreement for the center. Not everybody at once.
>> okay. I'll start. We --
>> by the way they are not shocked and amazed that we have b -- that b is on the ago -- they know that b is on the agenda for discussion, right? We drafted the agreement for construction services between the corporation and the -- and the trim belt and what we would like to do is we would like to turn it over to the counselor from the corporation so they can take a look on that. What we have here is we have the contract drafted and also the job condition, supplemental condition to run this project. So -- so that's where we are on that construction document.
>> i spoke with him about that yesterday and he -- he e-mailed it to me this morning and so i can get through that fairly quickly. But I知 not prepared to -- to address that contract.
>> should we have it back on next week just in case there are --
>> if you want to move that fast i can be ready by next week.
>> okay. I believe that b is the contract that we are executing with -- with the -- with the state. B is the contract that we are executing with the state.
>> maybe all the more reason why --
>> and that --
>> right.
>> well, what contract was for mr. Blunt.
>> i was responding to roger's discussion that the actual contract between the corporation, the construction contract between the corporation and trim built is what i talked to jim about yesterday, what was e-mailed to me this morning that i could be ready on this week. The contract -- the agreement for donation between the corporation and the state, i think, has been in the -- in the shape it's in for quite some time, i am comfortable with that one. I believe that is the contract that's talked about in item b.
>> right. And that's a contract where the corporation agrees to build the -- the visitation center and make the donation.
>> but you still need your next week on that.
>> not on -- b is the contract between the corporation and the state. If you all are comfortable on that i am comfortable on that contract. The one that i haven't had the time to look at yet is between the corporation and trim built, actually the construction contract.
>> all right. Let's have the construction contract on the agenda next week with specific wording to make clear what we're covering and this contract, though, covers our agreement with the --
>> with the state.
>> with the state agency in charge.
>> yes, sir.
>> all right.
>> which we really have discussed.
>> we have discussed previously and i don't believe it's changed.
>> yeah. The county was the one working on that one. Wasn't it.
>> i was working on it with jim, yes.
>>
>> [inaudible - no mic]
>> let's approve that contract and bring it back if we need to.
>> okay.
>> okay. How is that? Let's have it on the agenda anyway. So that -- so we need to look at both of them, give us a chance to look at them. At some point we need to get the other parties assigned. Is the contractor ready to sign the contract. We think there are contract issues with the contract.
>> we need the blessing for the contract first before we get the contractors to sign on it.
>> what we approve next week will be to send to the contractor. Have we gotten the state's signature on that contract.
>> we can get it --
>> i think the state is not going to sign until the county signs it. Or the corporation signs it.
>> we can do it next week then.
>> okay.
>> is the situation the same or will the contractor's signature be on it.
>> the contractor can sign the document once we get the okay from the counselors that the contract -- everything is okay, then the contractor can come the same did i and sign it.
>> just bring them all --
>> [indiscernible]
>> being a --
>> i think the confusion is --
>> two contracts
>> [multiple voices]
>> b was the contract between the corporation and the state on the agenda. Roger is talking about the construction contract with trim built which really is not on the agenda. We couldn't have done anything about that anyway. We will put that on the agenda and i'll be ready to discuss it next tuesday.
>> when i say that construction i thought we were talking about the construction agreement. What i mentioned about the construction contract. But we will bring it next week. We'll be ready next week.
>> I知 sorry.
>> let's proceed to do whatever we need to do to bring both contracts back next week and let's act on both of them, we will have specific wording addressing the particulars of each contract.
>> correct.
>> how is that?
>> very good.
>> okay.
>> good job.
>> that's fine.
>> that's the best way to get it done. No action on b except to indicate our intention to bring it back next week and the directions to give staff directions to do whatever is necessary to -- to try to get them done. Okay. With that, we don't need anything else for the housing finance corporation.
>> move adjourn.
>> second.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
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:
Wednesday, December 5, 2007, 18:30 AM