Travis County Commissioners Court
December 2, 2008
Item 25
Number 25. Consider and take appropriate action on proposed membership of the evaluation committee for the central campus master plan study.
>> perhaps ronnie earle wants to join me. No, that was just a message that -- mr. Earle's celebration is much more important than what I'm about to announce.
>> when you have multiple celebrations going on at the same time, christian, it's hard to be at multiple places at one time.
>> I understand that.
>> I'm just thankful he was able to come by the Commissioners court meeting this morning and spend a few moments with us.
>> [laughter] back to number 25, please.
>> you each have received a status report on the central campus master plan. There is an r.f.q. That is out. It's been picked up by 137 firms who are interested in at least considering being a consultant to Travis County for the development of the central campus study. Purchasing office has been ensuring that we follow a rigorous process. We had a noncompulsory pre-proposal conference in judge dietz's conference room, his courtroom, on November 14th. There were 57 people there. It went very well. We are in the process of answering questions that consultants have posed to us. We thought that we would get responses back by December 15th and have realized that over the holidays there are going to be certain people that are not going to be in town and are going to be on -- actually out of the country and so we are suggesting we are going to slip the date to receive the proposals to January 5th, but that will not change anything with respect to the schedule. We're just going to compress how much time we are given to evaluate proposals and negotiate. In conversations with judge Biscoe, he suggested it might be useful to have the Commissioners court specifically approve the membership and the evaluation committee, and there are five people, belinda powell, roner khoury, senior project architect joe harlow, director of communication systems and yours truly as special assistant to the court. These five people have been working to put this together and would be evaluating the proposals coming forward to you in late January with the top group of consultants and then requesting open and public discussion with them of their qualifications.
>> we have discussed these five members previously, but we've never formally approved them as a committee.
>> that's correct. And there was a question as to whether members of the judiciary would be interested in serving, and I have personally spoken with judge dietz, judge perkins and judge flowers and they have all said no thank you, we trust you. And we have -- we are also assuming that members of the court follow the lead of the judiciary.
>> that's not work avoidance. The purchasing agent will work with this group. In fact, my memo says the group will be supervised by the purchasing agent.
>> that's a term that she enjoys using.
>> [laughter]
>> well, in that case I certainly have no objection. Questions, comments?
>> move approval, judge.
>> second.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you, mr. Smith.
>> thank you all.
>> I'll give my seat to somebody a little more illustrious.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, December 2, 2008 3:10 PM