Harrisburg City Council meeting on Tuesday.
Harrisburg City Council has rejected the city administration’s choice of a construction manager for the Broad Street Market, possibly delaying for months work to begin restoration of the fire-damaged brick building.
At a legislative session on Tuesday, council voted 5-2 against a proposal to hire Harrisburg-based Alexander Building Construction Co. to coordinate and manage the rebuild of the market building, which was seriously damaged by a July fire. Several council members stated that they believed the selection process was inequitable, a position rejected by the Williams administration.
“The process was not equitable, and that’s the bottom line,” council President Danielle Bowers said. “I find discrepancies within the process. All of the committee assembled to review the proposals received is viewing them from the same lens and perspective, and it’s an issue.”
Council members Shamaine Daniels and Ausha Green voted in favor of the proposal.
Bowers and other council members stated that they didn’t necessarily have an issue with Alexander or its qualifications, but with the scoring and review process that took place by the city.
With the rejection of the proposal, the city will now need to go back to square one, likely issue a new RFP, review new bids and redo the selection process, according to Dave Baker, director of facilities for the city. This may take anywhere from four to six months, he said.
Baker said that, before selecting Alexander, Harrisburg reviewed four RFP submissions and scored them based on criteria such as their experience in construction management, fire restoration experience, and ability to have daily on-site supervision of the project. Alexander scored the highest, while having the second highest bid price.
The selection committee was made up of three Harrisburg employees, all of whom are white: Debbie Reihart, a project manager for the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation, Dan Hartman, city business administrator and Scott Miller, a project manager for facilities. Baker explained that the members were chosen based on their expertise and understanding of projects such as this.
However, council members pointed out that the city’s Chief Equity and Compliance Officer Karl Singleton was not part of the team and that they believed the team was not diverse. Some also noted that they were unclear whether Alexander would select diverse, local contractors as vendors for the project.
Council member Lamont Jones also took issue with the fact that Alexander was also recently chosen by the city to serve as the general contractor for an FNB Field upgrade project.
“There’s cronyism that takes place in our city, which leaves out the little guys and the people that are looking to scale their businesses,” Jones said. “We are known to be called a rollover city and I am looking to change that.”
However, Baker explained that Alexander would not be directly hiring vendors for construction and professional services for the project, but rather assisting the city with recommendations for a general contractor and architect.
Baker told TheBurg that he believed that the selection process was fair and included people with diverse professional backgrounds, ages and genders.
The city will now restart the RFP process for a construction manager.
“We will expedite the process, but it takes a fair amount of time,” Baker said.
Eric Hagarty, board president for the Broad Street Market Alliance, attended the meeting, urging council, during public comment, to support the resolution. He noted that, if the contract was approved, construction on the brick building could possibly be completed in two years. After the vote, he said he was “deeply disappointed.”
“I’m disappointed that City Council can’t get their act together,” Hagarty said. “Because of City Council’s inaction, it’s going to be years before this is complete and it didn’t have to be this way. I’m disturbed that President Bowers, who is on the market board, voted ‘no.’”
Following the meeting, Mayor Wanda Williams issued a statement calling council’s decision “careless.”
“The reckless decision by these city councilors this evening to not award the Broad Street Market construction manager to the most qualified proposal – the one with the experience and support of the Central Pennsylvania Building and Construction Trades Council – means vendors will have to wait even longer to get back into their permanent home, and city residents will watch the one-year anniversary of the fire come and go without any work being done,” she stated.
Williams also said that she met multiple times with council members to discuss the scoring process.
However, council members noted during the meeting that they believed there were still discrepancies with numbers on the scoring rubric that city officials had and the ones they were given on Tuesday.
“There are a number of things that literally and figuratively are not adding up,” Bowers said.
Also on Tuesday, council voted in favor of a project by Harrisburg-based Midtown Redevelopment LLC to construct a four-story, 36-unit senior apartment building on a vacant lot at 1610 N. 4th St.
The project will also include first-floor commercial space, 30 first-floor interior parking spaces and 12 outdoor, on-site parking spots.
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