Responding to local contractor concerns, Springfield to ask again for proposals for City Hall work

The city of Springfield will reissue a request for proposals for a contractor to complete repairs and remodeling at City Hall. 

The action comes after the Springfield City Council in June voted not to move forward with a construction contract with a California company for work at the city building downtown. It needs a new HVAC system, among other updates. 

At a work session Monday, Sept. 28, the council also resumed its discussion of a controversial annexation for a behavioral health campus. And the Springfield Economic Development Agency heard requests from developers for financial assistance with downtown projects.

On the City Hall project, the city first issued a request for proposals, known as an RFP, in April and seven companies, including local contractors, submitted proposals. A committee evaluated each, based on criteria spelled out in the RFP, and intended to award the contract to California-based Swinerton Builders.

But after hearing concerns from the local contractors about the city’s process, councilors voted not to authorize the construction contract.

Councilors directed staff to reevaluate the RFP structure and scoring criteria, and to meet with local contractors to better understand their concerns. 

At the council work session, Jeff Paschall, director of the city’s Community Development Division, said he and the assistant city attorney incorporated feedback from those meetings into a revised request for proposals.

Changes include asking proposers to describe their local office presence and ability to respond to the site quickly, as well as their ability to work with local vendors. The new request also provides a $75,000 preconstruction allowance rather than asking for a preconstruction price and includes a table for identifying construction fees to allow for clearer comparison. 

“I still think we’re moving in the right direction on this one, but I think there’s work that can still be done,” Councilor Jill Cuadros said. “Our relationship with local contractors is stronger than it was, but [the revised process] asks about outreach rather than demonstrated history and relationships.”

Assistant City Attorney Kristina Kraaz said staff could adjust the reference checks to ask references how they feel the contractor worked with the local workforce.

The estimated construction budget is $9 million, with a total project cost estimated at $12.5 million to $13.8 million, including preconstruction and design, according to the request for proposals, which staff plans to reissue in October.

Annexation request

Councilors also resumed a discussion about a request from Lane County and PeaceHealth to annex property on International Way into the city limits for a planned stabilization center and behavioral health hospital.

At previous meetings, the City Council deliberated whether the site’s planned uses are consistent with the city’s plans for the area, which is designated for light industrial uses. 

“The council hasn’t totally resolved your direction on that,” Kraaz said. “I think that is something some councilors may want more time to think about.”

However, councilors decided to move forward with discussing other criteria for the annexation, including where streets are proposed to be built.

Kraaz told councilors earlier this month they had received a request from the applicants to reopen the record and hold another public hearing. She said Monday that the council received an objection to the request to reopen the record and hearing, “and it expressed some concerns around statements made in the deliberative process and whether the council was improperly considering ex-parte contacts and whether the mayor’s status as a commissioner-elect was factoring into the process somehow.” 

Kraaz said that being elected to another office is not a conflict of interest under Oregon law.

Mayor Sean VanGordon, who will begin serving on the Lane County Board of Commissioners in January, said he appreciated the concerns.

“This is an annexation that’s fairly complicated,” he said. “It is one that has gone back and forth on different procedural pieces, and I’m so glad that people are asking questions that they have and that are on their mind.”

He said it is probably the most complicated annexation that he’s seen in his time. 

“When I’m making my decisions, and when I’m thinking about this, I am thinking about it in the context of criteria that’s in front of us and the evidence that’s in the record,” VanGordon said. 

Councilors discussed options for streets around the property. Michael Liebler, a city traffic engineer, told councilors the site is “a key property in terms of providing access and providing some sort of form of connection to the larger [urban growth boundary] expansion area.”

A proposed annexation agreement negotiated between the city and PeaceHealth and Lane County outlines the parties’ obligations regarding development of the property. 

The agreement calls for PeaceHealth and Lane County to build wastewater and stormwater systems; dedicate a right-of-way for Maple Island Road along the northern boundary of Lane County’s property; dedicate a right-of-way along the western border of Lane County’s property for a collector road; and create a pedestrian and bike path from International Way to the future road.

Councilors said they want to make sure potential roads do not negatively affect neighboring properties.

The agreement also requires PeaceHealth and Lane County to pay $321,255 for Gateway-area transportation projects, which the city intends to put toward a study of the Gateway-Beltline interchange. 

Councilors did not make a decision about the streets. In regards to the contribution for the study, VanGordon said he was “seeing head nods that this is the way we want to go.”

“We’re penciling this stuff in, and we still probably have another 90-minute discussion before we get to the finish line,” the mayor said. 

Financial assistance for economic development

The Springfield Economic Development Agency, known as SEDA, discussed requests from two developers to provide financial assistance for projects downtown. 

The SEDA board, which comprises the City Council and the Lane county commissioner for Springfield, David Loveall, did not approve or deny the requests but asked staff for more information and expressed interest in developing a process to consider such requests.

“Overall nod that I’m hearing is that let’s stick primarily with the SDCs (system development charges) as our main tool to support property development, and then let’s consider outside of that what we might think, taking from our various inputs, what any additional support might look like, and what kinds of projects we’re interested in supporting,” said Councilor Alan Stout, who is the SEDA board chair.

System development charges are city fees local businesses and developers pay to pay for public infrastructure improvements. The economic development agency uses urban renewal funds to help developers pay those fees. 

One request came from the group remodeling the historic Mill Street School into apartments, which asked for $550,000 to go toward restoring windows and repairing the elevator, which were damaged by vandalism.

The other request from Olof Investments asks for a property tax abatement for 10 years, at an approximate value of $200,000, for the Memorial Building, which is being renovated into the Drifters Baseball Academy and administrative offices for the baseball club. The economic development agency sold the building last fall to Ike Olsson, an owner of the baseball club.