Courthouse Square Internal Staff Team Minutes

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rental rate of $1.20 per square foot". Yet the county's budgetary ~ assumption for Courthouse Square is $1.30 a square foot; (3) a disparity in the most recent proforma in documenting spending for soil remediation. The committee in its interim report Mazch 13 made two recommendations that we repeat here: 1. No work should be undertaken without written contracts in place. 2. Both the county and the transit district should adopt policies the prohibit boazd members and staff from doing business with the political entity for one year after a person leaves. If the transit board and the county commissioners decide to approve design development of Courthouse Square, the Special Project Oversight Committee (SPOC) makes the following recommendations: 1. The two boards should establish a~( new independent citizens committee, sl~e~~ be-es~a~~ishe~ perhaps including some members of SPOC, to work with the project team through construction. This coinmittee should have a clear formal charge, be established with direct links to the board, should include persons with technical expertise in public constructions and firumce, and should conduct a continuing review process aimed at making the project credible and its sponsors accountable. 2. Before beginning work on construction documents, the county and the district should ' conduct a ~ documented formal ~-'~~~ =~ ~°"~-' -- "value engineering exercise". This would determine whether design changes can lead to better values or lower spending. 3. When the final design is completed, the county and the district also should l~~e-~ ~„ conduct a"constructability analysis" to identify problems that a contractor would encounter in following an architect's design. The process should be repeated with the winning bidder. 4• After the final design is completed, the project team and the elected leadership, ' should conduct and document a cost-e~g review e~e~s}se-to determine ~ if the design ~~-should be refined to reduce expenses. Depending on the construction climate, items can be added back or bid as alternatives. 5. Construction documents should be based on the results of the value engineering exercise, the constructability analysis, and the cost-s~g review session. 6. The project should be bid in the traditional low-bid format. 8. If the bids exceed the budget, the transit board and the county with advice by the review team should be prepazed to consider other alternatives, including redesign,-~~eget~err, and cancellation. 9. The ~s~-be~-a~~ county should retain professional financial advisors to update the financial assumptions and costs and to examine ' ~ 3