Public Building: Explaining the Process of Municipal Construction

Over the past few years, the City of Beverly Hills has undertaken many construction projects in order to upgrade aging facilities, meet community needs for more parking and position the City for future economic growth.

I wanted to take some time in this blog to explain how the City of Beverly Hills goes through the process of approving and managing these projects.

Often it’s best to explain with a real life example: The City Council is now considering building a new Public Works facility that would include a warehouse, mechanical shops, office space and a Public Works emergency operations center.

For the past three years, Public Works has been using trailers and a temporary tent structure since the original, outdated buildings were demolished. The building would be the final phase of the Public Works campus construction program, which includes the office building, the Third Street Parking Garage and the Vehicle Maintenance Shop—all of which have been completed since 2008.

The Public Works building project started back in June of 2009, when the City entered into an agreement with an architect for conceptual drawings. Funding for each step of the project has been identified as part of the City’s Capital Improvement Project (CIP) budget, going back to Fiscal Year 2009-10. The total projected cost for construction is $11.4 million.

Over the past two years, the architect has been meeting with City staff to determine the operational needs, evaluate new technology and come up with a design that would allow the maintenance groups of Public Works to operate in a much smaller area than before.

At its Nov. 15, 2011 meeting, the Council approved a contract with a construction manager and the conceptual drawings, which include a floor plan and an exterior design for the two-story building. Hiring a construction manager early in the process is a well-established public and private sector practice. This approach saves money in the long run by identifying potential issues and finding solutions before construction begins.  

If the Council approves the project, the construction manager would take on the role of the general contractor and manage the project until its completion. Over the next few months, the construction manager will be meeting with the architect, refining the plans and overseeing the subcontractor bidding. In addition, the project plans will be shared with the Architecture Commission on an advisory basis to take advantage of their insights and experience.

Of the $695,000 approved for the construction manager, about $31,000 will be spent in the initial period before the project is approved and construction starts. Once construction documents—including detailed plans and a schedule—are complete, the project will go out to bid. Beverly Hills, like other government agencies, is legally required to accept the “lowest responsible bidder.”

A responsible bidder is defined as a company that has experience with the type and scale of the project. In addition, the company must be financially stable and carry adequate insurance. To ensure that the City considers only responsible subcontractors, the project will go through a request for qualifications (RFQ) process to preselect as many bidders as possible.

Once the subcontractor bids are in, staff will present the project to the Council for approval. If approved, the project would take an estimated 10 months to complete. In the unlikely case that the City decided not to proceed with construction of the warehouse project, the remainder of the contract would be cancelled and the funds returned to the CIP budget.

Every City project is unique, but the overall process of bringing a project to the Council for approval at different steps along the way and finding the lowest, quality bidder is followed for every major City construction project in Beverly Hills.

This blog is intended as a means of keeping the community informed about City government. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the views of Beverly Hills Patch.