2011-0906 Special City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting September 6, 2011 First Budget Hearing Sunny Isles Beach, Florida the vendor we contracted with is Castle USA, and Castle USA produced a contract with Awnings of Hollywood for the preparation and creation of the canvas. They were notified of the situation we have had with Awnings of Hollywood, and have been put on notice. Mayor Edelcup asked if there was a penalty in the contract if the stage canopy was not in by the due date, and Mr. Batista said we received a construction schedule in accordance with the contract, we reviewed it and requested a concept drawing from the contractor, the concept drawing was not what we had envisioned it to be in accordance with the RFP. There were some major adjustments that had to be made, which adjustments were made however it was outside the construction schedule. In the time it took for us to approve and come to resolution with the canvass, it pushed that construction schedule just a little bit further. Mayor Edelcup asked if the penalty clause is ready to hook in on a specific date now, and Mr. Batista said no, we have a different process to follow up with the contractor in this particular case, we do have paperwork to back it up, we have the email and we let him know that he has to hit his milestones. Mayor Ede1cup said since the Commission approved the contract which you unilaterally changed which we weren't aware of, how do we know when the penalty kicks in because you didn't come back to the Commission with it, how do we monitor this. City Manager Cohen said the penalty clause is based on a period of time, not a date specific, and so once we give a Notice to Proceed they have a certain period oftime within which to produce the product after which the penalty kicks in. The other part of your question on how are we going to follow through on that, very specifically the other situation that you referenced where we did have a problem we just came to settlement with the contractor and we recovered 30% of the cost of the project because the penalty was placed on him due to the failure to produce in a timely manner, and so we do take performance very seriously and we are executing these performance clauses in the contract. City Manager Cohen asked CHS Director Simpson if the Logistics contract that we have for this year is in the same amount as last year, and Ms. Simpson said no, the increase was due to using a national act as opposed to local entertainment that we had last year. She said the increase is also due to the fact that they can't use the stage, they can't put a cover directly over the stage, so they are going to come in and build a stage similar to what they built last year but rather than a mobile stage, they are building it from the ground up to meet Code. On page C-21, Intracoastal Park, the Commission asked why it states five months to demolish the property, and Assistant City Manager Shah said these are place holder dates, when we prepared the preliminary budget in June and July, it was the estimate at that time. The most important thing to note is that funding is available in the fiscal year and based on when we come to Commission for approval, we can get them done. Mayor Edelcup asked to get these down to real dates, and City Manager Cohen said that we will come back with more accurate dates, and Vice Mayor Thaler said this has been going on a long time before you came on the scene, and Commissioner Aelion said it is the issue of creditability because the Commissioners are out there meeting with residents, and they give them the tentative dates. Mayor Edelcup said one thing he needs to caution about is on the annual operating expenses on 3 or 4 pieces of the Intracoastal Park, each one is showing $60,000 and he has a hard time believing it costs $240,000 a year to water the lawn. City Manager Cohen said those numbers 8