No comment: Council report notes $1.4 million not DBOF applicable

October 24, 2007
Santa Paula City Council

It may cost the city approximately $1.4 million if work on the city’s new wastewater treatment plant cannot be applied to the Design/Build/Operate/Finance process, the City Council learned in a report included in the October 15 meeting packet.

By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesIt may cost the city approximately $1.4 million if work on the city’s new wastewater treatment plant cannot be applied to the Design/Build/Operate/Finance process, the City Council learned in a report included in the October 15 meeting packet.The report requested by the Council targets expenditures through the 60 percent design of the Bid, Design, Bid process, a path that the Council had been on since late 2002.The Council and city staff learned late in 2002 that the state Regional Water Quality Control Board had a backlog of about $8 million in fines due to illegal discharges from the city’s aging wastewater treatment plant, which had undergone a major rehabilitation in the 1980s.After long negotiations headed by then-Mayor John Procter, the state agreed to apply a bulk of the fines to a new wastewater treatment plant.Although the previous Council had approved the BDB process - which would involve city financing and operational control - in recent months the present Council switched gears to the DBOF method, which involves teams handling everything from design to construction to operations to private sector financing.
The October 15 report appeared on the consent calendar portion of the agenda and no Councilmember requested that it be pulled for discussion.According to Public Works Director/City Engineer Cliff Finley, “As requested (by the Council), staff also attempted to separate costs that were lost as a result of changing to the DBOF delivery system.”The total cost of the project through 2007 is approximately $9.2 million, with approximately $1.4 million worth of work that “may not be utilized for the DBOF project.”Of the $7.9 million that will be utilized for the DBOF project, Finley reported that about $3 million is for the property purchased for the plant. The land cost most likely cannot be recovered in the DBOF phase, according to the chart included with the report.The “remaining $5 million was expended primarily for program management and the project report, environmental studies including the Environmental Impact Report, and geotechnical and plant design.”The 60 percent design drawings were completed in July 2007.



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