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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOctober 15, 2020 - 254th Regular MinutesUNAPPROVED MINUTES OF THE 254th REGULAR MEETING OF THE PLYMOUTH ROAD DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF LIVONIA The 254th Regular Meeting of the Plymouth Road Development Authority of the City of Livonia, Michigan, was called to order at 3:02 p.m., Thursday, October 15, 2020, via Zoom. Members Present: Omar Faris, Chair Jeremy Curtis, Vice Chair John Hiltz Maureen Miller Brosnan, Mayor Stephanie Roehl Blatt Betsy McCue Susan Harvey Patrick Mies Members Absent: Dan Laible Others Present: Mark Taormina, Economic Development & Planning Director Mike Slater, Director of Finance Jessica Katers, OHM Advisors Stephanie Reece, Program Supervisor, Planning Doug Moore, Assistant Director of Public Works 1. Roll was called. A quorum was present. 2. Audience Communication. None 3. Adoption of the Minutes. On a motion made by McCue, seconded by Curtis, and unanimously adopted, it was #2020-01 RESOLVED, that the Plymouth Road Development Authority does hereby approve the Minutes of the 253rd Regular Meeting held on July 18, 2019. Mr. Faris, Chairman, declared the motion is carried and the foregoing resolution adopted. 4. Introduction of New Board Members. Mr. Faris introduced the Mayor. The Mayor introduced herself and explained a bit about how her position relates to this board. She then went on to introduce Patrick Mies, Susan Harvey, and Dan Liable and spoke of how she knows them and believes they will be an asset to the board. On Mr. Taormina’s suggestion, all person’s present introduced themselves. October 15, 2020 2 5. Financial Reports – June 2019 through August 2020. Mr. Slater went through all months of financials. He specifically explained the disbursements for all months. As of June 2019, the total assets were about $109,000. The liabilities were just under $10,000. The fund balance at the beginning of the year, December 1, 2018 was about $73,000. At the end of June, the fund balance was about $110,000. He stated that the fiscal year for PRDA is from December 1 through November 30. In 2011 a millage was instituted by the state statutes. There are two mills levied on all the properties within the district that comes to the PRDA. It is about $700,000 per year. That is where our source of revenue comes from. The streetlights are now owned by DTE. They maintain them. They are paid monthly based on the number of poles. He explained that the bills are very consistent on a monthly basis for street lighting and irrigation. He explained that in 2019 there was a capital outlay of $400,000 for the asset repair program, which is through OHM Advisors. OHM did the asset review and there were a couple disbursements for the review. At the end of fiscal year of 2019, we were up to about $637,000 in assets. The liabilities were at roughly $82,000 and the fund balance was at about $550,000. There was an expense for Century Cement Company to fix the plaza at Farmington and Plymouth Roads. That was done November 2019. The irrigation water bill was paid in December. It is an annual bill. In June a portion of the cost of the audit was charged to the PRDA. As of August 2020, Mr. Slater stated that the PRDA was up to almost $1.3 million in assets and fund balance is also almost $1.3 million. The year-to-date budget is roughly $700,000 in revenue. Mr. Slater explained that since the PRDA has been struggling, under Act 51, which is the gas tax revenue law in Michigan, the cost of maintaining streetlights in the right-of-way is an allowable cost. The city has been picking up those costs on behalf of the PRDA. That is about $117,000. That is what is currently happening. It may change in the future. On a motion made by Mayor Brosnan, seconded by McCue, and unanimously adopted, it was #2020-02 RESOLVED, that the Plymouth Road Development Authority does hereby accept and approve the Financial Statements of the Authority’s Special Revenue Fund for the months ending June, 2019 through August, 2020. Mr. Faris, Chairperson, declared the motion is carried and the foregoing resolution adopted. 6. Consideration of contract with Seaway Painting, L.L.C. to paint traffic signal mast arms at various locations along Plymouth Road. Mr. Taormina explained some of the past improvements that took place included several of the mast arms that hold the traffic signals. They are located at Plymouth and Farmington, Middlebelt, Merriman, Harrison, Stark, and Levan. This proposal does not include Levan and Stark because they were installed more recently. The proposal is to paint the mast arms. He showed photographs of the arms at Harrison and Plymouth. He explained that October 15, 2020 3 Seaway Painting is also painting some other city owned assets and so they were asked to provide a quote for painting the poles along the corridor. He stated it would be for 14 poles and 14 mast arms. The total bid is $21,700. Mr. Moore stated that the poles at Harrison and Plymouth are the worst and have been that way for several years. It wasn’t able to be taken care of earlier due to cost, but since Seaway was already doing work for the city, he asked the representative to look at all of them using Harrison as the example. Mr. Hiltz asked if we are seeing rust or if it just needs painting. Mr. Moore stated it is just paint. Ms. Harvey asked if this was the only bid we received. Mr. Moore said it is. He explained that Seaway is unique, and they are the only one in the area to do this type of work. He said that they do this type of work and have done work for the city before, so it was easier this way. Ms. Harvey asked if being a Livonia based company is a requirement to get work. Mr. Moore said no. Mr. Slater said that this is the type of work that Seaway does and DTE uses them for all of their street poles. There aren’t a lot of other companies that do this. Mr. Faris agreed that Seaway has a great reputation and keeping the money local is a better advantage than possibly saving a couple dollars by a company we don’t know. Ms. McCue stated that normally on other proposals they do bring in other proposals. The Mayor asked Mr. Slater to explain to the newer board members that when there is more than one bid for something, there is in the finance ordinance an opportunity for local bidder preference that is given to Livonia based businesses. She concurs that Seaway really does have the monopoly of painting large structural projects like this. Mr. Slater stated that the PRDA does not fall under the Livonia Finance Ordinance. It doesn’t mean that what is in the ordinance is not a good policy for the PRDA to follow even though they are not legally required to. For city projects, City Council passed a resolution long ago that says that projects that are under $100,000 in cost and you are a local Livonia based business we consider the bid and give a 3% credit for a local bidder preference. If it is over $100,000 the credit is dropped down to 1%. It doesn’t exclude other people but in close bids, Livonia companies are given preference over others. Mr. Taormina said the next item is an effort on behalf of the PRDA to source competitive bids on these contracts. Consideration of the local preference may come into play. Ms. McCue asked if these poles have never been painted since the original installation. Mr. Moore said he has been here for about 20 years and they haven’t been painted since then that he is aware of. Mr. Curtis asked is there is any kind of warranty. Mr. Moore said yes and followed up with past jobs, Ms. Harvey asked if they sandblast off the old paint or do they paint over. Mr. Moore said they will scrape off the old and they will prime the bad areas and the lower portion of the pole and then paint over it. Mr. Hiltz asked if we were only talking about the mast arms and if we are still in ownership of the arms since DTE has the responsibility of the poles. Mr. Moore said we are responsible for the signs and the intersection signal portion. On a motion made by Hiltz, seconded by Curtis, and unanimously adopted, it was October 15, 2020 4 #2020-03 RESOLVED, that the Plymouth Road Development Authority does hereby accept t the proposal submitted by Seaway Painting L.L.C, 31801 Schoolcraft Rd, Livonia, MI 48150-1808, as detailed in their proposal dated September 28, 2020, to paint traffic signal mast arms at intersections along the Plymouth Road Corridor at an estimated cost of $21,700.00. Mr. Faris, Chairperson, declared the motion is carried and the foregoing resolution adopted. 7. Update on Streetscape Asset Maintenance Program. Mr.Taormina provided background information for this item. He stated it stems from a detailed analysis of all PRDA streetscape assets, including the brick paver plazas, stonewalls, iron fences, etc. The study ranked the condition of all the assets to determine the criticality of the condition of each asset. It states the type of work needed along with an estimated cost. He then explained that OHM put together a bid package to find a qualified contractor for this project. The estimated cost of the project $450,000. The packages were sent out a few weeks ago. They are waiting for responses. Because of the uniqueness of the project and the time of year and other factors, no responses have been received. Mr. Taormina asked the board to consider authorizing the administration and the chair of the PRDA to negotiate the terms and conditions of the contract for the repairs, with a not to exceed amount. Ms. Katers explained that over the summer Mr. Taormina and Mr. Slater met with OHM to come up with a bid package. It was put out at the beginning of September with a mandatory pre-bid meeting. There were no contractors at that meeting. There was a list of contractors that were notified of the proposal. They met again with city staff and put together an amendment for the package which would allow contractors to bid on portions of the project. Originally, they wanted one contractor to oversee the entire project but due to the uniqueness of the project, the package is now on the site that the city uses for bids. It allows for the contractors to bid on sections. She then stated that the bid is due on October 27, 2020 and is hoping to have it under contract by the next PRDA meeting. Mayor Brosnan asked Ms. Katers if they were looking for a project manager who would then sub it out. If it were divided out by trade, the Mayor wanted to know who would over see the entire project. Ms. Katers said that OHM can help with the administration of it and the inspection of the project. She mentioned that she was hoping to get the contractor on board this fall, but most of the work wouldn’t start until the spring or summer of next year. If there are multiple contractors, OHM can offer services to help with the contract administration. Ms. Harvey said if the work doesn’t start until next year and she knows that the trades are extremely busy, that we may consider lining it up right now but not locking it down until spring. She feels the Authority will be paying or contracting to pay the highest construction cost that she has seen in her career. Ms. Katers stated that the completion date has been moved back to July or August of 2021. There are no substantial completions that need to be done this year. Ms. Harvey stated that the contractors will be pricing it at today’s market October 15, 2020 5 which is very high. Ms. Kater’s said that that majority of the cost will be labor. The work is very labor intensive. It is not so much about material- based cost. If the bids do come in too high, the bid may be placed out there again in spring. Mr. Faris feels we should get bids now and if the board does not like them, it can be looked at again in the spring. Mr. Taormina said the original estimate was $450,000 but maybe the board would feel comfortable with putting a cap on it as we seek bids. If they exceed that amount, then they could re-bid this in the spring. He stated that it was brought up to even break it up into sub-packets, which they really did not want to do. They felt it would be best to find a contractor that would hire all of the trades accordingly. Mr. Faris feels that a general contractor could be found to manage the entire project. He thinks getting bids now and seeing where they fall now would be good with a possibility of re-evaluating again in the spring. Mr. Curtis inquired about how the contract was set up. He asked if they were going on a purely low bid. Ms. Katers stated the contract is set up so that you can accept, any portion of the bid. If someone is able to do all of it with an upcharge on some of the trades, you wouldn’t need as much contract administration from an outside company and that should be considered. Mr. Curtis was checking that it is not lowest bid and that it is more of a “best value”. Ms.Katers said yes. Mr. Mies stated he feels it makes sense to get bids now and re-evaluate in the spring if necessary. He is concerned that if they wait until spring with the hope that the cost comes down, he wants to know when the work would get on the schedule to be completed. He is concerned about more deterioration from where they are now and what they may look like in June or July. Mr. Faris stated that doesn’t believe that anything would be structurally damaged over a winter from a slightly damaged state. He also feels that February is a good time to re-evaluate. Ms. Harvey wants to know what the warranty is on brick work or mason works. Ms. Katers stated that the contract is set up with the typical City of Livonia requirements. It has a two-year maintenance guarantee bond. Ms. Harvey wonders if there is any way to increase that for the things that are very vulnerable to freeze thaws. Ms. Katers said if the board did want to include that in the bid, then OHM would need to know so they could resend out the package with a bid addendum. Mr. Faris is afraid that it would scare away any possible bidders. He said maybe it could be brought up when they get closer to awarding the contract. Ms. Harvey said that it may be used as a negotiation tool. She also wanted to know if the contracts are reviewed by the city’s Law Department. Mr. Slater stated yes. Ms. Katers stated that it goes through the Law Department before it is posted for bid. On a motion made by Hiltz, seconded by Mayor Brosnan, and unanimously adopted, it was #2020-04 RESOLVED, that the Plymouth Road Development Authority does hereby accept and authorize the City Administration and the PRDA Chairman to execute a contract with a qualified contractor to complete the scope of work as provided in the bid documents, subject to joint recommendation by OHM and the October 15, 2020 6 Administration, and further provided the amount of the contract shall not to exceed $500,000, and if over $500,000, the Executive Committee would review. Mr. Faris, Chairperson, declared the motion is carried and the foregoing resolution adopted. 8. Request by Ashley Capital for consideration of an Interlocal Agreement between the PRDA and Livonia Brownfield Redevelopment Authority (LBRA) in connection with the redevelopment of the NE corner of Eckles and Amrhein Roads. Mr. Taormina stated this is about seeking the board’s approval for an interlocal agreement between the PRDA and LBRA. It involves a Brownfield redevelopment project of an industrial property at the corner of Amrhein and Eckles Roads. Livonia West Commerce Center 2 is the name of the project and the entity that is seeking approval. The Administration has been working with Ashley on this proposal for quite some time. He explained how the Brownfield Authority works and the location involved. He also explained how RACER Trust was established to manage this site as part of the bankruptcy agreement. The role of the Trust is to manage the ongoing remediation of the site. The first 100 acres of the property was sold to Ashley Capital which is now the Amazon Fulfillment Center. They also sold an additional 33 to 35 acres for what is now known as Republic National Distribution Company, a wine and spirits distributer. There is about 40 acres left undeveloped. This parcel has continuing ground water issues and other problems which hinder the development of the site. LWCC2 is proposing that a Brownfield plan that relies on the capture of incremental taxes to reimburse the developer for the costs associated with certain eligible activities. He then explained how the capture is done. The State requires an agreement between the PRDA and the LBRA because this property is located within the District. It should have no financial impact on the PRDA because the capture does not include the 2-mill levy. That will continue to be collected on this property. The aggregate taxable value of the properties in the District is still less than the base value that was established when the PRDA plan in 1994. There is no capture currently nor in the foreseeable future. He stated that the agreement is needed because the two authorities would technically be vying for the same tax dollars even though it is not likely. The project needs the Brownfield Authority’s approval, as well as the City Council. Ms. Harvey stated that they are proposing a large industrial building at this site. They have not taken ownership yet from RACER Trust because it is the most contaminated portion of the site and that the trust has been working on cleaning up the site to a condition that is acceptable for development and for Ashley Capital to buy it. She stated the costs to develop this site is so much higher due to the contamination and that the Brownfield plan would help the developer to recoup some of those costs. Mr. Taormina stated that the proposed building is an approximately 370,000 square foot manufacturing facility. He restated the fact that there will be no impact to the PRDA financially. The agreement would be for the length of the Brownfield plan, which as proposed currently would be 30