RM 02-06-76 - Laserfiche WebLink

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MEA contractors to whom we mail the "Invitation For Bids ". Needless to say, the response to these individual mailings has not been great. Any contractors interested in working on these contracts have the name of their firm added to the list and they receive copies of the Invitations via regular, mail. c.- In December of 1974 both the Model Cities Rehabilitation Project and the E -7 Southeast Revenue Sharing Program were experiencing extreme difficulty in obtaining contractors. On many contract sets only one bid was submitted and, in some instances, no bids were submitted. To remedy this situation, I was asked by Mayor Jerry Miller to set up a series of conferences with the Home Builders Association of St. Joseph Valley. This Association represents approximately 147 contractors, suppliers, etc. I met with the Association's Executive Committee throughout December of 1974 and January /February of 1975 in attempts to interest member contractors to bid on rehabilitation work. I found the executive committee to.be truly concerned with the success of the program and they suggested several changes that they felt would generate more interest in government contracts. Primari- ly, the Association objected to the multi- agency involvement between D /HUD, Dept. of Labor, Equal Employment Opportunity Office, State of Indiana, Common Council and the Redevelopment Commission. Understandably, they felt that this work could be better facilitated Tf it could be handled by-one agency without massive contract documents that are required by the program agen- cies. Essentially, the Association believed that an "open -end/ time & materials" contract would most certainly benefit our program. Through this type of contract unforeseen costs could be easily added without the unnecessary delay caused by submission to the Commission for approval. The contractor would simply do the work and bill the City after completion. The Association also felt that the dollar limitation should be eliminated because the severe condition of many of these homes warranted work that would far exceed the limitation. All of the Association's re- commendations were seriously considered but we were unable to make any changes because all procedures are mandated by the various contract agencies. Even though the recommended changes could not take place, several member contractors did submit bids but were quickly discouraged because their bids were extremely high. Comment: The major problem in getting more contractors is two -fold: One, rehabilitation work is very difficult because it is not major .remodeling. That is, the interior is not gutted and the work started from scratch. These homes are all occupied and the contractor must be able to work with and around the occupants. Many contractors are unwilling or unable to do this. They feel that occupied structures complicates the work flow. Also, many contractors feel restricted by the contract specifications. They prefer to have the freedom that an open -end, time & materia.ls