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6. N W BUSINESS (Continued) <br />a. Continued: <br />Mr. Crighton: (Continued) <br />amount of variation, for instance the electrical work, we give <br />just a very rough ball park estimate of electrical work re- <br />quired,.because we are not electricians, and we do not know <br />what a given house is going to take to bring it up to standard <br />for the City of South Bend. One electrician may see a problem <br />in rewiring a certain portion of the house and that would jack <br />the cost up, so it will vary. Each item price is checked on <br />the contract prior to recommendation of the staff. <br />The Chair: I noticed on one of these you have a bid price <br />lower than the labor and material estimate -- this one on South <br />Grant Street. <br />Mr. Crighton: Well, Mr. Slabaugh's suggestions were very well <br />taken by the staff. He feels that if we do break down the <br />prices further and include in the technical specifications a <br />further in -depth description of the contingency items associated <br />with the work bid on, that we would be able to stabilize our <br />bidding prices considerably. I agree with his suggestion on <br />that point. <br />Mr. Wiggins: I notice in this particular group the only one <br />that bid was Slatile . . . these other people took out the <br />documents but nothing happened. <br />Mr. Crighton: No, Mr. Madison was late I believe. <br />Mr. Robinson: The bid is 40% over what their estimate is. <br />Mr. Donaldson: Then, was Slatile the only bidder? <br />Mr. Crighton: Yes, Slatile was the only one whose bid was <br />here on time. <br />Mr. Wiggins: Well, that kind of . . . probably didn "..t make <br />all that much difference, but it has been a problem to get <br />competitive bidding in many instances I know. <br />Mr. Crighton: We have discussed this problem also, Mr. <br />Wiggins, with the City Attorney's office and, as I mentioned <br />I believe a month ago, I hoped to have a report back from <br />Mr..Brunner's office at this meeting. Unfortunately, I do <br />not. It is concerning a few changes that we want to make <br />in our contracts one of which would be to eliminate the <br />bidding by general contractors and we'll go directly with sub- <br />contractors. There are problems relating to bonding and in- <br />surance that we hope to iron out. What we propose to do <br />