Board of Aldermen 8-11-2020 Page 8
President Wilshire
Mayor, do you know when the Finance Committee approved that?
Mayor Donchess
No, you mean the $3.6?
President Wilshire
Yes.
Mayor Donchess
No, | am not sure.
Alderman Lopez
| think | might have made the motion for that as well in the spring.
President Wilshire
The motion for what?
Alderman Lopez
For the funding for that amount, because if | remember originally it was $1.5 and then Legislation came
across saying like, Ok there’s been some changes in the project so now we have to change the amount. So
then earlier this year | sponsored a motion to do that.
Alderman Dowd
Yes, you are going to see several of these GMP’s on all the projects we have going on. You are going to
see them on 3 schools. As long as the amount, by the way, when they get that number, they predict a price
for the project and then they go back and sharpen their pencils and get the actual prices when they go out
to bids and everything. If it comes in under the amount that was approved for bonding, it really shouldn’t be
an issue. It’s not like we are trying to increase the bond, we are saving money. So it just means that the
final prices that were obtained by the contractor were less than was anticipated. So | don’t think you know
it needs to go back before a Committee as long as it is under the bonded price. The City is saving money
and it would just be whatever discussion you would have at a Committee, you could have right now.
Alderman Laws
Thank you Madam President. | have nothing to add after the last two speakers, thank you.
Alderman Lopez
| just want to say that | am inclined at this point to leave my motion the same that was initially proposed.
But | did want to acknowledge that | see Alderman Jette’s point as well. Communication is very, very
important and | think there’s a number of situations where it is extremely important for the Board of
Aldermen to be briefed on things where they haven’t necessarily been given all the details or information
hasn’t been conveyed particularly accurately. So as a rule of thumb, there should always be willingness to
communicate with the Board; even if it is in written form or something along those lines before we are
expected to make a decision on something, because while this is definitely a much lower number and lower
