Special Board of Aldermen 11-22-2021 Page 9
Laurie Ortolano
All of them? Yeah, | thought so but | would love somebody to be able to point out where those are because | can't
find it. So if somebody - that would be a request. It might be in these guaranteed maximum price amendments that |
cannot find online in any of the attached documents. So. And again, my concern is you know right now Harvey bills
in costs increases about 3 or 4% a year and the state of construction is seeing that type of increase in a month. In
some instances, the fluctuation is 10, 12% a month. | mean, it's just real. It's really maddening and difficult to deal
with. | mean my husband has a business and he's like pricing machinery weekly now. It's crazy. So | mean that
concerns me quite a bit that, you know, we're going to have to work with our contractor. They're a great contractor but
| don't think ultimately you can just stick it to them. That's not to our benefit or to theirs if these things become difficult
to price and become difficult to maintain pricing. | think there's a reality that this could be the case. Of course, you
know, | look at all aspects of what's going on in spending and I'm very cognizant of what's happening with property
taxes next year, and these new assessments, and the sum total of it leaves me concerned that we should be more
careful about what we bond and what we spend money on. So yeah if you could point me to those force majeure
clauses and those amendments, | would surely appreciate it. Thank you.
Chairman Dowd
The actual clause might be part of the AAI contract. Those contracts are put out by AAI and modified for each case.
They're reviewed extensively by Legal and, for instance, the school contract when we started had several changes in
it to be more beneficial to the city. All of those contracts get a thorough review by Legal. I'm not sure where the force
majeure specific wording is. It usually involves subcontractors, not Harvey and believe me when they price things out,
they are very conservative. That's why we've finished all of our projects usually ahead of schedule and under budget.
So | feel very comfortable in their estimates. So | think that's the only one to say on that. If you want to put ina
written request to Legal, | know that may seem problematic to you, but they're the ones that review the contracts. I'm
certainly not a lawyer and | have reviewed the contracts and read them but | don't remember where the wording was
exactly. It could be in the basic AAI contract which we use as a template.
Any other questions? | believe that was opposition. So there are no other | will close the public hearing on R-21-190
at 7:39 p.m. and move right into Resolution R-21-192 Authorizing the Mayor and City Treasurer to Issue Bonds not to
Exceed the Amount of $3 Million for Additional Costs for the Design and Construction of a Division of Public Works
Office Facility. Any additional comments? Director Cummings? Director Fauteux? Seeing none, I'll open it up. Are
there any questions from anybody — any of the Aldermen?
R-21-192
AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CITY TREASURER TO ISSUE BONDS NOT TO EXCEED THE AMOUNT OF
THREE MILLION DOLLARS ($3,000,000) FOR ADDITIONAL COST FOR THE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF
A DIVISON OF PUBLIC WORKS OFFICE FACILITY
TESTIMONY IN FAVOR - None
TESTIMONY IN OPPOSITION
Laurie Ortolano
Laurie Ortolano, 41 Berkeley Street. So we know why I'm in a position but I'm using my time wisely. So yeah | did
look at the AIA Contract and put it in a word reader to try and find the force majeure clause and | just couldn't find it in
there in. What | did print out here 5.2 was the language that | thought was closest — “price set forth in the guaranteed
maximum price amendment as it is amended from time to time”. | took that language because that's what | thought
was Closest but anyway. “To the extent the cost of the work exceeds the guaranteed maximum price, the construction
manager shall bear the cost in excess of the guaranteed maximum price without reimbursement or additional
compensation from the owner’. But it said, “insert specific provisions here, the construction manager is to participate
in any savings” but that's a parentheses item that's in our contract. It was never filled in. So that's the only contract |
have.
I'll just, you know, reiterate my concern next year is that we have a lot of changes coming to our property
assessments. | don't think the meeting on whatever night it was, was as pointed and direct as it should have been.
First of all, | was disappointed there was no public comment. Second of all, the differential between the residential
and commercial properties shown to be about 5% but | think that's low because we have a depreciation issue with our
properties that's being corrected that wasn't addressed last week. That's going to grow that differential between
