ANN ARBOR DISTRICT LIBRARY BOARD
MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2004
05-086 I. CALL TO ORDER
President Surovell called the meeting to order at 4:12 p.m.
05-087 II. ATTENDANCE
Present: Cahill, Greene, Head, Kincaid, Leary, Surovell
Absent: Murphy
Staff: Nieman, Parker, Soave (Recorder)
Others: Ronald House, Local Union 190
Mark Paulus, Skanska USA
05-088 III. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
Treasurer Leary, supported by Secretary Cahill moved to approve the Agenda.
Mr. Ronald House, Business Manager and Financial Secretary for the Local Union 190 Plumbers – Pipefitters Service Technicians – Gas Distribution would like to address the Board regarding plumbing for the Pittsfield Branch.
Mr. House took the floor.
“Good afternoon, my name is Ron House with the Plumbers and Pipefitters. I’ve been a member thirty-nine years. I started out as a plumber working with the tools and ended up where I’m at. We’ve done all your libraries in the past. I guess we’re maybe not low on this one, but I just want to tell you what we’re all about. We have a five-year training program, we’re tied in with Washtenaw Community College. Once an apprentice finishes in five years, they end up with an Associate’s Degree from Washtenaw Community College. We’re very proud of that. We have all kinds of certifications. We really feel like our members are very qualified in the utmost that you could ever be. Every year in August, I
know some of the people live in Ann Arbor know that we kind of close the town down for a couple weeks. We have over two thousand plumbers, we rent the college, again for two weeks and it brings in anywhere from 4-5 million dollars to the town. I’m very connected with the visitor’s bureau and it’s the largest event of the year for Ann Arbor. It brings in 4-5 million dollars, which stays here. I know we’re not low on this job, but I think all the rest of the crafts are union. We give money to the library, donate it. We also donate a lot of our members’ time for all the Habitat houses. We do “Heats On” once a year. We did the Hands-On Museum. We just finished a job for the auto museum in Ypsilanti, which we donated. I would just want your consideration that we’d like to have local jobs for local people. We’re a hundred and three years old now. We had our centennial in 2000, so we’re actually going to be a hundred and five years old I think January 27th. If you have any questions for me about our qualifications or our members, we have about fourteen hundred members that live in the area and we want to do this library too. We have offered some relief to the contractor as far as having more apprentice ratio. Whatever we can do to get this job, we want do it and I think we do have the best qualified people.”
05-090 V. NEW BUSINESS
05-091 A. RESOLUTION TO ACCEPT RECOMMENDATIONS FROM SKANSKA USA TO AWARD THE CONTRACTS FOR STRUCTURAL STEEL AND PLUMBING/HVAC FOR THE PITTSFIELD BRANCH
Secretary Cahill, supported by Trustee Head, moved to accept the recommendations from Skanska USA to award the contracts for structural steel and plumbing/HVAC for the Pittsfield Branch.
Secretary Cahill reported to the Board the recommendations of the Facilities Committee. There are two items under consideration; the largest item is the structural steel for which the Facilities Committee is recommending Davis Iron Works, Inc. at a base bid of $892,450. The other one is the combined plumbing and HVAC bid for which the Facilities Committee is recommending Goyette at $432,000 over Long Mechanical at $402,000. Secretary Cahill reminded the Board that they do not have to go with the lowest bid. They have the right to reject any bids.
Secretary Cahill said the committee discussed at length the issue of having a non-union shop on a union job. The committee felt there were difficulties with that. The real cost differential is $27,000 when you look at the bond that was going to be posted by each firm.
On a personal note, Secretary Cahill stated: “I support unions in all work places whatever their nature. Of course we are unionized here at the Library. Without the union, employees don’t have many rights in Michigan and so I support this bid for that reason. Also on a union worksite, workers have more rights and I don’t want people on our jobs getting muscled around by bosses and possibly getting put in dangerous situations.”
Mr. Paulus of Skanska USA took the floor. Mr. Paulus reported that with everything that has been bid, we are on budget. We are approximately 60% bid out of the entire subcontracts. Luckenbach | Ziegelman has informed Mr. Paulus that the next package of drawings should be available in January to be brought forth, hopefully at the February meeting. This would be the remaining contracts for the project.