Thumbnail photo by Jessica Cejnar Andrews
Despite selecting a project manager and a grant manager for the Citizens Dock rebuild and seawall replacement last week, Crescent City Harbor commissioners delayed approving the contract that would allow them to start work.
CCHD Board Chairman Rick Shepherd asked his colleagues to wait until the district’s next regular meeting to consider the contracts between Kimley-Horn and Community System Solutions.
At a special meeting Friday, Shepherd said he felt the public didn’t have sufficient time to review the proposed agreements. Though he and his colleagues decided to award the grant manager contract to Fair Oaks-based Community System Solutions, Shepherd still had questions about the firm’s role in the overall project.
“There’s still a gray area between grant manager and finance director and having another accountant in between that. That needs to be explained to me,” he said.
Community System Solutions CEO Mike Bahr said he had already affixed his signature to the contract after Shepherd and his colleagues on June 24 unanimously decided to award the grant manager position to his firm. He understood the delay, he said, but had already met with Harbormaster Mike Rademaker and Kimley-Horn representative Jerry Holcomb about starting the “pre-prep” work needed to get the project to construction.
Bahr said he also has a meeting scheduled with the California Coastal Commission and Moffatt & Nichol, the architect firm designing the seawall replacement and Citizens Dock reconstruction project about the permitting process.
“If you say we’re going to put it on the next agenda, I don’t think that will slow down the work,” Bahr said.
The Crescent City Harbor District is using about $15 million in U.S. Maritime Administration Port Infrastructure Improvement grant dollars to reconstruct the 70-year-old Citizens Dock and replace a seawall that’s currently condemned.
At its regular meeting June 24, Crescent City Harbor commissioners favored Kimley-Horn’s proposal over competing submissions from GHD and Redstone Bridge Sovereign.
At that meeting, Commissioner Dan Schmidt proposed awarding the project manager job to Kimley-Horn, noting that while GHD was impressive, at $1.3 million, it was too expensive.
Kimley-Horn’s initial proposal for the project manager position during the life of the seawall replacement and Citizens Dock reconstruction was $997,404. According to Bahr, Kimley-Horn proposed fees of $425,000 for the “pre-prep” work needed before construction can start. The contract before the Board of Commissioners on Friday had been reduced to $350,000, Bahr said.
Under revised contract, Kimley-Horn would develop and release requests for proposals and receive bids from construction companies vying for the general contractor and sub contractor jobs. Kimley-Horn representatives would also review plans and specifications for the project and communicate with stakeholders such as commercial fishing representatives, CCHD staff and Elk Valley Rancheria officials.
Kimley-Horn is also tasked with ensuring the project meets California Coastal Commission permitting regulations as well as requirements for the MARAD grant, according to the proposed contract.
According to Bahr, in addition to reducing the proposed contract with Kimley-Horn, the MARAD grant allows $350,000 to compensate for CCHD staff time put into the projects. CCHD can also tap into $250,000 in California Coastal Conservancy grant dollars as well, Bahr said.
“We’re in good shape to get through this first year,” he said, adding that this includes completing the design for the project as well as ensuring its fully permitted. “There will be small construction, but the big construction will start in spring of next year. This gets us to that point.”
Also at its June 24 meeting, CCHD commissioners chose Bahr and his team with CSS over competing proposals from Macias, Gini & O’Connell, of Sacramento, and Sunstone Cities LLC, of Irvine.
CSS’s proposal was for $125 an hour for 1,080 hours per year and included a two-year not-to-exceed cost of $270,000 for grant management services. According to Bahr, CSS was the only contender for the grant management role that submitted a two year proposal.
On Friday, Bahr said that his team’s job will be reviewing all of the invoices associated with the project and matching them against the contract with MARAD.
CSS will create a report that can be submitted to the Harbor District’s bookkeeper or its accounting firm and then they would approve payment to the contractors and sub contractors. Basically, CSS’s job is to ensure that the invoices fit with the scope of the overall project, Bahr said.
“We hand it off to the people who double check it in-house and pay bills,” he said. “They then give us a report back that they have paid the bill. We accumulate all of that and make the reimbursement request, both the narrative and filling out the documents. That goes to the harbor for signature approval and that’s submitted to the grant funder on a monthly or quarterly basis. And then the money comes in.”
Bahr said his company would like to ensure bills associated with the project are paid every two weeks.
During public comment on Friday, Kevin Hendrick, president of the Del Norte County Democratic Central Committee, said he understood the Board’s reticence, but urged them to approve both the Kimley-Horn and the CSS contracts today.
The construction window has likely passed, Hendrick said, and originally the thought was that work would start on the seawall and Citizens Dock in 2026.
“I’ve seen it happen everywhere, not only with this Board, but when things get hard there’s a paralysis of being afraid to make a wrong decision,” Hendrick said. “You will make wrong decisions. It happens. But you’ve been making decisions lately, and I really would love to see that continue.”
