There will be an Administration Committee Tues, May 7, at 6:00 pm. On the agenda will be the upcoming Music Center. There is a concern that the process to find a contractor to build the music center may follow the same pattern of the Aquatic Center: Project Manager Tim Conaway would talk to two or so companies he thinks may do a good job and have them submit packages to him. He then evaluates them and recommends his pick to the council. Conaway's company apparently would get a percentage of the settled-on price tag.

The "usual" way for something like this to be handled is to open the bidding to all interested companies, have the companies submit their bids, present them to the council, have the process available to the public for review, and so forth. This takes more time, but apparently the excuse the project manager is giving is that the "usual" process would be too slow for the music center to open in time for the 2014 summer season.

Problems that are emerging:
1) There is no rush to get the Music Center up and running for 2014 - This is a deadline the city council has imposed on itself, but there is no legal reason for it.
2) There is at least an appearance of avoiding public discourse and of potential corruption. To be clear~ no one is saying that the project manager will be engaging in corruption - just that the process has the potential. The fewer the number of companies competing for the bid, the more likely it will be that we taxpayers are not getting the best deal. I would think that we taxpayers would rather open this center later (in 2015) and perhaps save some money, than rush the project.
 
We are talking about some 18 million dollars (not exactly chump-change). We need and deserve to take the time to get this right.

PLEASE COME AND VOICE YOUR OPINIONS!
 
This is our chance to be heard!


This came to me and I thought is was important enough to share.  I apologize for editing out any names for I have not asked permission to share their name(s) and I can't/won't compromise their trust.  With that said...PLEASE take time now before it's too late.