Miller: Don’t Sign Architectural Contract

CAPE MAY — The city has not yet signed a contract with architects Kimmel Bogrette for design of a new Convention Hall despite council passing a resolution authorizing the contract.
Bank Street Resident Christine Miller, who was the moving force in a referendum that delayed the reconstruction of the Washington Street Mall, said she discovered council has not yet signed a contract with Kimmel Bogrette when she received a copy of the enabling resolution from the city clerk’s office.
She asked council at a June 17 meeting to repeal a resolution authorizing the signing of a no bid contract with Kimmel Bogrette.
Miller said signers of a petition, that could require the city to hold a special election to allow voters to decide if council should rescind a $10.5 million bond ordinance to finance construction of a new hall, asked the contract with Kimmel Bogrette be cancelled. She said the resolution should be rescinded since the city will have a new mayor, councilperson and eventually a new city manager.
“This would untie the city’s hands in the future with respect to a choice of architects,” said Miller.
She noted since the contract with Kimmel Bogrette is unsigned, it would cost the city nothing to rescind the enabling resolution whereas in the future there may be a penalty to stop the contract.
Mayor Jerome E. Inderwies and Councilman David Kurkowski in February said they had planned to delay the Convention Hall project for one year which would result in a better building, said Miller. She noted at that time Kurkowski advised against entering into a no bid contract with Kimmel Bogrette and the city should invite architectural college students to propose a design.
Miller said the resolution had grave problems. She said the full contract with Kimmel Bogrette was not attached to resolution, which is a requirement of the local contracts law, and the contract must be available for public inspection.
When Miller received a copy of the resolution from the city clerk’s office, she said three pages of the scope of work were missing. She said the contract was not a standard American Institute of Architects contract and the terms were vague and could leave the city with no recourse.
While there is a detailed scope of work in the resolution from engineers Remington Vernick, it does not exist in the contract, said Miller. She said under the contract, Remington Vernick would be a partner with the Kimmel Bogrette as well as the construction manager.
The architect was brought in from Remington Vernick through the city manager, said Miller. She said Remington Vernick would be designing the infrastructure systems, be the construction manager and at the same time is the contracted engineer for Cape May.
“This is a grave conflict of interest,” said Miller. “Furthermore, there is no separate contract with Remington Vernick for construction of a new hall.”
She said the city’s agreement with Remington Vernick for the hall would be carried out by a series of purchase orders rather than a contract.
Miller asked Inderwies to repeal the resolution authorizing Kimmel Bogrette as architects for the new hall and agree not to sign the contract as his “last gift to the city.”
The mayor and council did not respond.
Contact Fichter at: (609) 886-8600 ext. 30 or at: jfichter@cmcherald.com