STONE HARBOR – At its Feb. 1 meeting, Stone Harbor Borough Council approved a resolution authorizing the award of a consultant contract with Douglas Gaffney of Mott MacDonald. Gaffney leads a coastal engineering practice for Mott MacDonald and is a recognized expert in the field.
Getting to the point of hiring Gaffney was a long process that began in August when Borough Administrator Robert Smith advised council members that the borough needed the services of a “heavy hitter” or “top gun” to “lead the charge” for the beach replenishment effort. At issue is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife ban on the use of federal funds for mining sand from Hereford Inlet.
As Smith explained it, the borough is faced with “a complex regulatory environment within which to navigate.” He said the “stakes are high” and that there are a number of “pathways the borough can take.”
The resolution to bring Gaffney in as a coastal engineering consultant six months later did not specify the tasks he is to perform, nor did it set any cap on expense in what is a time and materials contract. A copy of the contract obtained through an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request shed little additional light on what the borough expects Gaffney to do.
The contract’s scope of services is one sentence long, stating that Mott Macdonald will serve as the “Coastal Engineering and Planning Consultant for the Borough of Stone Harbor.” The contract does not specifically point to the consultation services at the issue of beach nourishment. Beyond that, the contract contains a rate schedule for 18 Mott MacDonald staff categories and eight types of non–staff expenses. Gaffney’s hourly rate is $204.
Under client responsibilities, the borough is required to “provide all criteria and full information as to the client’s requirements for the project.”
