Roof repairs to increase City Hall cost

PANAMA CITY — The roof on the new Panama City Hall building isn’t on fire, but the latest surprise — that water damage will necessitate replacing the roof at double the budgeted cost — has the city burning through its contingency fund on the project.

The $16.1 million project budgeted $350,000 for roof repairs to the old Trustmark building at 509 Harrison Ave. But commissioners Tuesday unanimously, albeit reluctantly, approved a change order increasing that cost to $704,822 to replace the entire roof because the damage was more extensive than first thought. It could have been fixed for $350,000, commissioners were told, but it likely wouldn’t have lasted more than five years and would not have included a warranty.

If other project elements don’t burn up the city’s contingency fund, the city will tap that fund to cover the price surge. Otherwise, they will take the money from reserves.

"Well, there’s several potential pitfalls that we could’ve avoided in the beginning" if the city and its representatives hadn’t, "for lack of a better term, done a half-ass job," Mayor Greg Brudnicki said by way of opening the discussion after the issue was announced. But the question of the day, he reminded everyone, was whether to go with a temporary patch or a long-term solution.

"If we’re going to do the inside correctly, we’re going to have to do the roof correctly and I really don’t see that we have a choice," he said.

Commissioner Mike Nichols said he struggled with the numbers but understands replacing the roof on a building like this one is more involved than putting a new roof on a house.

"We throw these numbers out and we have this background information we obtain from staff, and compared to a roof on a house it sounds expensive," said Nichols, who begrudgingly made the motion to approve the change order. "I struggle with this stuff, but I think when we get done we’re going to have a darn near new building. If we don’t protect the roof, we’re going to ruin everything else. We have to make sure we get it right the first time."

Nichols noted the cost includes more than simply replacing a roof. For instance, $125,000 of the increase is for cranes that will be needed to remove the huge air-conditioner units atop the building.

Commissioner Jenna Haligas, who gave the motion a reluctant second, wasn’t happy and said the taxpayers weren’t either.

"We gotta stop the bleeding," she said to David Scruggs, a senior project manager with ZHA consultants, the group overseeing the project. "You guys were hired. It’s not a question of whether we do this, but how we found ourselves here and how do we prevent this kind of thing of this magnitude from coming up."

More pointedly, Haligas asked if there were any more surprises in store.

"As far as I know everything seems to be in good shape," Scruggs said. "We’ve tackled the electrical and mechanical, all those issues. We’re working with GAC and their (subcontractors), our professional subs. Everybody’s pretty confident that there’s nothing else. The roof didn't blindside us. We knew it was there and there was some kind of problem but it took an investigation and cutting into it and dissection of different parts to determine what had to be done."

While that motion passed, the very next agenda item was a change order request for another $70,000 for DAG architects for the additional design work needed to replace the entire roof. At this, Nichols and Brudnicki balked.

Nichols said he had researched how such fees are usually calculated and he consistently found them to be around 7 percent of the cost of the change; $70,000 would represent 10 percent of the cost.

"We’ve hired DAG; they’ve done a lot of work for us. We’ve paid them a lot of money," Nichols said. "Paying 10 percent on this roof, I can’t vote to pay that."

Brudnicki agreed and asked the DAG representative if they would accept $50,000 for the work. As the DAG representative began reciting a list of reasons for the cost, "there’s so much we have to do that you don’t realize," Brudnicki wasn’t biting.

"We’re paying $125,000, $130,000 for a crane," he said. "Why am I paying you 10 percent more on the crane (that’s not design work)? Think about it.

"I don’t want to be belligerent about it, but why would I pay you 10 percent on that part?"

In the end, the commission voted to table the matter until its next meeting to give the DAG representative a chance to bring back more detailed information.

In the last bit of business involving city halls, commissioners approved paying the $120,000 cost of asbestos abatement from the old city hall so Bay County can renovate and have it ready as a temporary location for personnel from the Juvenile Justice Center, who are awaiting a new building near the county courthouse.

Haligas noted this is a cost the city would have to pay at some point because even if the building wer demolished or sold, the asbestos abatement would have to be performed.

In other meeting highlights:

• A contract was approved for new City Manager Mark McQueen, who likely will start some time between July 15 and Oct. 1. His start date depends on his service with the Army Reserve. Jared Jones is the interim city manager and will return to being the assistant city manager once McQueen takes over.

• Commissioner Billy Rader said SweetBay residents told him they want to be able to ride golf carts in the neighborhood. A first reading allowing such use could come up at a future commission meeting. Golf carts are currently allowed in the Cove and Millville.

• City Attorney Nevin Zimmerman and commissioners discussed a noise ordinance, which has caused friction between some St. Andrews restaurants with live music and homeowners that say the music is too loud. In a letter, Zimmerman told commissioners there are "two basic approaches" for noise ordinances — having no standards on noise during daylight until bedtime except that a noise may not be "loud and raucous" or to have standards at all hours measured by decibels and/or by a "plainly audible standard." Haligas said police have been doing decibel readings while Brudnicki said there are apps that record decibels if police come to check.