Jail designer’s contract altered

Published 9:00 pm Monday, December 22, 2003

The Snohomish County Council narrowly approved a contract amendment with the designers of the county’s new $87.5 million jail expansion.

NBBJ, the Seattle architectural firm that designed the new jail and is also working on the renovation of the existing jail, will be paid approximately $132,000 more under the revised contract than previously planned.

NBBJ will earn a total of $7.6 million under the amended contract for consulting services. It was approved by the council on a 3-2 vote.

Councilman Kirke Sievers and Councilman Jeff Sax voted against amending the contract.

Sievers said he wanted more details on a consultant’s visit to Reno, Nev. that was being billed to the county under the revised contract. A total of $2,181 was spent for the trip, so a consultant could see a "video visitation system" that would be used in the new jail.

Sievers was given four pages of receipts last week from the consultant’s trip, which included airfare, a bill for almost $60 for a shrimp dinner at the Silver Legacy Casino, and other charges. But the councilman said the receipts weren’t enough of an explanation, and voted against the contract amendment.

"I’m unsatisfied with what their response was," he said. "I think they got the message."

Sax could not be reached for comment, but the councilman had expressed concerns about the timeframe for completing portions of the campus redevelopment project during earlier committee discussions on the contract amendment.

The jail expansion and the renovation of the existing jail are part of the $170 million county campus redevelopment project. The project also includes a six-story underground parking garage and a new administration building.

Larry Van Horn, director of facilities management for the county, said the installation of a video visitation system will improve safety and save money in the long run, and the costs of the trip were justified.

"It’s much more productive to go see the system firsthand, in operation, than to have a consultant or vendor set it on a table and say, ‘This is how it works.’"

The video visitation system allows inmates to talk to visitors, attorneys and others without being taken out of the jail. Staff time that’s devoted to moving inmates around will be reduced, as well as the likelihood of someone getting contraband into the jail.

"It just has a lot of great merits," Van Horn said.

The visit to Reno was a 17-hour trip in late November 2001 to see the system working in the Washoe County Jail. A council representative was invited to go, but didn’t.

The charges for the trip were legitimate, Van Horn said. "We have standards in which we have to follow. In this case, and in every case, we look at all the billings for consultants’ work," he said.

And officials on the project will try harder in the future to make sure council members feel their questions are getting answered.

"I think we did not do a good enough job of drilling down to determine what (Sievers) was asking for," Van Horn said.

The amended contract does include some notable changes in the project.

One is the redesign of the administrative area of the new jail, which will mean fewer offices and a more open workspace, Van Horn said.

The total cost of the project won’t change because of the contract amendment, he said. That’s because some work that was covered under the original contract is no longer necessary or has been cut from the project.

As far as the completion of the campus redevelopment, Van Horn said the campus project is right on schedule.

The jail should be ready by March 2005, and the garage will be finished Feb. 18.

Reporter Brian Kelly: 425-339-3422 or kelly@heraldnet.com.