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JAN 19 1988 BOOK 70 FACE 570 the contracts they negotiate, they are bought to the Board. Occasionally, if they are minor and they don't want to hold the project up, they authorize them contingent on the Board's approval. This, however, was a lengthy list. Commissioner Eggert was very concerned that the Board does get to see additional services, especially if they are over $1,000. Chairman Scurlock asked if all these come back to the Board. OMB Director Baird advised that it depends. If it is a blanket contract, for instance, with an engineering firm on a big contract, there have been cases where $100,000 is allowed for additional engineering. He asked, in such a case, if the Board wished staff to come back to the Board for every item as it is approved by that department. Chairman Scurlock indicated that he did, and it was confirmed that the policy of the Board is for all those items to come back to the Board prior to the work being performed. Commissioner Bird noted that we hire these firms both on the basis of their professional abilities and their ethics, and it bothers him to see such a big difference on what is an allowable item and what isn't, i.e., 17 items as opposed to 6. This poses some doubts in his mind about our relationship with them, and he asked how other firms handle additional services. Director Davis advised that staff has found that firms act differently when it comes to additional services. Local firms do not generally come back to us for additions. The larger firms which are much more sophisticated in their time accounting, do very detailed bookkeeping of their hours and seem to come back to us more frequently. Commissioner Bird noted we have a long way to go with this particular firm until the project is completed. He just wished to make sure we don't have an adversarial position with them, and wanted to know if they are agreeable to having just the six items qualify. 10