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HomeMy WebLinkAbout7/14/1983Thursday, July 14, 1983 The Board of County Commissioners of Indian River County, Florida, met in Special Session at the County Commission Chambers, 1840.25th Street, Vero Beach, Florida, on Thursday, July 14, 1983, at 2:00 o'clock P.M. Present were Richard N. Bird, Chairman; Don C. Scurlock, Jr., Vice Chairman; Margaret C. Bowman; and Patrick B. Lyons. Absent was William C. Wodtke, Jr., who was out of state. Also present were Michael J. Wright, County Administrator; Gary Brandenburg, Attorney to the Board of County Commissioners; Jeffrey K. Barton, Budget Director; and Virginia Hargreaves, Deputy Clerk. The Chairman called the meeting to order and announced that it was called for the purpose of discussing settlement of the Reinhold litigation. REINHOLD CONSTRUCTION SETTLEMENT Attorney Brandenburg introduced Attorney John Young of. the firm of Hamilton, James, Merkle & Young, who has been helping on the Reinhold construction litigation. He con- tinued that he, Commissioner Lyons, and Mr. Young met with attorneys and representatives of Reinhold Construction and the architects, Connell, Metcalf & Eddy, all day Tuesday and reached an agreement on this which they now recommend for Board approval. The Attorney reported that Reinhold sought damages in the amount of $905,262.85, and of that amount under the proposed settlement, the County will now agree to pay $72,500. Also involved in that lawsuit is a claim by the architects in the amount of $110,500, of which amount we agree to pay nothing and the architect, in fact, agrees to pay Reinhold $85,000. Attorney Brandenburg believed this is a very good settlement in the County's behalf and felt it would cost about this much merely to prepare the case to go 1 J L 141983 OVDK 54 rA% 0 1 J U L 14 1993 =ter st PW to trial. He then asked Attorney Young to give the Board a breakdown of some of the specific items. Attorney Young concurred with Attorney Brandenburg's recommendation and felt very strongly that what Attorney Brandenburg has reported represents a settlement of only those hard dollars which they felt at the outset represented the sole responsibility of the county in a worst case situation. He also confirmed that if we did try the case, a great deal of money would have to be expended not only on his fees, but also on expert witness fees. Mr. Young then gave the Board a brief breakdown of how they arrived at this settlement, stating that they tried to take issues that were separate and distinct from the professional fees which were part of the claim by the architects, and"work out a settlement regarding those separately. The contractor had a claim for some $72,000 for additional firewall construction within the Administration Building, which he took the position was not adequately detailed on the construction drawings and in the bid documents. Our position from the very beginning was that we had responsibility only for those hard dollar costs involved with the actual installation of the wallboard that was fire rated, not the work done on the ceilings, in the electrical mechanical area, and the painting area, which almost doubled the amount of that claim. Of that original $72,000 claim, somewhere around $30,000 was plugged into the settlement for that particular item. Mr. Young continued that the contractor also took the position that his firm was not required to paint a number of finishes which were described on the contract documents as being "existing finishes." The claim on this element alone was $41,000, and since the attorneys believed there was a considerable dispute as to whether this item was or was not E W W W included in Reinhold's bid, it was agreed to limit our responsibility for that element to 25%, or about $10,000. In regard to the various claims for delays, it appeared the County already had agreed to a claim for $10,634 in connection with construction of the Annex; so, that amount was maintained. The claim for delay on the Administration Building ran in excess of $170,000; it was felt that this was in great part the responsibility of the architect and engineers rather than the County, and of that claim, the County only agreed to bear responsibility for some $15,000.00. There was a time delay claim for some 66 days related to the Courthouse facility at the rate of $768 a day, and of this we agreed to bear responsibility for a little over $6,800. The balance of the time delay claim was either waived by the contractor or passed through to the architect to assume. Mr. Young again emphasized that what he has broken out here is essentially only those hard dollar figures which they felt at the very outset represented our minimal. responsibility. MOTION WAS MADE by Commissioner Lyons, SECONDED by Commissioner Scurlock, to approve the settle- ment of $72,500 to be paid to Reinhold Construc tion when we receive $85,000 from the architects, at which time Reinhold will be paid a total of $157,500. Attorney Young wished to make it very clear for the record that it has been made understood to counsel for both Reinhold Construction and Connell, Metcalf & Eddy that the type of releases- that will be executed in connection with this settlement will not include any release of either the architect or contractor for any latent defects, -of which we 3 " JUL 1 1 BOCK $�c 0, �4 JUL 1 1983 ter ° 5 il-4,, may not be aware at this time that could result in a claim for damages. THE CHAIRMAN CALLED FOR THE QUESTION in regard to accepting settlement as recom- mended by the Attorney. It was voted on and carried unanimously. Budget Officer Barton noted that there is a retainage of $2,000, making a total of $74,500 to be paid by the county; we have $32,750 left in the original construction, leaving a shortfall of $41,741. There are two choices to fund this - either go into the General Fund reserve for contingency and appropriate that amount or Federal Revenue Sharing" which had unanticipated revenue. Some discussion ensued regarding refunding the bond issue, at which time.the amount borrowed from the General Fund could be repaid. ON MOTION by Commissioner Lyons, SECONDED by Commissioner Scurlock, the Board unani- mously agreed to__appropriate by Loan from the General Fund $41,171, the balance of funds necessary for the payoff of Reinhold Construction, noting that this loan is to be repaid on the refunding of the bond issue for the Administration building. Commissioner Scurlock reported that this was the recommendation of the Finance Advisory Committee. Commissioner Lyons felt the attorneys should be commended for doing an outstanding job of negotiation, and 4 f Mr. Young thanked Attorney Brandenburg for his excellent cooperation. There being no further business, on Motion duly made, seconded and carried, the Board adjourned at 2:25 o'clock P.M. ATTEST: MIA M 1, FA,, 7W � 10 1 W-2, mm Chairman 5 0 soox JUL 14 198��c