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MERCEDES INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT
Mercedes, Texas
The Mercedes Independent School District Board of Trustees met in Special Session on Tuesday, July 26, 2011.
Present:Daniel R. Salinas, President / Monte R. Churchill, Member
George Cardenas, Vice President / Oscar A. Hernandez, Member, 6:34pm, left 8:22pm
Don Vogel, Secretary / Ron McVey, Member
Absent: Benjamin F. Castillo, Member
Present from the District:
Dr. Daniel Trevino Jr., Superintendent / Gabriel Cosme, Maintenance Director
Maria J. Chavez, Asst Superintendent / Paulita Guzman, Special Education Director
Olga Hinds, Chief Financial Officer / Walter Watson, Federal Programs Director
Dr. Andrea Cruz, Exec Dir Human Resources / Eva Cuadra, Administrative Assistant
President Daniel R. Salinas called the meeting to order at 6:30pm. Mr. Cardenas led everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance and Mr. Vogel gave the invocation.
Action Agenda
1. Construction Reports, discussion, and possible action
a. ROFA Architects - MHS Baseball Field & MISD Tennis Courts
Dr. Trevino passed the floor to Mr. Gabriel Cosme for the reports. Mr. Cosme said ROFA Architects had been invited to the board meeting but they were not present. He said Mr. Mike Allex, Architect had indicated that since the Board was not doing a walkthrough he didn’t see why he needed to be at the meeting. Mr. Cosme reported the erosion issue with the left side of the field had been taken care of but now it was an issue with the right side of the field. He said he had discussed this with Jerry from ROFA Architects and was waiting for a response from the architect.
Regarding the tennis courts Mr. Cosme said he was waiting for a cost breakdown from the contractor for the extra work between the PE complex and the gym. He said he expected to bring those cost figures to the next board meeting for approval. He said the installation of the lights had been completed and the courts were ready for a walkthrough at the next board meeting.
The discussion continued about the erosion issue at the baseball field, on what could be done to resolve the problem. Mr. Cosme said the solution had to be figured out by ROFA and their engineers. Mr. Cosme was instructed by the board members to stay on top of the matter, to make sure the problem was completely resolved.
b. Vitetta Architects -Graham Auditorium
Architect Dan Block reported he continued to monitor the project, having meetings on Mondays with Mr. Cosme regarding the status of the project. He said some progress was being made with the roof but the air conditioning was not in yet. He said without the a/c the stage floor could not be put in. He said the entrance doors had been installed; they were very nice. He said it was good the first doors that had been delivered had been rejected due to the poor quality of the material.
Mr. Vogel asked about the grading and drainage around the building. Mr. Cosme said he had received preliminary drawings with cost estimates from SWG Engineering earlier in the day and would be discussing this with Dr. Trevino, along with the consideration of an Interlocal agreement with the city on the possible reconstruction of the alley. He said a decision needed to be made if the district would address the drainage project first and then work with the city on the alley or involve the city at this juncture and do both things together.
Mr. Vogel asked if the roofer had put in the down spouts. Mr. Block said these were not in yet, nor were the scuppers. Mr. Vogel expressed concern that if a tropical disturbance were to come in with lots of rain, not having the openings to channel water off the roof would not be good. Mr. Cosme said during the last rainfall he had inspected the roof, had found some leaks which will be taken care of as the work is completed and the roof is sealed off. He said these leaks had occurred exactly where the scuppers should be. Mr. Vogel said being there was equipment at the job site Topcon should have some rough grading done around the building just in case a storm blows in before the drainage project gets underway. Mr. Cosme said some rough grading had been done after the last heavy rainstorm and more would be done as part of the clean up when the project is completed. Mr. Vogel said pressure needed to be kept up with the roofer to put in the down spouts and the scuppers.
c. Top Con Construction, - Graham Auditorium
Mr. Jesse Rodriguez for Top Con Construction addressed the Board saying he had not gotten the progress he had wanted from the mechanical firm and the roofer. He said the mechanical firm had had communication problems with the sheet metal contractor so as a result Top Con had contracted another contractor for the sheet metal work for the a/c duct. As far as the roofer he said the roofer had promised to get the work finished and although he had showed up at the job site, the work was not progressing as it should.
Mr. Rodriguez said the Board was correct that the roofer needed to be pressured to complete his work. He said he would be sending a 72-hour notice to the roofer the following day. Mr. Cardenas asked if the problem was that the roofer did not have enough workers. Mr. Rodriguez said the roofer had explained to him that when he had not been able to get going on the job because of some scheduling delays he had taken other projects out of the valley. Mr. Rodriguez said he had stressed to the contractor the priority should be the Graham Auditorium, not other projects elsewhere.
Mr. Churchill stated the project should have been finished in March and that at a certain point in time the District was going to have to remove everybody and go to court with everyone. He said he felt realistically the Board had listened to all these excuses, it being fortunate the weather had held up but weather conditions in the Valley could change and if the roof could not be put up in a year and a half or whatever time it was, there would be major problems. Mr. Salinas added the District should have been using the auditorium for four months. Mr. Churchill said he had heard enough excuses; the project needed to get finished, even if it took going to court and bringing in a different group to finish the job. He said the community has been waiting for the auditorium for a long time, almost twelve years since it had been part of bond issue and those funds had been used for something else.
Mr. Vogel asked how much more time, reasonably, was needed if everyone came in and did their job expeditiously. Mr. Rodriguez said, as far as he was concerned, once the second a/c unit was started up and the carpet was brought in to get acclimatized it would only take two to three days to finish the stage floor and the carpeting. Mr. Churchill said he had heard Mr. Block say that for the past two months -- “all that is needed is for the air conditioning to be put in . . .”, Mr. Churchill continued that the job needs to get finished, whatever it takes.
Mr. Vogel asked if a timeline needed to be set for the District to take legal action. He said he did not want to get to that point but as had been stated the Board has to answer to the community as to why this project has taken this long and it is still not finished. Mr. Churchill stated that he felt August 8, 2011 should be the final date; if the building is not ready to be turned over to the district he would make a motion at the August 8th regular board meeting for the District’s counsel to proceed with legal action to remove the architect and construction company, everybody. He said he could not see any practicing architect and construction company going beyond four months from the contracted completion date and still staying in business, with that type of reputation.
Dr. Trevino explained to the Board that time after time the District has been given timelines; the District has met every obstacle imaginable of every construction company. He said it had been noted at a prior board meeting that the District needed to be careful with its selection of contractors, that it got what it paid for. Dr. Trevino said this evening it was no different, with continuing excuses and continuing reasons. He said it has been fortunate there has been only one heavy rainstorm; if not this project would have gone south much before the projected substantial completion date. Dr. Trevino said if he were a betting man he would venture to say that on August 8th the Board will be listening to the same excuses. Mr. Churchill said if Dr. Trevino’s bet is correct, on August 8th he will hear from Mr. Churchill’s side of the table a motion to cease and decease, to turn it over to the attorneys to see what they can get, and then maybe the community will get an auditorium.
Dr. Trevino said it was getting close to the start of the new school year and it was getting very frustrating from the standpoint of the architect and the contractor. He said the District had done everything possible, within reason, to make this project possible, to make it go as smoothly as possible from the very beginning, and yet, here it was 60-75 days later and things were still the same.
d. Prodigy Const. Mgmt - Graham Auditorium
Ms. Donna Rodriguez for Prodigy Construction Management reported to the Board that she had been out at the job site everyday and had seen very little progress but the roof was stabilized. She said she was keeping diary notes on everything; people have been at the job site working but they were doing very minor things. She said the critical path activity that was most important was the air condition and she had found out the company doing the sheet metal work, completing the connection, had been hired to do the south side only which he had completed the day before at 1:00pm - he had not been instructed to do the north side. She said it had come down to instructions being given to a sub of a sub.
Ms. Rodriguez said there was no way a substantial completion date of July 15th could have been met, according to her list of things that needed to be done. She said there was a difference between substantial completion and punchlist items; punchlist items are little things; substantial completion items are things that are done per plan and specs, and they are critical. She said there were brick holes that needed to be filled in all around the building; an overhead inspection has not been done; a/c connections only 25% complete; stage construction not completed; roofing not yet complete; and caulking and sealing of interior windows not done yet. She said these were things she had spot-checked; she still had to go through and write everything down to get substantial completion. She said it was at this point that a punchlist was started for the minor things that needed to be fixed.
Ms. Rodriguez said the critical part at this stage was getting the north side a/c connected but the sub of the sub has not been hired to complete the sheet metal work. She concluded her report by saying she has documented all the activities happening, the lack of supervision on this project has meant that she has gone and interviewed workers and subs, making notes of the number of workers that are on site everyday. Mr. Cardenas commented that a day he had visited there were about 10 workers there but like Ms. Rodriguez had said they were only doing minor things like door hardware installation, spot sanding and painting, things that are not on the critical path like the a/c that needs to be connected before the stage flooring can be done.
Mr. Hernandez asked Ms. Rodriguez how long Prodigy CM had been working for the District. Ms. Rodriguez said they had started in late April. Mr. Churchill said they had been brought in after the substantial completion date had not been met. Mr. Hernandez asked if Prodigy has seen a lot of progress since then. Ms. Rodriguez said there had been progress at the beginning and things were moving along with the target date being the end of May but the lack of materials being brought on to the site had delayed the sub contractors, things were not being done as they are generally handled in the construction industry as a whole.
Mr. Hernandez said the point he was trying to make was that he was being asked by some taxpayers why more and more money was being put into this project and nothing was being done; Prodigy had been hired in April to make things happen. He asked how he was to respond to taxpayer concerns.
Ms. Rodriguez said Prodigy CM could not actually write the check the contractor writes to his subcontractors nor are they privy as to who those subs are; all they can do is monitor. Mr. Hernandez said monitoring was what Mr. Cosme did. He said it was his understanding Prodigy was supposed to get things done. Ms. Rodriguez responded there were limits on what Prodigy could do because they had had instances when the contractor would hang up on them, would not return calls, to the point that she had even gone to their offices seeking answers. She said Prodigy CM has done everything they possibly could in their capacity, representing Mercedes ISD.
Mr. Hernandez said in his position as a math teacher if student scores are not where they should be he is fired. He said to Ms. Rodriguez that she had spent ten minutes talking about the same things Mr. Block and Mr. Jesse Rodriguez had talked about. He said Prodigy CM needed to get things done. He said he could not see why his time had to be wasted listening to the same things, since April. Ms. Rodriguez said Prodigy CM did not have any opinion on the contractor the District had hired; Prodigy CM had come in later. She said Prodigy CM did not review the contractor contract, the plans and specs and because they had gotten involved very late into the project; only so much could be done with what was available to them from that point on.
Mr. Churchill asked Ms. Rodriguez for her opinion, since Prodigy CM was the District representative on this project, on when the Board should decide to remove all parties from the project. He asked if she felt she should recommend to the Board that this project is not working and for the Board to take legal action, because as Mr. Hernandez had pointed out the District was paying Prodigy CM, too. He expressed concern about throwing money away in the hopes that things will get worked out. He said at some point the Administration and everybody else had to recognize that when things don’t work, no amount of wishful hoping is going to get it done. He said this was why he was looking forward to something other than re-enforcing the same excuses. He said the Board needed to get a deadline and if the deadline was not met all the parties involved with the project needed to disappear, to let the project go to attorneys who do know how to spend money and do know how to get some things done. He added that all the Board was doing was building up its frustration.