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State organization says Boardman’s selection of architect was improper
BOARDMAN
The township’s selection of a firm to design a new fire station has caught the attention of a state professional organization for architects.
At issue, a representative from American Institute of Architects Ohio said, is that the township asked several firms to submit designs without paying them for their work.
The township short-listed three firms – Team 8e Architecture, BSHM Architects Inc. and MS Consultants Inc. – to design the fire station that will be built at Market Street and Stadium Drive. All three firms were asked to submit technical proposals that met certain parameters laid out by the township.
In April, MS Consultants ultimately was awarded the contract for design services.
Both Team 8e and BSHM have questioned the selection process, a matter they brought up to township officials before the contract’s being awarded. The topic also was brought up at a local AIA meeting, and was slated to be a topic of discussion at a state meeting this month.
“We generally believe that to be in conflict with our voluntary code of ethics. It is not appropriate for a client to request solutions to a project, unless it’s a paid competition,” said Gregg Strollo, president of AIA Ohio. His Youngstown-based firm submitted a statement of qualifications for the fire station project.
“It’s kind of like asking your doctors, ‘Can you come up with a treatment plan for me, and then I’ll decide [whether to pay]?’” Strollo added.
Township Administrator Jason Loree dismissed the suggestion that the township had done anything wrong, and characterized the situation as a case of “sour grapes.” He also detailed what he described as significant concerns with the quality of previous work done by the two architects who raised questions about the selection process.
“The [Ohio] revised code allows for it, and it’s all voluntary. If somebody felt uncomfortable giving a concept, they didn’t have to,” Loree said. “We were following the revised code. We consulted with the prosecutor’s office. And we wanted to make sure whoever we worked with would help us build a station that would withstand the test of time.”
He insisted that all firms involved were “given a fair shake.”
“Sometimes it’s just unfair to have a situation where someone is upset they didn’t get a job. They look for anything and everything they can do to nitpick a process,” he said.
Under Ohio law, public entities are required to follow these steps when awarding a contract for professional design services:
Solicit statements of qualifications from architects and engineers.
Evaluate the SOQs they receive using specific criteria, then rank the firms in order of their qualifications.
Negotiate a contract with the most-qualified firm.
Public entities also may “hold discussions with individual firms to explore further the firms’ statement of qualifications, the scope and nature of the services the firms would provide, and the various technical approaches the firms may take toward the project,” according to Ohio Revised Code 153.69.
The law seems neither to require, nor preclude, a public authority from requesting technical proposals. Team 8e, BSHM and AIA Ohio insist that it’s highly unusual, however, for a technical proposal to be requested unless it’s for a paid design competition.
“It’s extremely nontypical,” said Brett Hendricks of BSHM. “We’ve been doing this for 50 years. Nobody has ever provided us with a proposal like that and said, ‘Provide us with ...’ without a design contest.”
“We’re not offended by not being selected No. 1,” Hendricks said. “We’re more put off [by the process] because there was a lot of uniqueness to it.”
When The Vindicator reached out to multiple state agencies for opinions, they indicated that local governments have quite a bit of leeway in how they award contracts for public projects and that no state agency oversees that process at the local level.
Strollo agreed the township’s request was not illegal, but believes it was unethical. AIA Ohio now plans to reach out to public entities to educate them on what the organization views as the appropriate way to conduct Ohio’s qualifications-based selection process for design work, he said.
“To some extent, this may be a shortcoming of our state and our chapters not educating their municipalities as well as we should, which is something coming up on our agenda at the state to make sure municipalities understand their responsibilities and what their best practices should be,” he said.
“We just think there’s a lot of room for improvement and better compliance with the Ohio Revised Code.”