A resolution approving a Second Amendment between the City and County of Denver and Hensel Phelps Construction Co. concerning the extension of construction management and general contracting services for the Great Hall Project at Denver International Airport. Amends a contract with Hensel Phelps Construction Co. by adding $900 million for a new total of $1.265 billion and 1721 calendar days for a new end date of 12-31-28 to continue to provide Construction Management and General Contracting (CM/GC) services for the Great Hall Project completion at Denver International Airport (202161481; 202053359-02). The last regularly scheduled Council meeting within the 30-day review period is on 1-18-22. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 12-15-21. Pursuant to Council Rule 3.7, Councilmember Ortega called this item out at the meeting on 1-3-22 for a one-week postponement to 1-10-22.
Under resolutions, Councilmember CdeBaca has also has called out Resolution 21, Dash 1516 for a vote. Councilmember Sawyer has called out Resolutions 21, Dash 15, 16, 15, 17, 15, 18 and 15, 19 for a vote. And Councilmember Hines has called out Resolution 20 2-0005 for comment under bills for introduction. No items have been called out under bills for final consideration. No items have been called out under pending. No items have been called out. Madam Secretary, please put the first item up. Council Member State Abarca, would you please put Council Resolutions 21, 15, 16, 21, 15, 17, 21, 15, 18 and 21, 15, 19. On the floor for adoption. Yes, I move that council resolutions 21, 15, 16, 15, 17, 15, 18 and 15, 19 be adopted in a block. Thank you. It has been moved. May you get a second? Second. Thank you. Council Member Sawyer Comments by members of Council on Council Resolutions 15, 16, 15, 17, 15, 18 and 1519. Council Member Sayed Ibaka. Yes, thank you very much. I'll be brief. I wanted to go on record not supporting these. These are totaling over $1,000,000,000 for our airport and taking our renovations out to the year 2028. I don't believe that in the last year of this mayor's tenure, it's appropriate to incur that kind of debt for our airport without a comprehensive visioning process and without really recalibrating after our last major renovation, which is currently still happening. So that is why I'll be a no on these tonight. Thank you. Councilmember CdeBaca. Councilmember Sawyer. Thanks, Madam President. I'm also going to be a no on these this evening. Our airport is probably the most financial, most important financial asset we have as a city. We know it's the number one economic driver in the state. And it doesn't just serve Denver, it serves the entire front range and the entire region. But just because an airport is incredibly valuable and important doesn't mean they're beyond the oversight of the council. And I do. You know, when I proposed ban on flavored tobacco, we found it appropriate to hold three committee meetings and a public hearing talking about the merits of the legislation. The airport is requesting over $1,000,000,000 in additional funding. But a 90 minute committee hearing was all that we had. I was hoping and hoping that we could move to a date certain to delay the contracts for further discussion, but unfortunately was overruled. And since then, I've asked the airport a number of questions, and they were answered in a very brief and vague way. So, for example, I asked, why are there only three milestones stated in this contract? The last one is specified to 2023. The project is expected to continue until 2028. And the response was they'll be special specified in the individual task orders and be memorialized on the public dashboard. That's not an answer and certainly not one. We're talking about over $1,000,000,000 in contracts. So I want to be really clear. I think the airport is a completely worthwhile investment. I believe that we need to finish the security upgrades that we started with great hall phases one and two. And I think given the proper time, these contracts would be worthwhile to approve. But I'm very disappointed at the rushed process, the lack of partnership with council and discussions with community, and the cavalier attitude towards $1,000,000,000 worth of funding. And so because of that lack of transparency and accountability in the process, I'm going to be a no vote tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Steuer, we have Councilmember Cashman. Next. Yeah. Thank you, Madam President. This is a tough vote for me tonight. When the original Great Hall contract came before the previous council. Councilwoman Ortega, then Councilman Espinosa and myself sought expert counsel from an outside agency to evaluate the contract, but were stopped by our city attorney who felt our actions were outside the scope of our charge as council members. Since that time, voters have given us the power to seek professional services as needed. And I believe these contracts are just the type of situation that was being considered when we were given that authority. As a couple of councilmembers said to me recently, It's a great idea. I wish you'd have raised it two months ago. Well, I believe it was a good idea then. I think it's a good idea now. Now it's an opportunity missed. I do believe the bulk of the work proposed in this contract makes sense. And I actually believe we have a good team in place that ten airports are cities unto themselves and the numbers on work that needs to get done do get large. But while these large scale design construction contracts are far less convoluted than the former 34 year public private partnership, this is a $1 billion plus deal that I think in view of the mess that preceded it, deserves an in-depth look by a fully objective third party. Without that in-depth investigation, I'll need to vote no tonight. Thank you, Madam President. And you, Councilmember Cashman. Councilmember Ortega. Thank you, Madam President. So I think everybody knows I voted no on the first contract when it came to us as a P3 deal for some of the reasons that were spelled out by Councilman Cashman, but for a lot of other reasons in terms of just not sharing the budget with us . We were, you know, unless we actually signed a non-disclosure agreement and met in a. One of our conference rooms on the fourth floor City Council. And you had to know what question you were asking. We never saw the full budget. That is completely different from this time around. And the information that was shared with us was was by the applicant themselves, the contractor, not by the city folks, although we did have some a couple of people from the city in the room. So this is a whole different process from what we went through last time around on the first phase. And, you know, once it was approved by council to move forward, I supported the project getting completed and getting us at a place where we get it right. Obviously, you know, what has happened has has occurred. I do know and Councilman Flynn, you may want to talk about this, that the airport has committed to coming back and walking through, you know, the lessons learned and and just, you know, helping us understand exactly what happened and why it went south. But we have a project that was promised to the public that part of addressing the safety and the security of moving the TSA check in from level five up to level six was going to happen. And right now we will have we have a hybrid. We have half of that traffic down on level five and the other portion of it on level six, I believe we have to complete it. Yes, it is a big, expensive price ticket. I've had the opportunity to meet with our bond counsel and our legal advisor to the airport. They do an incredible job working with our team and I am very confident that the safety precautions in looking at the fiduciary responsibilities of our airport have been thoroughly looked at and address both with our external experts as well as our internal folks that run and manage our airport on a day to day basis with the number one focus always being safety and security and being the best functioning airport that keeps our cost per employment, you know, low and we're right in the middle even with this package and the refinance that's going to come back to us in 2022. We're still going to be right in the middle of where all the other airports are. So this doesn't like tip the scales to the point where our airport is no longer affordable to the average non-business traveling public. And those were some of the questions that I have asked of our legal advisors. I did share with all of you the questions that I asked and the answers that we got back. And after going through that process again, you know, not having had that opportunity the first time around to really see the budget and to understand the implications to our airport and to the city, I feel like they've done a thorough job in addressing that. So I'm comfortable with this moving forward tonight. The last thing I would say is at any time council can ask them to come back and give you regular updates of exactly what's happening with the progress of the project and not wait for milestones to occur. Council has that that right to ask the agency, as we do with any of the agencies, to come in and tell us what's going on. So, you know, lots of jobs in the meantime are are created for folks, both, you know, the construction jobs and then the permanent jobs that will will be part of that because we'll have more concessions that will be back in in the main terminal. But in general, I think this is important for the city. And when you look at what we're spending on this compared to what other U.S. airports are spending right now to do upgrades and expansions where, you know, we're right on target to be doing what we need to do to not only address the safety problem, but at the same time be able to address some of the the maintenance within the Great Hall that need to be done as part of this process. So thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman Ortega, Councilman Flynn, you're up next. Thank you, Madam President. One of the keys for me in moving this forward in the first place was the commitment from Manager General. What do we call an executive director is called manager of aviation. So Washington is commitment to to produce a public. Lessons learned report in a short term 90 to 120 days after that committee meeting because I was hesitant to move forward without a complete and public accounting that of of what had happened to the P-3. I want to thank Councilwoman Ortega for pretty clearly outlining the situation at the airport right now. It's a mess. It's a mess. And the failure of the P three left it a mess. Of no vote on his contract is a vote to keep it a mess. And I believe we can't do that. I regret that we have to undertake it in the way we have. I regret that the P-3 failed, but we can't leave our kitchen renovation halfway done and the additions to our house, which are just the foundation. It simply has to be completed. And the way forward, I think, has been very transparently outlined by the airport management. Any member of this council could have had any number of of briefings, see the numbers, see the process. The reason that there are that there are milestones when they go out to 2023 was answered by airport staff in their memo back to us that that said because it's being designed in phase three, the design is not done . You can't establish milestones for for design that isn't yet done. Hensel Phelps Contractor Principal one Here is a CMG C, what they call CMG C Construction Management and Construction Manager, General Contractor. I'd say it's a very successful method under which Hensel Phelps will probably self perform very little of that $900 million, but they will oversee bid packages as the design is done. They will be competitively bid outwork our our construction community. A lot of companies that need work at disadvantage companies, minority women owned companies are going to get the opportunity to bid. The airlines are asking for this. And frankly, an airport that was designed for 50 million passengers with only 40% of them going through the terminal, is now dealing with 69 million passengers in 2019, 60% and more of whom are going through the terminal. We are over twice the design capacity. We have passengers over twice the design capacity of the gypsum terminal. It's simply a mess. If you were out there from 1995 until as I said last week, until 19 guys with box cutters changed our aviation world, you were out there in those opening years. You know what that terminal looked like. That's what it needs to be. Again, this gets us there. I'm comfortable with the with the contract now. And I wanted to thank Phil and his team for answering every question that council had on. I think it's been very transparent and I ask that that my colleagues support this contract. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Flynn. Councilmember Hines. Thank you. Council President. I have a few quick points. You know, after 26 years, any project needs some significant maintenance work. And other airports like JFK have $10 billion in bonds underway. We're lucky that Dennis is in there and is a smaller price tag as it is, particularly since we haven't done any major renovations in that time other than the four of Project and Ferrovial obviously started. They commenced their construction in an interesting spot and when they exited, it made it difficult for us to accomplish the project, particularly what we said to the people this obviously before my time, but what we said to the people we were going to do and that was, as Councilmember Friend mentioned, people with box cutters. We want to make sure that security is is maintained in our airport. And our airport was designed before those box cutter folks made us realize that we needed additional security in our airports around the world. We have already outgrown our airport. As Councilmember Flynn said, we're the third busiest airport in the world in 2021, and we need to make sure the airport is ready for that continued growth because we're just going to get busier. And I also want to make a note that the airport has its own bonding authority as an enterprise of the city. So I know constituents have reached out about why don't we use that bond money for housing or transportation. Well, I agree. We need more investment in housing and transportation. We can't do it with airport funds. The bonds for the airport can only be used for the airport. And then I just want to say the last thing, you know, we're removing a third party from the driver's seat and placing the airport there. So as Councilmember Flynn also mentioned, this is no longer a P3. This means that we have an opportunity for additional oversight and an opportunity to hold Denver employees as an DEN leadership directly accountable. And of course, we'll be watching for praise for success or, you know, should the project go off track, you know, the appropriate countermeasures. So thank you. I will be voting yes. Thank you, Charles President. Thank you. Councilmember Hines, County Council Member Sandoval. Thank you, Madam President. I have given a lot of thought to this contract. I think it will probably be one of the biggest contracts that I vote on during my time in office. I don't remember working for Councilwoman Montero or Espinosa and then being having the ability to vote on $1,000,000,000 contract. So I feel a lot of weight on my shoulders. And I thought about it and I contemplated this. And my predecessor. Councilman Espinosa, was a no vote on the contract because some of the things that Councilman Ortega had mentioned, the change orders, we there wasn't transparency in the contract. There is no way to bring the contract forward to fruition unless we got it done. And it was on a third party who wasn't located in the United States after giving it thought about what's best for Denver and what's best for our travelers. I think it's important for one thing is we can't just say we're adding four more years to this. I've been asking people in my district when when will that contract, when will the airport be done? And they all think it's going to be done in four years. I think it needs to be clear that this will not be done until 2028, 2029, because I don't think that the average person in Denver even knows that timeframe. So I think we need to do a better job again to talk about the extent of this contract and how long it will push it out. I like the analogy of the councilman telling me about reports I live in an auction and if I were just to update my kitchen and not update my friend to it would work very well. So I think that the whole entire airport can use an update. I was able to use Southwest and I will say it was a great experience. I had an awesome experience. That whole entire new little area is it's welcoming, it's great and it's like Denver needs. So with that, I'll be supporting it. Me? Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Sandoval. And I'll go ahead and round out the the comments here before we vote on it. Ben is in my council district, too, and it is such a massive economic engine not only for the region, but really for Denver residents who work out there. And comments that my colleagues have made. I'm right along with those in favor because we need to address the security. We need to look at ongoing remodeling and maintenance that we might need. And then we also need to look at the growth that we're seeing across the nation with other airports, and we need to stay competitive with that as well. And so I will be voting in favor of this contract tonight. Madam Secretary, roll call on Council Resolutions 21, dash 15, 16, 15, 17, 15, 18 and 15, 19. CDEBACA No. Sawyer Now. Torres. I. Black. I. Clark. I. Flynn. I. Herndon. I. Hi, i. Cashmere. No. Can each I. Ortega, I. Sandoval, i. Madam President, I. Madam Secretary, please close the voting and announce the results. Three names. Ten eyes. Ten Eyes. Council Resolutions 21, 15, 16, 21, 15, 17, 21, 15, 18 and 21. 15, 19 have been adopted. Madam Secretary, please put the next item up for us. Councilmember Hines, go ahead with your comments on Council Resolutions 22, dash 0005.