A resolution approving a proposed First Amendment between the City and County of Denver and Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc. concerning program management for the Great Hall Project at Denver International Airport. Amends a contract with Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc. by adding $49,000,000 for a new total of $52,000,000 and two years and 8 months for a new end date of 12-31-24 for program management, including design quality assurance and construction oversight for the Great Hall Project at Denver International Airport (201630091). The last regularly scheduled Council meeting within the 30-day review period is on 12-9-19. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 11-6-19.
11 I one abstention. Resolution 1206 has been adopted. Madam Secretary, please put the next item on our screens. Councilman Cashman, go ahead with your questions. Thank you, Mr. President. So no secret to anybody, unless you've been living under a rock or in a cave, that a year or so ago, the airport, with the approval of this council and the administration, entered into a very complex, important project renovating the great hall that went sideways, creating problems for the city, team travelers, etc. It's in everybody's best interests that we move forward as quickly as. Possible. In completing the project as close to envisioned as possible, as quickly as possible. But the question that I get most often from constituents is what about the New Deal. That's being crafted? Gives promise that this will be managed more efficiently and more successfully than the original contract called for. So I wanted to ask anybody on the airport team to give us that. Give us their best view of that. Good evening, members of Council. My name is Krystal Torres de Herrera. I am the executive vice president, chief of staff for Denver International Airport. And thank you, Councilman Cashman, for asking that important question. We often get that question as well, and I appreciate the opportunity to answer that fully. So first, I would just like to say, you know, everyone's asking how is tomorrow going to be different than today? And I would tell you right here, right now, today is already different. In the past 90 days, we've accomplished more on this project than what has happened in the last year. To stand before you today with five contracts that we have done through a competitive selection process in just a short period of time, less than 90 days is a true testament to how quickly and how decisively we are moving. But to also get to your question, we have also brought on additional resources such as Jacobs to assist on the program management side, to assist with us in keeping the projects moving and holding ourselves accountable, because at the end of the day, the buck stops with us. We acknowledge that and we own that. And we have looked very hard at ensuring that that happens as we move forward. We've also committed, as we talked with you in basic committee, about fuller transparency and what that means for the public and having a public facing dashboard where people can go on fly Denver dot com and see the status of the project. We think that level of accountability and openness with the public and transparency will assist with all of this as well. We're also incredibly customer focused. That was something that we want to make sure we continue to carry through. We do know to your point that it is burdensome on the passengers and the public who travel through our airport. We want to make sure that they can get to their flights, go to see their families for the holidays in the best possible way possible. Earlier this week, we started installing directional decals on the floor to show people how to get to ticketing, how to get to security. We're constantly looking for ways to make it easier for the public. So those are some of the things that we are doing currently to ensure that tomorrow is different from what has happened prior to this. And we take it very seriously. I've also got Michael Sheehan up here who can answer any other specific questions on the contract side. Thank you. Thank you for that. That answers my question. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Flint. Thank you, Mr. President. First, I think the the public should be aware that the principal reason for undertaking this in the first place is in the post-9-11 world to reconfigure the terminal that was never designed for the kind of environment that we're in today that we need to provide a much more safe, effective and efficient and secure way to process passengers through security. A lot of us remember when the airport opened and the the fifth level of the gypsum terminal was a public gathering place, a very pleasant place. And that all changed after September 11th. And we have to adjust to that. And that's the principal reason this is being done. And to Echo Councilman Cashman is the principal reason that we need to get it under way as quickly as possible. Having said that, I share with a lot of the public the same sort of anxiety about whether this. Will be. The path forward that gets it done on budget and in less time. I have a lot of confidence in the companies that have been selected. And I would point out all those this will undermine what I just said. I'll point out that this is a similar project management structure as that which was used to build the airport in the first place. So as long as we don't try to add an automated baggage system, we should be fine, perhaps. But I think that going forward with this structure, it and still not knowing exactly what it's going to look like at the end of the day. I look forward to very soon when the next contract comes forward in early next year. Is that correct? That's correct. So we anticipate having the next contract and hopefully as soon as January and. That will be the the actual. Contract to correct. Exactly that, then we will be able to tell our constituents, here's what this will look like. But in the meantime, I believe it's essential, Mr. President, that we move forward with these contracts now so that we can fashion those details and get them before us sometime in January. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Hines. Thank you, Mr. President. Hi. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm all right. I saw his dog earlier. I saw his dog right here. Yeah. So a question for you. We talked I mentioned this in in Biz Committee, I. You as as an airport and as a as a management team have set the bar high for accountability and transparency. And you had a statement that you made about accountability and transparency that. Frankly. Made me not ask a whole bunch more questions. So do you recall that statement? And if you recall that statement, would you like me to repeat that? Yes, please. Okay. Absolutely. At this committee and it was a very great conversation, very thorough conversation by the members on that. I made the comment that we are committed to a level of transparency that the city has never seen before on a project of this magnitude. And we take that incredibly seriously, and that is exactly what we're looking for. So thank you for that statement. Thank you for setting the bar high. I think that I want to empower you to do all you can and certainly on one tember to succeed. I want Dan to succeed and we'll be holding you to that. I hope you do, because we'll be holding ourselves to that as well. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Ortega. Thank you, Mr. President. Hi, Crystal. Hi, Councilwoman Ortega. I think we are all very anxious to get the project improvements done. It's going to certainly improve the experience for the traveling public and the employees. The question I want to ask is when? What is the timing? When do you all anticipate resolution of how much has to be paid out to the Great Hall Partners? Because that is key to the scope of work moving forward, because that then determines how much we have to scale the project back and we don't know what that figure is yet. So do you have a ballpark idea? So I so appreciate you asking this because we are working on that as quickly as possible. To your point, it's a very important piece of information that as we move forward, we want to know. So we are really trying to resolve that as quickly as possible. We would love to have it wrapped up by the end of the year. But to be safe, we've told people that we were trying to get it done by Q1, but certainly as soon as possible. To we anticipate that that will be resolved before we do the contract with the general contractor that you will be bringing forward to us next year. We would hope to have that be the case, but we're not the only people in that environment to make that happen. And so there's a lot of, you know, it's complicated and so we're trying our best to get that done. Okay. The last thing I want to say is. I'm pleased that we have all these local contractors and local minority contractors that are now part of the project moving forward. Some of us wish this is how we would have done it from the very beginning. But, you know, it's it we are where we are. And I think you all are trying to be as diligent and efficient in trying to move the project forward. I know you couldn't do anything once the decision was made until the building was actually handed back to us. Which was last week, right? Correct. So now that we've got control of the space, it allows us to step in and do the that work that needs to happen. So I know these contracts tonight are key to moving the project forward, so thank you for having done the tour for many of us week before last to help us really see some of the challenges that were that were posed to the airport during that whole phase of trying to work with an outside company. So thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Flynn, your backup. Thing, Mr. President, just stated. I should have added that as a member of this council who supported going forward with a three with the P3 back in 2017 and now being in a position of regretting that given the circumstances of what happened, I think it's very essential that before this Council is asked to support another P3 project , even outside of the airport, that the airport produce a robust, not just a lessons learned, but about an autopsy, if you will, on what went wrong. And and I would hope that it would examine our faults as well and what we did and how we how we're improving that in this next round. And we'd really at least I think most members up here, probably all of us, need to have a very clear understanding of what happened. Before we will undertake this kind of venture again. I think that's important for many other projects in the city that that be produced. And I would ask that that be undertaken. And again, not just the lessons learned, not just a you know, not a not just a 12 page report, but give us you know, let's let's air our laundry and let's find out what did we do wrong and how have we fix that? Thank you. I appreciate that. If I can just respond to that for a second. And we had this conversation in Biz Committee, and we are certainly committed to making sure that the lessons that we learned are shared throughout the city family. We think that's incredibly important as we all move forward, not just for us, but for the entire city. All right. Thank you, Councilman Flynn. That concludes the questions or comments on this item. Madam Secretary, will you please put the next item on our screens, which should be 1177, which is the bill creating the Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency.