Two design contracts for city projects are set for approval at the Oct. 27 Española City Council meeting, but one is at the center of a long-standing Council divide over the acting city manager and her husband.
City staff recommended designers for two projects Monday at the Council workshop. One firm would design improvements on North McCurdy Road and the other would be in charge of designing an expansion of water and sewer services to city residents who are not hooked up to city utilities (see sidebar for more details on each project).
Staff recommended Albuquerque-based Bohannon-Houston for the road project at a cost of around $250,000 in state funds, according to city documents. None of the Councilors objected to the recommendation or the process used to choose the firm, in which respondents were scored points in several categories.
The other design contract, one for $1.2 million for a $7 million water and sewer expansion, met with a potential snag because staff recommended Albuquerque-based Molzen-Corbin and Associates, which employs Acting City Manager Veronica Albin’s husband, Doug Albin, as a water projects engineer. Molzen-Corbin has worked on several city water and wastewater projects over the years, including several projects still awaiting completion. Since last year when Veronica Albin became city manager, Mayor Pro Tem Alice Lucero has claimed it is a conflict of interest for the city to do business with her husband’s firm.
“I just want to express my dissatisfaction with Molzen-Corbin being chosen for this,” Lucero said. “There is a continuous problem with every Molzen-Corbin project, and I would like to see (second place finisher) Wilson and Company get this project.”
A committee of five city employees made the selection, Procurement Officer Bernadine Martinez said. Veronica Albin was not one of those employees.
Wilson and Company, also of Albuquerque, won a blanket contract for multiple water and wastewater projects in February over Molzen-Corbin in a battle that split the Council. Several projects were included in the contract, but the water and wastewater expansions weren’t one of them.
Lucero raised concerns about Molzen-Corbin’s work in July when a city water tank designed by Molzen and Corbin failed, causing the city to lose a million gallons of water and declare a week-long water emergency.
Lucero has also been very public about her belief that Veronica Albin gives her husband privileged status in the city’s water and wastewater decisions.
“Everything she knows about utility systems she knows from Doug,” Lucero said in July. “She should not be consulting him over city staff.”
Albin did not respond to Lucero’s accusations at the meeting.
“It’s not surprising,” Albin said after the meeting of Lucero’s attacks.
Supporting the staff recommendation was District 2 Councilor Alfred Herrera, who plans to run against Lucero in the March 2010 mayoral election.
“I for one would support the staff’s recommendation,” he said. “I think everything was explained. Certainly it was explained to my satisfaction.”
The selection system assigned each company points in a wide array of categories, including familiarity with city infrastructure, technical competence and past performance record.
Though Wilson and Company out-scored Molzen-Corbin in technical competence and capability, Molzen-Corbin’s higher scores on familiarity with the city pushed them to a higher overall score, Public Works Director Ben Ortega said. A call to Wilson and Company was not returned.
Those two firms were the only two of four respondents to the request for proposals that were invited back to present to the city, Ortega said. Molzen-Corbin’s overall score out of 150 possible points was 132.4, and Wilson and Company scored 125.6. Technical competence and experience with the city were worth the same number of points, but capability was scored lower. Molzen-Corbin also outscored Wilson and Company by 1.4 points on the 30-point question and answer portion.
The Council will vote on both design contracts Oct. 27.