Consulting firm could be out of job at Ocean Shores
By Jeff Burlingame, The Aberdeen Daily World , 11/21/98
MEETING SET
THE OCEAN SHORES City Council will hold a special meeting at 11 a.m. Monday at the Ocean Shores Convention Center. THE MEETING will include an executive session to discuss with legal counsel potential litigation to which the city is likely to become a party. THE TOPIC of the meeting will be the geotube project, pending/potential environmental appeals and possible resolution of the appeals. ACTION will be taken at the meeting.
OCEAN SHORES - As city officials worked all-day Thursday to pare a lengthy list of long-term erosion-control options to a manageable number, representatives from several state agencies pitched in suggestions.
Noticeably absent from the meeting was Pacific International Engineering - the consulting firm hired 2.5 years ago to help find a long-term erosion solution. By all indications, the firm may not be at any future meetings, either.
"The city has apparently chosen to use the state to do the work for free," said Harry Hosey, PI Engineering's coastal communities manager. "But they haven't told us about it."
The fate of the Edmonds company should be decided Monday, when the city council will respond to a letter from PI Engineering requesting action to be taken on the firm's contract.
In the Nov. 10 letter - sent to City Manager Jack McKenzie - company representatives discussed their displeasure with the uncertainty of their contract.
"(We) understand that the City plans to use City staff and has also requested assistance from various state agencies to perform work associated with the coastal erosion ..." the letter reads. "You have previously informed us that funds are not available to complete the scope of work originally contemplated under our existing contract.
"Based on this understanding, we recommend that the City either terminate our current contract, or draft a revised scope of work consistent with the City's plans and budget.
"PI engineering will discontinue all work at this time until clear direction is received from the City."
City Manager McKenzie said Thursday that the council has not yet determined what course of action it will take.
"The council is continuing to discuss how they want to approach this," McKenzie said Friday. "We are testing the waters but we must move forward."
Though the official decision on PI Engineering's contract will come from the council, recent actions indicate the city has already made up its mind to go it alone.
On Nov. 1., intern Kara Hastings - a graduate student from the University of Washington Marine Affairs program - was hired by the city, in part, to assist in "the research and preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement" for the long-term solution to the erosion problem. Hasting's pay of $2,500 per month will come from a grant from the state Department of Ecology.
The preparation of the Environmental Impact Statement is exactly what PI Engineering is contracted to do, Hosey said.
What happened?
Exactly what happened to strain the relationship between PI Engineering and the city depends on who you ask.
Hosey says his firm realized in September that the city was running out of funding for the project. At that time, he said, he developed a status report for the city which presented several courses of action.
Among those was the option for the city to continue on its current course, which would require coming up with an additional $250,000, he says.
After hearing its options, the city decided to stay the course and continue preparing the EIS, saying they would borrow the $250,000 contingent on a "guarantee that the state legislature would reimburse," Hose said.
"We advised the city that it's impossible for the state legislature to guarantee anything," Hose said.
Eroding coastline.
PI Engineering was hired in 1996 to help the city find a long-term solution to its eroding coastline, located just north of the North Jetty.
In some places, the protective dune is near the breaching point. If the breach occurs, consultants say the entire southern end of town will flood, causing millions of dollars in damage to expensive city infrastructure and private property.
So, with the help of PI Engineering, the city began searching for both a temporary and permanent solution.
Hosey says much of the relationship has been frustrating.
"We've made numerous recommendations to city staff on courses of action and many times the city staff does not take our recommendations," Hosey said. "we're consultants; we're hired because we're experts.
"It's frustrating for us to be hired for our expertise and have it rejected. If they are not going to take our recommendation, they shouldn't have hired us."
Hosey says his firm has a long track record of success in working with Twin Harbor cities.
In Westport, PI Engineering has helped the city procure $17 million in funds to close a breach in its coastline. At North Cove, his company helped with a $22 million project to keep State Route 105 from washing into Willapa Bay, Hosey says.
"Ocean Shores is the first and only project we've not been successful on," Hosey said. "And it's a serious problem they are facing. This is an extremely complex and difficult project, primarily because the city doesn't have the funds to do it.
"But the impacts to the city are in the neighborhood of $70 million if they do nothing. It's a terrible dilemma."
If the city decides to go it alone, it needs to pare down the current list of 20 alternatives to a manageable number so they can present them to the state legislature before the session in January. The hope is that the state will secure funding in its next budget for the project.
"We're under a lot of pressure to get it done," Sue Patnude, the city's director of community development said Thursday. "and it's going to be a lot of work."
Whether or not PI Engineering will be there to help will be decided Monday.