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Legislature: Future of construction managers on school building projects questioned

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The role of state School Building Authority-hired construction managers on school construction projects continues to be an issue of controversy. It generated lengthy discussion Monday before the legislative interim committee looking at government waste.

Some architects and contractors are questioning the value of construction managers while those who perform the service say they’ve saved the state millions of dollars in construction costs.

Scott Raines

Scott Raines, SBA director of School Planning and Construction, told the committee he’s asked contractors to give him specific complaints about construction managers but he hasn’t received any.

“If you don’t want to bid our work because of that CM (construction manager) what is the reason? I’ve not had that answered from any party,” Raines said. “Because I would claim the reason that they don’t is that they don’t want the accountability of someone looking over their shoulder.”

A committee of the SBA is reviewing the construction manager issue. At a meeting earlier this month a former construction manager told committee members he was shocked at how much money the SBA is currently paying for some of the services.

Raines defended the practice, telling lawmakers that just last week a construction manager made a suggestion at a bid opening on a Fayette County job that could eventually save the state a lot of money in site preparation costs. He also said construction managers do a good job reviewing change orders from contractors.

“When you’re in a non-bid environment contractors can put pretty much whatever markup or whatever cost they want to–to that change order,” Raines said. “So the CM (construction manager) says is the fee for this in the average range of what the market is showing today?”

Del. Erikka Storch (R-Ohio)

Del. Erikka Storch (R-Ohio), whose family company Ohio Valley Steel was involved in the construction of the new Cameron High School in Marshall County, said what was being said in favor of construction managers at Monday’s meeting was “dribble” and “bogus.”

“One of our largest problems we had with the construction manager on Cameron High School was their lack of coordination,” Storch said. “(It) created so many problems from the beginning of the building design through the construction phase, all the way to the end of the project where the project was completely screwed up.”

Storch said the construction manager would arbitrarily cut change orders.

“There was never any justification for why,” Storch said.

Raines agreed with some lawmakers who said it may be time to take construction managers off of less expensive school construction jobs. He floated a proposal about hiring agents who would work with the SBA and county school systems to rightly fit a construction manager, construction analyst or a clerk of the works with particular projects.

“It’s a least a place we could start and get things moving in the right direction,” Ranies said.

Monday’s discussion was before the Joint Committee on Government Accountability, Transparency and Efficiency.





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