Yes on Measure A

I encourage citizens of Santa Barbara to vote “yes” on the charter amendment question (Measure A2024) appearing on the March 5 ballot. I serve as chair of the Santa Barbara Library Advisory Board but write today as an individual voter and not on behalf of this board.

I write because serving on the Library Advisory Board has provided a close-up of the problems resulting from the award of construction contracts based on lowest-cost bidder.

Over the last two years, three construction projects at the library, including renovation of the Library Plaza, were undertaken by a construction company awarded the contract based on its lowest-cost bid. Almost from the start, the project ran into numerous delays and problems necessitating repeated change orders. Given the accumulation of change orders, the total cost to the city for this work far exceeded the original bid and greatly delayed completion of the project.

In the next five years, Santa Barbara anticipates capital improvement projects that have been estimated by this newspaper to amount to half-billion dollars. Thus, it is imperative that Santa Barbara enacts, as many California cities have already, a “best value” formulation in awarding construction contracts. Adopting a more modern approach to awarding contracts requires changing the city charter.

The library’s recent experience might be seen as a “canary-in-the-coal mine” signal of the false economies from bids awarded based on lowest cost. I encourage my fellow citizens to vote “yes” on the charter amendment revision.