11/01/1977 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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~ - " .. . 'L in the community, irrespective of the architectural firm that is selected. e Ms. Smith wondered if the committee had taken into consideration a local firm who would bring in a national firm to work with them. Mr. Lieuallen replied initially the subcommittee considered picking two firms, one from this area who would pick a national firm. But, he continued, the charge from the Commission was to present the three best firms, not to decide the working relationship. One of the concerns was forcing a partnership that mi gh t not work. Mr. Obie said he had made the argument of a local versus a national firm, and had argued in favor of a local firm at the last Civic Center Commission meeting. However, he said the direction to the subcommittee was to bring the best three firms to the Commission. He had the distinct impression that Luckman Partnership was the top choice of the subcommittee. He felt there was a moral situation regarding when a subcommittee is spending time to do the job for the Commission, he would like to go out of his way to support that subcommittee's decision. He had been troubled with the local versus national issue from a personal business standpoint. He felt he would hire a local firm and ask them to pick people from the outside if they needed more expertise. However, he continued, if tonight the Council did not accept the Civic Center Commission's recommendation, then he felt Council should present 'an alternative. Council should apologize and ask the Commission to make a recommendation regarding a local firm without reflecting whether or not it should be the Amundson firm. He questioned whether Council should in fact accept a national firm or ask the Commission to search out a local firm. He said he would argue in that direction. Mayor Keller said it seemed City Council felt obligated to dictate to the e Commission, when in fact the Commission was obligated to just recommend to Council. He thought the instructions to the Commission were to come up with the best alternates that were possible. He said it appears Council is now saying to the subcommittee or the Commission they should have done what Council wanted them to do. Now Council was saying to the Commission in general perhaps they erred in their interpretation~ He said he hoped the City never gets into the place where they are dictating to any committee or commission or board what the Council wants to hear back from them. He said there were many questions and dectsions, involved and he felt it was appropriate if Council was not satisfied with the work being done by the Commission, then Council should take it upon themselves to do that work. However, he continued, Council did not have the expertise, and he himself would rather see the committee do the work. He said when trying to decide what is best, there are always problems. However, he cautiored Council to take a good hard look at what it was discussing this evening. Mr. Williams said, as a local businessman, he probably should have concern re- garding the extent to which the City does or does not patronize local businesses. He said over the years the City had purchased whatever it needed to purchase wherever it wanted to purchase. He cited the instance of the bread serving the jail being purchased out of Portland. He said the City bids and tries to get the best prices in a competitive market, noting that is what business is all about. He wondered in the selection of this architectural service, whether e Counc;1--11/1/77 - 4 8~