City Council could approve final version of Wichita water plant contract next week

The Wichita City Council is scheduled to decide Tuesday whether to keep its contract with Wichita Water Partners for the Northwest Water Treatment Facility.

The city plans to spend about $602 million on the project, and at least $500 million of that would go to Wichita Water Partners, a consortium of local and out-of-state contractors headed by Missouri firms Burns & McDonnell and Alberici Constructors, to design and build the new water plant.

Alan King, Wichita’s director of Public Works and Utilities, said water customers can expect a “very high quality” water treatment plant. The city’s existing facility is 80 years old and is vulnerable to failure. Because the plant wasn’t designed with the necessary redundancies, a major failure at the plant could leave 500,000 people without water.

The new plant should fix that problem, King said.

“It meets all of the requirements of redundancy the city established, and we have a very aggressive level of redundancy that we’re requiring. Basically, the project is fully redundant,” King said.

Wichita Water Partners was the sole bidder on the project after the city abandoned its original competitive process at Mayor Jeff Longwell’s direction.

A city selection committee unanimously recommended awarding the project to Jacobs Engineering in the original bid. Longwell called for a rematch between Jacobs and Wichita Water Partners with a new formula to pick a winner and later cast the deciding vote to keep Wichita Water Partners in contention.

The Eagle later revealed Longwell’s undisclosed relationships with and gifts from contractors on the WIchita Water Partners team. An investigation by the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office later found hundreds of dollars in gifts to Longwell paid for by companies on the Wichita Water Partners team.

The city’s contract to design and build the Northwest Water Treatment Facility, near Hoover and 21st Street, was approved in February.

Months later, the city selected an owner’s representative to provide oversight for the project. That contract also yielded only one bidder — Garver. The city plans to pay $16.3 million for its services, according to a city council workshop presentation Tuesday.

Both contracts allow the City Council one opportunity to cancel the contract without penalty, and that chance is Tuesday.

What to do about the contract became a key issue in the City Council election. The challengers said they wanted to put the project back out for bid, while the incumbents said they wanted to wait for a recommendation from staff and the steering committee.

All of the incumbents on the City Council who were up for election, except Longwell, kept their seats. The Northwest Water Treatment Facility Steering Committee, which includes city council members Bryan Frye and Brandon Johnson, recommends keeping the contract with Wichita Water Partners.

“Going into this, we had a lot of things to discuss, a lot of things to consider,” Frye said.

Frye was on the original selection committee that recommended awarding the contract to Jacobs and voted against awarding the contract to Wichita Water Partners in February. Several Wichita Water Partners members and a Garver political action committee later donated to his successful campaign for re-election.

Frye said he was “very impressed” with the work of Wichita Water Partners and Garver so far on the project. Infrastructure, especially water, has been a primary focus for him since he was elected in 2015, he has said, and he has been one of the most involved council members regarding the project.

“I never imagined I’d learn this much about water and water plants. I’m not qualified to run one. I can turn on a tap — that’s about it. But, again, I’m very confident in the team that we put together, very grateful for the way the staff has worked with Wichita Water Partners and Garver to get us to this point,” Frye said.

City projections show water rates increasing 3-5% each year for the next 20 years to help pay for the new water plant. On Tuesday, the City Council will also decide whether to increase water and sewer rates by 5% for next year, which translates to about $3 more a month for the average user.

Frye applauded city staff and contractors for bringing forth a proposal that minimizes rate increases.

“Nobody likes increases, but this is a very safe and easy way to do this,” Frye said. “It gives us long term security and comfort knowing that we’re going to have a water treatment plant to last several decades, hopefully.”

The Wichita City Council will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 3, in the City Council Chambers on the first floor of City Hall, 455 N. Main.