By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
After being unable to clarify contract language, City of Burlington staff advised the City Council Tuesday night to terminate negotiations with Burbach Aquatics, Inc. for the Burlington Community Pool project.
The council deliberated in closed session well into the evening on two separate issues – one of which was the pool contract.
The other, regarding full-time fire department employees unionizing, was also discussed, but no information was released due to negotiations.
The memorandum to the City Council was dated April 30 – last Thursday – and advised the council that research into Burbach had shown the company would pursue legal action if the contract was not followed precisely.
According to the memorandum, Burbach had taken three separate Illinois cities – Huntley, Elgin and Grand Marais – to court. Two of the three cases ended in a monetary settlement with Burbach.
The case with Grand Marais seemed to run closest to the situation Burlington is in with its pool – with Grand Marais contracting Burbach to study the feasibility of either building a new pool or renovating the old one.
In the end, Grand Marais chose not to pursue the suggestions of Burbach. In 2011, Grand Marais proposed taking steps to construct a new community center and indoor swimming pool.
Burbach contacted the city and essentially told them they were still under contract with the company, and if Burbach was not hired, the city owed the company $300,000.
According to news reports cited in the memorandum, Grand Marais ended up paying Burbach $57,500 to terminate the contract.
In the memorandum – signed by City Attorney John Bjelajac, Director of Public Works Craig Workman, City Administrator Carina Walters and Mayor Bob Miller – it is stated that the contract documents from Burbach “create a complex web of interweaving contract provisions that have required careful study, and which contain terms and provisions that are, at times, vague and unclear, inconsistent and/or duplicative and/or not applicable or appropriate.”
Attempts by Bjelajac to amend the document “never results in a meeting of the minds between BAI (Burbach) and the authors of this memorandum.”
Members of the City Council selected Burbach as the firm to study the current pool situation earlier this year.
Miller said the fact that city officials will have to start the process over again creates doubt as to whether questions regarding the pool’s future will be put to a referendum this year.
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Better safe than sorry but disappointed that this hasn’t moved forward. As a longtime Jaycee and pool supporter I hope some answers can be arrived at. The pool is a great legacy for the city.
Is this any surprise considering how this company has acted the past few months?
Have the City employees now dedicating all this time instead focus on putting out their own survey to residents in a non biased manner. Then discuss it at the Council, decide on a referendum if any, then if approved hire a contractor.
Hiring a biased contractor to “poll” the residents is both stupid and unethical on its face. Miller is at fault for delaying this process by his continued inability to recognize simple conflicts of interest.
The above commentary was changed by the editor. The last sentence read to the effect that: “as shown by his tendency/willingness to reward his (Miller) friends with taxpayer money.”
As the $30k Lahner payoff shows, this statement is a fact of public record about a public figure. Either print as is or don’t print it at all. Don’t misrepresent a comment as someone else’s that is really now your own after editing. Are you that worried about a bumbling small town mayor?
Why don’t you approach the Mayor face to face and make or comments, instead of hiding behind this website, where you don’t have to identify yourself. Are we not trying to teach our children not to bully? This type of behavior is bullying. Hopefully you don’t have child or grandchildren you are teaching this type of behavior.
A quick google search for Burbach Aquatics reveals a history of issues with communities starting in at least 2011. Perhaps before we proceed with the next contractor we at least type their names into a simple search engine?