GAI Consulting Services Engagement Letter

At the February 22nd, 2011, Polk City Meeting, Mr. Gerald Hartman, of GAI Consultants, agreed to provide Polk City with Engineering Services on an "As Needed Basis."  This information was available to City Council Members, but not provided to the public at the time of the meeting.  Even after repeated attempts by the public, the rate schedule was not disclosed to the public until after the meeting adjourned via a public records request.  This proposal for services was approved by a vote of the city council by a vote of 4-1.  Here is a copy of the Engagement Letter:  GAI Consulting Services Engagement Letter

Essentially, this agreement will permit GAI to perform the duties that a City Engineer would normally do.  In the past, these duties were performed by Mr. Gene Kniffen, in addition to his other responsibilities in the Utility Department on a salaried basis.  The rate schedule on page two of the document linked above discloses the HOURLY rates GAI will charge for these services.  By the way this rate schedule is laid out, it appears very likely that several individuals working as a team could be assigned to various as needed projects simultaneously.  When adding all of their separate hourly rates together, the cumulative hourly rate could likely jump to $500 or $1000 or more per hour for these services.  That gets very expensive, very quickly.  City Council may think that they are "saving" in salary expenses by hiring an outside firm to complete these services on an as needed basis, but the true "savings" will only be apparent when all the bills are added up at the end of the year.  At these rates, just a few projects could easily run expenses in excess of the total annual salary, plus benefits, the city had paid one individual to do this function in the past.