Omaha Public Works official says request to council on $411 million project should have came last year

Omaha City Council members approved changes to the $411 million Papillion Creek Water Resource Recovery Facility project after concerns about procedural missteps and fairness were raised. Council members said they were handed a difficult situation regarding the facility’s expansion. “What I’m hearing is, we are asking for language to be approved in a subsequent agreement that makes good on a process that wasn’t followed and originally agreed to,” Councilmember Brinker Harding said. Melton also noted, “You did something in contradiction to what the city council passed.” “Yes, we should have came to you at that time. Retrospect, obviously we should have came to you at that time,” said Assistant Public Works Director Jim Theiler.The issue centered on $57 million of the up-to $411 million project. The city allowed contractor McCarthy Building Companies to handle that portion of the work directly under an “open book” arrangement, despite a prior agreement requiring McCarthy to bid out the work. Councilmembers Harding, Melton, and Don Rowe voted against the proposal.”We negotiate contracts all the time. We know that those fees that we negotiated, okay, are in the best interest of the city and are in line with industry standards,” Theiler said. Nebraska State Auditor Mike Foley expressed concern and said he received multiple complaints about the matter. Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers also questioned the city but ultimately concluded that the city “appears to have not done anything illegal.” Hilgers said he was concerned about the policy but left the decision to the council. Click the link here to read Hilgers’ full letter.Council members ultimately approved the changes. “We just gotta try to ensure there was fairness in the process. I think there’s still disagreement on that, obvious, but I think we’ve taken it as far as we can,” Councilmember Festersen said.Last week, Mayor John Ewing Jr. wrote to the city council to push for “yes” votes. See the letter here.”I urge you to stick with a careful, well-thought-out and well-executed process to get this necessary health and environmental project done carefully and on time, given the six-year construction timeline,” he wrote. “We need to move forward now.” Make sure you can always see the latest news, weather, sports and more from KETV NewsWatch 7 on Google search.NAVIGATE: Home | Weather | Local News | National | Sports | Newscasts on demand |