When Bismarck's utility director Keith Demke stepped up to the podium at last week's city commission meeting, I knew it was going to be an uneasy discussion.

Demke was asking some $80,000 be paid to SEH Inc. for amended engineering services for the wastewater treatment plant project. It was work that Demke had authorized without first bringing it to the commission for approval.

Demke authorized a number of scope-of-work changes, none that by themselves were very big deals, but when they were all totalled up it was over the contract's maximum payment amount of $1,085,600.

The amendments involved some related work that hadn't been anticipated, such as replacing of the roof and windows on a building where construction will be taking place and replacing final clarifier sludge pumps at the same time as the primary clarifier sludge pumps, rather than in a future project.

"Some were new ideas that came from the staff during the design process that were improvements to the project. Some were safety-related and some were required to address issues of plant operation during the construction process," Demke explained.

Commissioner Connie Sprynczynatyk moved to pay the bill. For a moment it appeared the motion would die for lack of a second, but then an obviously exasperated commissioner Sandi Tabor provided the second, for the purposes of discussion.

Amendments to city contracts, especially for engineering services, has been a sore point with the commission for several months. And particularly so for Tabor, who heads the budget committee.

Tabor was critical of the department head's authorization of work that exceeded the budget of the contracted amount. Yet, there was the quandary of the contractor doing the work as approved by Demke, though it hadn't been authorized by the commission.

Demke replied that the design contract is a different situation than a construction contract. Occasionally things are found that are missed in the scope of work or better ideas come up. If it isn't a big dollar amount and makes the project better, it makes sense.

But Demke admitted that what he did in approving the additional work clearly wasn't proper, and he doesn't have the authority. Demke and other department heads are working with the audit committee to come up with a procedure in which they will get the commission notification and time to authorize the amendments in a timely manner.

Sprynczynatyk was more sympathetic to Demke, pointing out they had all been involved in personal projects where they thought they knew the cost only to come across problems they didn't anticipate. She added that it was rare to see a project go exactly according to the original vision.

"Nobody wants this situation and it is not being done purposely. But it does cause discomfort on a number of levels," Sprynczynatyk said.

Tabor wants to ensure accountability to the commission. She doesn't feel the request for changes needs to be a big issue and can generally be taken care of on the commission's consent agenda.

There's accountability to commissioners and taxpayers, according to Tabor. It should be policy that when a contract change is made that the commission know and have the opportunity to ask why it's being done. The commission needs to know about amendments and how the money is being spent. The audit committee will have a policy for the commission to consider in the near future.

"The real issue is that we know what's going on and what we're voting on," Tabor said.

Commissioner Dave Jensen said he couldn't remember such a large amount coming to the commission in this manner. But it was pointed out that just recently city engineer Mel Bullinger had a similar situation that came in over $100,000.

Mayor John Warford said he could support paying Demke's request, knowing that a process is being put in place to address these situations in the future. The commission unanimously approved payment of the amended costs.

(Reach reporter Gordon Weixel at 701-250-8255 or gordon.weixel@bismarcktribune.com.)