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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, September 26, 2011 Page 29 Mayor Roe asked if these same five (5) categories were used with equal weight- ing for past professional service evaluations; with City Manager Malinen respond- ing that legal services, janitorial services, and recycling services had all used the same process; however, he was unsure if the weighting was always the same. City Attorney Bartholdi advised that the only required item was for price, with others optional; and that confirmed that this process followed state statute. Mayor Roe noted that statutorily, cities had to go through a formal bidding process for construction, with price being a dominant factor; however, sought cla- rification from City Attorney Bartholdi whether professional service contracts had the same statutory requirements to go with the lowest or any bid. City Attorney Bartholdi clarified that the City did not have to use competitive bidding for construction, that they could either use the competitive bidding or best value procurement processes. Mayor Roe confirmed that the City Council had authorized this process to keep it- self out of statutory bidding requirements. Councilmember McGehee opined that this was a very significant expense and that interviews were very subjective anyway; and questioned how that compared to other categories. Councilmember McGehee advised that there was no guideline given to evalua- tors that was uniform across members; and in this instance, it was interesting to note that the lowest fee firm received one of the higher marks; when with the con- struction management RFP process, those two (2) firms with the highest prices received the two highest marks, indicating that in the analysis of fees, there was considerable difference. Councilmember McGehee noted that, between the two contracts: for construction management and architectural services, evaluators were very aware of the substantial costs. For further clarification, Councilmemb- er McGehee noted that the referenced St. Louis Park process included construc- tion of two (2) fire stations and their fee for architectural services alone was $448,000. Councilmember Pust, when considering the objective measures in the other cate- gories, questioned why the interview was a category since it seemed to be a way to gain information, but was not a body of information; and questioned how and why an interview became ratable; and whether that category created a larger dis- parity between bidders.