Manhattan City Commission Work Session on Procurement and Bid Processes – April 20, 2026
Manhattan City Commission Work Session on Procurement and Bid Processes – April 20, 2026
The Manhattan City Commission held a work session on April 20, 2026, focusing on city bid processes, professional service procurements, and related topics. Director of Public Works Brian Johnson presented an overview of contracting methods, bonding requirements, and the on-call consultant system. Commissioners also discussed cemetery facility costs, county cooperation, and accessory dwelling units.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Nathan Golly, president of Walter's Morgan Construction (a local firm for 90 years), expressed frustration that his company was not shortlisted for a CMAR project at the wastewater plant despite extensive local experience. He argued the CMAR process was not used effectively—citing failure to pre-procure long-lead items, leading to cost escalation and extended timelines. He contrasted the project with a similar plant in DeSoto that was completed faster and under budget.
Discussion Items
- Bid and Contracting Methods: Brian Johnson detailed design-bid-build, construction manager at risk (CMAR), design-build, and development agreements. He explained unit price contracts, performance bonds, and liquidated damages. Commissioners asked about local contractor engagement, cost creep on the joint maintenance facility, and the potential for performance bonuses.
- Cemetery Building Project: Commissioners criticized the $13 million concept for cemetery facilities, calling it excessive. Parks Director noted lessons learned and plans to refine the design with clearer direction, aiming for a lower cost. A work session on the cemetery project will be scheduled later.
- City-County-County Meetings: City Manager reported that Riley County Commissioners suspended participation in tri-county meetings. Commissioners debated the value of the meetings; some saw them as duplicative, while others stressed the need for continued regional collaboration. It was suggested quarterly meetings with Pottawatomie County could be more productive.
- Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs): The Planning Board submitted a letter requesting research on ADUs. Commissioners expressed mixed views: some raised concerns about neighborhood character, parking, and short-term rentals; others noted benefits for multi-generational housing. Staff was directed to conduct research and schedule a future discussion later in 2026.
Key Outcomes
- The Commission granted a request to extend public comment time (motion passed unanimously).
- Staff directed to research ADUs and bring findings for a work session later in 2026.
- No formal votes on procurement policy or cemetery project; these will be addressed in future meetings.
Meeting Transcript
The United States of America and to the Republic for where she stands. One nation under God. Indivisible with the justice at all. Thank you. We have a pretty streamlined agenda tonight. We have one item which will be presented by our director of public works, Brian Johnson. Review city bid processes and professional service procurements. Well, good evening, Mayor Commissioner Brian Johnson, Gardener Board Association Engineer. I've got a quick presentation to go over our contracts and procurements, professional services and contracting. It is complicated. It's about a 20-page PowerPoint. If at any point you have questions, please feel free to jump in because it is complex how we uh how we procure our services. Everything that we do though is spelled out in our purchasing policy, which is online if you'd like to read it. And also our engineer on call process, which is also online. So first, I got a couple of definitions that I want to talk about. Request for qualifications or an RFQ. So a request for qualifications is something that we use to solicit professional services from consulting firms. And I I added this slide here about an hour ago because I wanted to clarify between RFQ and RFP. So our RFQ, we are asking for professional design services from a firm that has experience in that design. We're not asking for a price, that comes later during the scope and fee process. We are strictly asking for who is the best at this specific item. And that is required anytime we do state or federal projects. So if we have any grants in a project, it is an RFQ base, not an RFP base. The RFP has a proposal for their cost in it. So they'll submit their qualifications, plus they'll submit a fee statement so that we know what those fees are. But in an RFQ, they don't. It's based on who's the best at that specific topic. Then after we solicit the RFQ, there's a committee that will review it. If the commission concurs with that recommendation, then we'd begin scope and fee. You're going to see that in the campus creek RFQ that is out now. There'll be a committee that'll collect those RFQs and we'll go through them with a committee of people, make a recommendation to the commission. The commission will authorize us then to start scope and fee. If we can't come to an agreement on scope and fee with the first, then we go to the second, and then down to the third. So that's how that process works. What do we do when we have something that's really an outlier like the design of the exhibits in the Discovery Center? We go to an RFQ. Yeah. And but I mean, who helps us know that they're there's all sorts of companies that do all sorts of things. And on that case, I would defer to Aaron because that's his building. But I mean we have all sorts of oddball things in engineering too. Uh retaining walls, bridges, all kinds of things that we don't do every day. We solicit for those services. Okay. Because there's firms out there that do that. Okay. So for city process, we have basically four design bid build, construction manager at risk, design build, and then a development agreement. So in the design build, I've listed several different things here that the design build does really well at. In public works, probably 98% of what we do is design bid build. It's what we're set up for. It's what most federal and state city governments do.
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