JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

For the first time since the city’s renewed effort to get a new KCI got underway, Mayor Sly James has broached the prospect of having to start over on the selection of a contractor.

At 11:01 a.m., James sent out an email suggesting that the selection process might be so mired down now that it would necessitate a do-over. Here’s the seminal paragraph in this seven-paragraph notice.

I’m proposing that the City Manager continue engaging in good faith negotiations with Edgemoor and bring back a revised MOU (memorandum of understanding) for City Council consideration. If an agreement cannot be reached, then the City Manager must report back to the Council why an agreement could not be reached, and the process for selecting a developer will start over. At that point, I would propose that the process be open to the public.

This is very significant, partly because James sees closing a deal on a new KCI as the key to his legacy as the mayor who was able to break ground on a new, modern airport. But if he’s serious about starting over, a deal might not be concluded on his watch. (His second and last term ends in early 2019.)

He would have to swallow very hard to allow that opportunity to get away, but he’s so pissed off at the council’s 9-4 rejection of the proposed Edgemoor MOU last week it just might happen.

His threat is a last-ditch attempt to pressure a council majority to resolve its differences with Edgemoor, the airport construction firm city officials selected. As I said in my previous post, however, I don’t think there’s any chance of salvaging a deal with Edgemoor. The Maryland firm has managed to alienate a council majority — partly with a demand for a $30 million “break-up fee” if a final deal cannot be reached — and I think it’s extremely unlikely that three of the nine members who voted against Edgemoor will reverse their positions…That’s what it would take to turn the vote from 9-4 “no” to 7-6 “yes.”

At the same time, I think it’s unlikely that a seven-vote coalition can be put together for the recently engaged team of AECOM and Burns & McDonnell. Burns & McDonnell keeps scratching at the door, but we must remember that after the Council opened the proposal process to firms other than Burns and Mac, its no-bid proposal was shown to be nearly a half billion dollars higher than what AECOM proposed. In fairness, it’s uncertain a final deal with AECOM would have been nearly $500 million less than what Burns and Mac proposed, but it was apparent, in any event, that Burns and Mac was trying to pull off what amounted to a bank heist.

The only way I see Burns and Mac getting back in the picture is if the first round of proposals is thrown out altogether and the city starts afresh, next time starting with getting a design, then taking construction proposals, based on detailed specifications.

I would prefer one more change: Financing the project with city-issued revenue bonds rather than having the construction firm handling the financing.

That would be a significant change, not in the least because it would require a second election. The ballot language from the November election specifically stated the job would be done “without the issuance of general airport revenue bonds unless such general airport revenue bonds have received prior voter approval.”

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It’s very difficult to predict what will happen from here. The city put itself at the mercy of the construction firms when it agreed to allow them to propose just about whatever they wanted and to finance the project as they saw fit. It was ridiculous, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone that chaos now reigns. We’ve got chaos because, with the city’s backasswards approach, it is negotiating from a position of weakness and the contractors can call the shots.

The best way to get the best deal — a modern terminal with plenty of amenities built at a fair cost — is to scrub the two proposals still on the table and start over. I hope Sly will swallow his pride and do what is in the best interests of the city, which is this:

When the deal with Edgemoor officially falls through, call not only for a redo but also for commissioning an airport design, then taking construction bids and, finally, issuing municipal revenue bonds (the cheapest financing available by far) to complete the project.

Yes, it would require another election, but — you know what — the hardest part is behind us: Kansas Citians demonstrated by a 3-1 ratio they want a new airport.

The atmosphere enveloping the airport issue is full of toxins. For the good of future generations, let’s go all the way; let’s do what it takes to clear the air completely and get this billion-dollar-job done in a way we can be sure the public, not the contractors, will benefit the most.