At their June 18 meeting, Northampton County Council voted 7-2 to select Alloy 5, a Bethlehem architectural firm, to design a new parking deck at the courthouse campus for a price of $463,000. Alloy 5 was the Council choice of three firms who selected bids. The two votes against this selection came from Council members John Goffredo and John Brown. The remaining 7 Council members voted Yes.
Public Works Director Michael Emili told Council that he (and a selection committee) favored Alloy 5 because it has "a ton of experience designing parking decks, particularly in the City of Easton" and is a local firm. But Goffredo, who also participated in that selection committee, preferred another architectural firm whose bid was "$100,000 lower than the other bids."
Goffredo argued that a low bidder should not be penalized for being the low bidder. But Council member Jeff Warren argued that bid was "aggressively low. That sends up a red flag to me."
Brown opposed the selection because of problems with the "internal process". He was opposed to borrowing money to pay for a new garage and should have used existing funds. Yet Brown has also argued that the county has no money. Which is it?
Alloy 5 founder Randy Galiotto and development director Bekah Rusnock gave a brief presentation. Galiotto, who grew up in Easton, reminisced about riding his bike in the garage as a kid. Rusnock noted that Alloy 5 has relationships with Lehigh County, Montgomery County and numerous municipalities, private businesses and nonprofits. The firm has designed over 5,000 parking spaces in the LV area. This includes the design for a parking deck that will actually be under a proposed stadium at Executive Education Charter School in A-town. The firm has designed 5 of 7 parking structures built in Easton over past 10 years.
Council member Ron Heckman agrees with Goffredo that "procurement is an imperfect process at best." But he suggested that no process is perfect and that he "always preferred local firms. ... We gotta' get this garage fixed. ... [It's] made of play doh."
The design process will take nine months. The garage itself will not be built until 2027.
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