Gibson Hires Engineer for Siemens Water Woes
October 28th, 2014 by Joe Burgess
Local attorney Cliff Gibson, recently hired by the City Council to deal with the depths of confusion involved in the $10,000,000 water improvement project with Siemens, has hired an engineer to work on the project with him.
Attached is the letter he sent to the City Council members.
Also included in the letter were the selected firm’s vitae and list of qualifications.
Dear Mayor Rogers and Members of the City Council:
Consistent with your engagement of our Firm, I have reviewed the qualifications of the City’s regular engineering firm, ETC Engineers & Architects, Inc., and its principal, Mizan Rahman, P.E., and enclosed herewith are copies of Mr. Rahman’s CV and a brochure on ETC Engineering’s qualifications and experience. The enclosed documents reveal that Mr. Rahman and ETC Engineering have a high level of local, state, national and international engineering expertise and decades-long engineering experience both here and abroad in the fields of civil engineering at issue with respect to the City’s contract with Siemens Industry, Inc., and have experience in rendering forensic services to legal counsel respecting their engineering expertise.
Further, ETC and Mr. Rahman already have a familiarity with the water works of the City, and they have already conducted a preliminary review of the Siemens’ contract with the City and Siemens’ performance under that contract, including a preliminary comparison of the water meters specified for installation by the contract and the type/brand of water meter actually installed by Siemens. This means that they can quickly get up to speed relative to this matter.
On October 23, 2014, I personally met with Mr. Rahman at the offices of my Firm and discussed with him the issues facing the City in connection with its contract with Siemens. Our Firm is well satisfied with the ability and willingness of Mr. Rahman and ETC Engineering to evaluate, report on, and testify with respect to engineering issues pertinent to the City’s contract with Siemens. In reaching this conclusion, we were not unmindful of the criticism leveled at ETC by a councilperson relative to a previous splash-pad project, but have learned that the problem with that project was the contractor, not the engineer.
We do, therefore, select Mr. Rahman and his firm ETC Engineering & Architects, Inc., as the consulting expert engineers for the City in this matter. It is our understanding that Mr. Rahman and ETC Engineering will charge their regular hourly rates for services rendered in this matter, and that Mr. Rahman’s rate of charge is $150 per hour plus mileage at the IRS rate (50¢ per mile) and out-of-pocket expenses without markup. We further understand that Mr. Rahman and ETC Engineering will submit regular billings to the City for their services/expenses, and that same will be due upon the City’s receipt of same.
Preliminarily, we intend to request Mr. Rahman and ETC Engineering to complete a comprehensive comparison of the water meters that were supposed to have been installed by Siemens under the contract with the meters that actually got installed, and to perform an analysis of the performance-based efficiency savings guarantee under the City’s contract with Siemens and the ability of the City to meet the contractual requirements necessary to realize those savings for the benefit of its citizens. We do, of course, anticipate that there may be additional matters relative to which we will seek the consulting expertise of Mr. Rahman and ETC Engineering as this matter develops.
We request that both Mayor Rogers and the City Council approve employment of Mr. Rahman and ETC Engineering as outlined above, and that Mayor Rogers sign a copy of this letter evidencing that such employment has been so approved.
Sincerely,
GIBSON & KEITH, PLLC
C. C. Gibson, III
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