ADRIAN — The Adrian City Commission dealt with two strategic planning questions on Monday, voting to hire the Mannik & Smith Group to develop a five-year parks and recreation plan, while also pausing work on a new strategic plan for the entire city.
The city had put both projects out to bid at the same time and received five replies. Mannik & Smith bid only on the parks plan. Vertical Strategies, McKenna, and Constantia Consulting submitted bids for both projects, and Double Haul Solutions submitted a bid on behalf of both themselves and Beckett & Raeder, indicating that they would do the overall plan and the other firm would do the parks plan.
Todd Brown from Mannik & Smith was at the meeting to speak during the public comment period. He told them that of Mannik & Smith’s 650 employees, about half are in Michigan and 50 in Lenawee County, and that about 30 people work in the firm’s downtown Adrian office. He also noted that he worked for the city for 10 years, and that he was the director of parks and engineering when he left to join Mannik & Smith.
“I don’t know if we’re low or if we’re high or if we’re in the middle, but I can tell you we’re the best value,” he said. “And the reason is that we will not be spending any of that budget learning the city’s parks. We know the city’s parks. We know the city staff who take care of and maintain the parks, and we know all the stakeholders who are involved to help make decisions.”
Commissioner Mary Roberts asked about the idea of doing the parks and recreation strategic plan in-house, which is how the previous five-year plan was developed.
Director of engineering services Matt Tomaszewski, who is also currently the acting parks and recreation director, said it would be possible. “It would just take a lot of late nights in the office with the three of us that we have,” he said.
But Tomaszewski also described the previous document as “a very basic plan,” good enough to meet the basic requirements for Department of Natural Resources grants, but not an in-depth strategy.
“I think our goal this time was to really dive deeper into the parks and rec plan,” he said. “I keep hearing that we want to build our recreation department back up and build our parks to become better.”
Commissioner Matt Schwartz expressed concern about overloading the parks and recreation staff.
“I’m not saying you’re not capable, I’m saying that’s a deep concern — how thin can we stretch you before other things break?” Schwartz asked.
“Absolutely,” Tomaszewski said. “That’s always a concern when you take on more duties. But I will do everything that I can to make it happen if that’s the direction the commission decides to go.”
The city budget also played a big role in the discussion. Commissioner Bob Behnke noted that the line item in the budget for strategic planning consultants is $50,000, and depending on which firm was chosen, the cost of doing both the overall plan and the parks and recreation plan could exceed that number by a lot.
Schwartz asked if there’s any good news from the recently concluded fiscal year that would result in more money being available. Finance director Nathan Owen said the answer is no, and that preliminary numbers indicate last year’s general fund expenses exceeded revenue by about $500,000. Roberts noted that revenue sharing from the state, particularly from marijuana taxes, came in significantly lower than expected.
Mannik & Smith’s bid for the parks and recreation plan was about $25,000, and Tomaszewski told the commission that half of that amount — because the plan is for both parks and recreation — could come from the Fee Estate, an endowment that funds the city’s park system.
The board voted 6-0, with commissioner Chip Moore absent, to accept Mannik & Smith’s proposal for the parks and recreation plan. They did not take any action on the overall master plan.
During the public comment period at the end of the meeting, the commission heard two comments about the hiring of Mannik & Smith, one against and one in favor. Michelle Taylor of Adrian called the city’s contracts with the firm “over the top and beyond ridiculous,” and said the plan should be done in-house. Jacob Cooper of Adrian said Mannik & Smith is “a good local firm doing good local work,” and that although the city’s total spending with them may seem high, it’s because they’re taking on a lot of projects and saving the city the expense of in-house engineers.