LABOR STANDARDS DIRECTOR URGES SEMO COMPLIANCE

The director of the Missouri Division of Labor Standards has requested that Southeast Missouri State University "comply with normal prevailing wage procedures" regarding its Towers residence halls renovation work.

Director Colleen Baker said Thursday that the "request" was made in a letter mailed to the university Wednesday.

Baker's action is in response to complaints filed by David Zimmermann, business representative of Sheet Metal Workers Local 36 in St. Louis and president of the Southeast Missouri Building and Construction Trades Council.

"I represent over 10,000 building trades craftsmen in Southeast Missouri and we just wanted the law complied with," Zimmermann said Thursday.

The dispute involves the chilled cooling system being installed as part of the renovation of Towers West and North halls.

The Board of Regents is scheduled to visit the Towers project Friday afternoon following its 2 p.m. meeting in the University Center Ballroom. The Towers tour was scheduled before the dispute surfaced this week.

Zimmermann said the $1.5 million chilled water system was wrongly tacked on as a change-order to the on-going renovation of the residence halls when it should have been treated instead as a separate project. He contended the university should have requested a separate, prevailing wage determination for the "chiller" project and then seek bids on the work.

"There are a lot of irregularities on this whole thing," said Zimmermann.

He said the dispute only involves the chiller work and should not affect the other renovation work.

Zimmermann said he raised the issue in a meeting Oct. 8 in Cape Girardeau with Ken Dobbins, the university's executive vice president, and Gary Lange, project director for Sverdrup Corp. of St. Louis. Sverdrup is the contract manager on the whole Towers project.

Zimmermann said he was led to believe that a wage determination would be sought for the chiller work and it would be bid.

Dobbins denies Zimmermann's allegation. Dobbins said the work simply has been handled as a change-order on the existing project, with much of the work going to the mechanical contractor, Alliance Mechanical Services Inc. of Cape Girardeau.

Officials of the university and Sverdrup Corp. believe the project is in compliance with state law. They contend the chiller work reflects a change in the $13 million project, but not a completely new construction job.

Dobbins said Thursday that Southeast had requested and obtained a prevailing wage determination from the state last year for the Towers project.

The original plans included two small chiller units, one for Towers West and one for Towers North. "That was the cheapest way to do it," said Dobbins.

But once the renovation work began, and it was found the project would come in under budget, the university decided in August to scrap plans for the small chillers and install a more expensive central cooling system instead. The system now under construction includes a 575-ton chilled water plant with cooling towers.

Dobbins said it's more efficient to have one larger system than two small units.

Changes are common in any major construction project, he said. "How many times do you do a renovation for $11 million and not have a change?" he asked.

But Baker maintained the change in this case was a significant one. "We felt the scope of work in the first determination does not accurately reflect anything as to the nature of the chiller project now," she said.

In his complaints, Zimmermann requested that the Division of Labor Standards require the university to bid the chiller work.

But Baker said her agency doesn't have the authority to enforce any state laws dealing with the bidding process. However, she said, there is a state statute requiring that prevailing wage determinations be included in the bid process. "How they comply is up to them," said Baker.

Dobbins said Thursday that attorneys for the university and Sverdrup were trying to make their case to state officials that the project is in compliance with state law.

"I think part of what we are trying to do now is provide additional information to the Division of Labor Standards," said Dobbins.