Demolitions, one at a time?

In light of City Manager Milton Dohoney's desire to tear down a bunch of buildings in the city this year, you might find this interesting:

The city bids separately for every single property it wants demolished. Wouldn't that make the process take longer?

Council members Jeff Berding, Laketa Cole and Leslie Ghiz think it probably does. They asked in February for a report from the administration on the possibility of saving time and money by soliciting demolition bids for groups of buildings instead.

Dohoney reported back last week with two ideas:

1. Year-long permits to "pre-qualify" contractors for projects less than $25,000. When a building or group of buildings needed to come down, city officials would seek informal quotes from these contractors, choose the cheapest and request a purchase order. A purchase order takes 24 to 48 hours, compared with an average of 30 days the current way.

The city could even make some money off this one, the report says, by charging a fee for the permit.

2. For projects between $25,000 and $100,000, a new request-for-qualifications (RFQ) process. Demolishers would be chosen based on statements of qualifications they submit and contracts would be awarded to the one with the lowest and best quote.

More costly demolitions, the report recommends, still must be handled by an individual competitive bid process.

The report could be on council's agenda tonight. The administration could start implementing the changes as soon as council approves them.