CITYDESK
JES SICA MURRI
NEWS
City officials say they try to plant two trees for every one that they have to remove.
She’s worked with the architects of the project to protect some of the older oak trees next to the pioneer village. “We changed the building design to work around [the trees],” she said. In order to preserve the oak tree, construction crews have to be careful not to disturb it during the renovation and re-landscaping. Toby Norton is the parks resource planning manager for the city, and the landscape planner for the museum’s facelift. He told BW that the oak tree will be fenced off to keep construction crews from parking too close or storing equipment beside it. He said it’s important to keep the critical root zone intact. “We have literally moved buildings to save some of the trees that are there,” Norton said. “Anything we can do to help those trees stay healthy during construction.” Norton and Gallimore are still at the drawing board for new landscape designs, but Norton said the grassy berm separating the sidewalk and the museum will now be leveled. The sidewalk will be offset from Capitol Boulevard and the grounds of the museum will incorporate more plants from the pioneer village area. “It’s going to be a really nice landscape design,” Norton said. “There was a strong effort to tie the inside of the museum to the outside grounds. The plants will pick up themes that are going on inside and bring them out.” Gallimore estimates the museum will be complete and open again between the summer and winter of 2017. She acknowledged that a green footprint is important to the city, and said the new design will provide more shade in different areas. As for the 30 that will be torn out for the landscape redesign, they’ll be mulched or sold as firewood. Despite those and other trees being removed from Boise’s downtown core, Norton insists the practice is done sustainably. “We’re not in the business of removing trees,” he said. “We do what we can to save trees and replace and mitigate for the ones that do get removed.” Beyond the Parks Department’s mission to plant two new trees for every one taken down, other programs exist to fill out the Treasure Valley canopy, including residential tree giveaway projects through Idaho Power and the Boise City Forestry Division. 7
—Jessica Murri 8 | MAY 27 – JUNE 2, 2015 | BOISEweekly
size, history, personnel and expertise; and another 200 points awarded for “specific” 7 qualifications, including ability to work with high-resolution art, vinyl printing and installation. Trademark received perfect scores of 200 for both “basic” and “specific” qualifications. “And that just doesn’t make sense to us. Trademark has been in business for six years. We’ve been in business for eight years yet we got less than half the points they did,” said Tankersley. “More importantly, look at Artsign Designs. They’ve been doing this for a half-century in Boise, yet they only received about 170 points in those qualification categories. And Advanced Sign and Design, they’ve been in business since 1986 and their qualification scores were even lower.” That’s when Tankersley talked to some of his competitors and they were none-too-pleased. “I was blown away,” said Jennifer Boyd, owner of Artsign, which opened its doors in 1975.
SIGNS OF SKEPTICISM Boise city officials said they encourage bids from firms and business enterprises deemed “disadvantaged,” meaning they are owned by women and minorities. In fact, RFP 15-168 states plainly, “Women-owned and minority-owned firms are encouraged to submit a proposal.” “The city contacted me and asked me to bid because I’m a female-owned business,” Boyd told BW. “I was under the impression that it might help us get a little closer to the top of the stack.” But when she saw the scoring process, Boyd said there was no indication that being a so-called “disadvantaged business entity” had given her any advantage at all, let alone scoring points. “It didn’t factor,” she said. “Which I guess is OK. But after talking to Mike [Tankersley] about the outcome, I too put in a public record request to look at the details of the bids.” Boyd said she was intrigued to see that Trademark, in its winning bid proposal, had included
an image of a Boise police cruiser in its packet. “We did the designs for Boise police cars for years, and a few years ago the police department said they wanted a new look, so we worked with them on that,” said Boyd. “But the next thing we know, the department was sitting down with Trademark. We’re the oldest sign company in the city, and we didn’t get that way by telling clients, ‘Hey we know the other guy is doing it, but we’ll do it cheaper.’ Look, our business has been around [40] years and we have 150 cumulative years of experience in our building. You’re telling me that Trademark has more qualifications?” Trademark says it has plenty of qualifications. In its proposal, the company pointed to previous partnerships with the cities of Boise and Nampa, ACHD and numerous Boise neighborhood associations. Its packet also included photos of previous work for Dish restaurant, Treefort Music Fest and even a previous traffic box wrap. But its photo of a Boise police vehicle gave Boyd pause, who said initial design work had been crafted in her shop. “All we know is that the city wasn’t happy with the designs they had,” said Trademark co-owner John Yarnell. “We helped facilitate the wants and needs of the [police] department. Honestly, we don’t know who came up with that initial design. This a huge surprise to me.” Yarnell said it was more important to focus on the fact that Trademark had a solid working relationship with the city. “We actually helped them develop the original traffic box art program. Every year has been a little bit different and now it has turned into such a big process,” he said. “It’s the first year it’s gone out for bids. We don’t know a lot of the inner workings, but we love working with the city, especially with art.” But Boyd said Trademark was resting on that laurel with its most recent traffic box art bid. “I smell something funny,” she said. “At this point, I’m just watching from the sidelines. We
don’t have time to micromanage all of this. If I had the time, I would absolutely jump into the middle of it.” The man in the “middle of it” is Tankersley. “I guess the thing that really upset me the most is when someone in Colin Millar’s office at the city told me that the best thing we could do is have a meeting with the Arts and History Department,” he said. “I appreciate what they were saying, but then I started to think, more and more, that everything was fixed.” “Basically, they were saying, ‘Be friends with the people who would decide the outcome,’” said attorney Jessica Pollack. Pollack, with Boise-based law firm Carey Perkins LLP, is more than Tankersley’s lawyer. She’s also his wife. “I don’t know how often people challenge bids like this,” Pollack said. “Trust me, the decision to take on the city of Boise has not been taken lightly. But it’s about doing the right thing.” Tankersley took a long breath when BW asked about the possibility that he might be jeopardizing a future working relationship with the city by challenging its bid process. “I’m fully aware of what kind of target this might put on my back,” he said. “But the only thing that makes sense is to re-bid this. There is a significant problem here. These companies that had previous contracts with the city are simply able to sweep in and win a new contract, even when their cost is significantly higher.” But in a letter dated May 20 and addressed to Tankersley and Pollack, Millar stated his office had reviewed Tankersley’s complaint but, “I have decided to deny your protest.” “We intend to escalate the denial,” Pollack told BW, pointing to Tankersley’s right to appeal the denial, setting up a public hearing before City Council as early as Tuesday, June 9. Millar and Bubb said that was fine with them, because the city’s intention is to complete the installation by the end of the summer. BOISE WEEKLY.COM