Willing to deal

Power brokers describe where they're willing to give

Bob Brandherm, State Division of Facilities Development administrator and State Building Commission secretary: "Have I reached consensus language yet? No. Will I? I’m hopeful, but I’m not making any guarantees."

Bill Babcock, American Institute of Architects, Wisconsin Society, executive director: "If I looked into my crystal ball I would say it’s nearly impossible to build consensus."

Carol Godiksen, Wisconsin Association of Consulting Engineers executive director: "If I were to go out on a limb, I’d say it won’t happen this round, but it’ll continue."

State Rep. Eugene Hahn, R-Cambria: "We’ll just fertilize it a little and see if it grows. Maybe put a little horseshit on it."

Jim Boullion, AGC of Wisconsin government affairs director: "We have met with Brandherm, and I think the construction industry will eventually coalesce into one unified view.”

State Sen. Gary George, D-Milwaukee: All I would say is it was certainly subjected to a fair amount of misinformation and misinterpretation as to how it was developed and why."

Michael McCabe, MMSD director of legal affairs: "It appeared to us to be a legitimate tool we could add to our current ability to use design/bid/build in certain circumstances to get a better product in a reduced timeframe and, perhaps, at a reduced cost."

Dick Wanta, Wisconsin Underground Contractors Association executive director: "We saw it as an assault on the competitive bid law that dates back to 1889. Our fear was that if, in fact, the sewerage district was able to pick and choose, then not everyone would have an opportunity to work within the district’s $521 million capital budget."

John Mielke, Associated Builders and Contractors director of government relations: "I think the general feeling at the last meeting was that the construction industry would rather be talking about our positions rather than responding to MMSD’s proposal."

State Rep. Antonio Riley, D-Milwaukee: "I’ve talked to my friends in labor, and I am confident that in this session we will have a design/build package. But it has to be done the correct way. Not just design/build for design/build’s sake."

State Rep. Steve Wieckert, R-Appleton: "I’ve worked on it for several months, and I’ve met with organizations and heard the concerns for competition brought out. I think there is a future in design/build and it may come about this session, but the foundation will always be design/bid/build."