Kern’s Airport-Planning Contract Cap Would Nearly Quadruple 105 Days After Award

A $1.41 million increase after 105 days

Kern County awarded Mead & Hunt a $500,000 airport-planning agreement on July 14. The October 27 amendment would add $1,410,436, raising the ceiling to $1,910,436 after 105 elapsed days.

The increase is 282.1% of the original cap. The revised ceiling is 3.82 times the original, and the added amount represents 73.8% of it. Those are authorization comparisons, not evidence that $1.91 million has already been spent.

Thirteen tasks, one lump sum

Exhibit A lists 13 tasks, including public involvement, inventory, airport GIS, environmental conditions, 20-year forecasts, facility requirements, alternatives, financial feasibility, land-use and noise work, an airport-layout plan, documentation, study design and project management.

The scope sets an 18-month schedule and one lump-sum price covering labor, materials, expenses and incidentals. It does not allocate dollars by task, consultant staffing, labor hours or deliverable. That prevents the public from seeing what drove the increase.

Qualifications do not eliminate price accountability

Staff says Mead & Hunt was the highest-scored consultant in a qualifications-based selection, not the lowest-price bidder. Professional-services selection can appropriately emphasize expertise, but the later negotiated scope still needs enough detail for residents to assess value.

The packet does not include invoices, the negotiated fee worksheet, competing proposals or the FAA-versus-local funding split. It therefore does not support alleging overbilling, impropriety or a cost overrun.

The original contribution

What’s the Scoop With Broach compared the award and amendment dates, counted the scope’s tasks and calculated the cap change and composition. The accountability finding is the speed and scale of the proposed increase alongside the absence of task-level pricing.