No. Castle ARB Member Resigns Over Losing Gazebo Architecture Job

A member of the North Castle Architectural Review Board unexpectedly resigned his seat during last week’s town board meeting shortly before officials awarded a competing architect the job of designing the town’s new gazebo.

Architect Ljubisa Jovasevic handed a letter of resignation to Town Clerk Anne Curran about 20 minutes into his comments at the Oct. 8 meeting where he quizzed town board members about why they chose Sullivan Architecture of White Plains despite that firm’s cost estimate for the project being two to three times more than his proposal.

Jovasevic, a self-employed professional who operates LMJ Architecture & Planning, PLLC, a firm he runs out of his Armonk home, also said that Sullivan Architecture should have been disqualified because its proposal stated that it was valid only until Sept. 30.

“By law, his proposal is no longer a valid proposal,” said Jovasevic, the only other architect to compete for the job. “The only other valid proposal before you is mine.”

Jovasevic said that he would charge the town 10 percent of construction costs and estimated the project would be between $75,000 and $85,000. Meanwhile, the Sullivan proposal outlined charges of $1,500 for the pre-design phase, $14,500 for construction documents, a still to be determined fee for approvals, an estimated $4,000 for bidding and $1,000 weekly pay.

Jovasevic estimated that would run the town about $25,000, a percentage that “doesn’t make sense.”

“I step back as an architect and I look at myself as a homeowner and a taxpayer of this town,” he said. “Talking all the time about how you want to save money. Here you are you want to spend two-and-a-half times what you really need to. Why is that?”

Town Administrator Joan Goldberg said Sullivan Architecture’s proposal is still valid because the town had contacted the firm to extend its proposal when questions surfaced.

Goldberg also said project estimates are between $150,000 and $200,000. Although the new gazebo would replicate the previous one, there will be improvements in the new structure, including a handicapped accessible lift that costs about $25,000, she said. The previous gazebo collapsed in late June as the contractor tried to shore up the deteriorating structure in Wampus Brook Park.

Furthermore, an ad hoc committee of community volunteers that was assembled to create the Request for Proposal and evaluate the submissions, was leery of Jovasevic’s hold harmless request that would absolve him of responsibility unless he was solely responsible for negligence or willful misconduct. Goldberg said that provision was a “deal breaker.” Generally, the town looks to be held harmless, she said.

“I appreciate your proposal and I think the whole committee did but the difference is we were looking for a different type of procedure, a different type of involvement and those were the recommendations that we based the decision on,” Goldberg told Jovasevic.

Since architectural services are professional services, the work does not have to be awarded to the lowest bidder, she said.

Town Attorney Roland Baroni said before last week’s vote that the town could go ahead with its award or it could opt to restart the RFP process, especially since the decision has been made to wait until spring to do the construction.

Supervisor Michael Schiliro said little would be gained by asking for new proposals.

“I don’t know what we solve by going through this process again and asking these same people to provide more volunteer time to review it if they provided a recommendation,” Schiliro said.

Councilman Stephen D’Angelo said that with the updated estimates there really isn’t much disparity in costs between the two proposals.

“It’s not going to be that much more expensive because it’s not going to be a $75,000 job,” he said.

Jovasevic said officials may have opted for Sullivan Architecture because the firm has represented multiple clients before the town and they have a comfort level.

“I sort of have a feeling that maybe this firm had done a half a dozen or a dozen projects in this town, that this is actually a no-brainer, let’s just give it to somebody who we’re familiar with,” Jovasevic said.