PORT ANGELES — There could be two project managers between Clallam County and the City of Port Angeles for the building of the proposed Joint Public Safety Facility.

Clallam County Commissioners discussed the city’s request to amend the agreement Monday during a workshop session and redefine the project director/manager roles as the project moves into a new phase.

Commissioners will likely approve the request today during their regular meeting.

The change will allow both Clallam County and the city to have a project director who will report on the progress of the project as it moves into the design phase.

“Each entity is naming a respective project manager so that each has a single point of contact/oversight,” Commissioner Mark Ozias said. “This is the anticipated evolution as the project moves into this next phase.”

The project manager for Clallam County will be Undersheriff Ron Cameron and Public Works Director for the City of Port Angeles Mike Healy will be the project manager for the city.

“This came up as we sought to further define roles as the project moves into more specific design development stages, working toward the creation of bid documents, working toward construction,” Port Angeles Public Works Director Mike Healy said.

Commissioner and former Port Angeles City Council member Mike French said the reason for the change is complex.

“When I was on City Council and this project began years ago, none of us thought it would take this long to get to where we’re at,” French said in an email.

“Some of that was due to COVID-19, some of that was due to the site selection process and some of that is due to both sides not fully seeing how difficult it can be to design a project of this nature jointly and not fully embracing a true joint management agreement.”

French noted other issues in the agreement presented by the city will likely be changed as well. For example, in the original agreement, it said the county designee for the project manager role could only confer with county employees.

“It’s clear that we want to have a broader team that will include city employees and outside consultants,” French said.

The original agreement also said the county or city project manager could be changed without agreement from the other party.

“It just made more sense to have a project manager from both entities,” French said.

The agreement initially had just the county with a project manager due to a conversation in May 2022, when the design consultant company said it was not willing to contract with both at the same time and preferred to designate one party as the lead agency.

“I was still on the council at that time,” French said. “I advocated that we needed to trust our partnership and designate the county as the lead agency, and as I think back on it, we would have been much better served by having this joint agreement in place before doing so.”

The county and city will have a joint meeting at 5 p.m. July 18 during which it will begin to discuss the next phase of the safety facility which is detailed design.

Both entities will work with consultants to take conceptual design and turn it into architectural/construction documents to be used to solicit bids for construction. That phase will go from August through October 2024.

“Many of the specific issues brought up during conceptual design will likely be discussed at the joint meeting,” French said.

The county agreed to use the design, bid and build format in June following the purchase of property on the 2000 block of west Edgewood Drive in April.

The $13 million facility will house the county’s Emergency Operations Center, which is currently located in the basement of the Clallam County courthouse, as well as the dispatch center for Peninsula Communications.

The construction phase is set to go from November 2024 through February 2026.

“All of this to say that I think this is really just affirmation of the new relationship between the county and city that we have spent over a year building rather than a change in strategic direction,” French said.

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Reporter Ken Park can be reached by email at kpark@peninsuladailynews.com.