Belen city councilors last night pointedly questioned the approval process for change orders related to projects managed for the city by Molzen-Corbin & Associates, the city’s contract engineer.

According to documents provided to the council by Belen Alexander Municipal Airport Manager Robert Uecker, Molzen-Corbin, on behalf of an airport project contractor, is requesting payment for more than $16,000 for work the engineering firm says had been approved as a change order by former City Manager Sally Garley.

The work relates to the recent installation of an Automated Weather Observing System, or AWOS, at the airport.

Finance Director Michael Steininger has refused to pay the bill, saying he’s never seen any documents showing the city manager actually approved the change order.

Under the previous administration, change orders were approved solely by the city manager, with payment made after the work in the change order was completed, according to a Molzen-Corbin employee.

While project bids were awarded by the city council, change orders never came before the council for approval.

Neither the city nor Molzen-Corbin has been able to locate documents showing the approval of the $16,000 change order, so it remains unclear exactly how it was approved, if at all.

The city council will vote to approve or deny payment of the change order at its meeting on June 21.

This page was published on June 9, 2010 at 12:26am and is filed under Contracts, Infrastructure.