Purge at PenMet Parks continues, as construction manager is reorganized out of his job

The PenMet Parks district has eliminated the job of its capital project construction manager as it prepares for its largest project ever, a $22 million indoor recreation center.

Ed Lewis, 67, a construction-industry veteran, told The Gateway he was given the choice of retiring or having his job eliminated. Instead, he applied for medical leave. The next day, he was told he was terminated, effective Dec. 4. He was three months short of qualifying for a pension.

“The board has gone rogue,” Lewis said in an interview, asserting that board members are trying to seize control of the rec center project from the professional staff. “Everyone is afraid for their jobs.”

Hunter George, the interim executive director, said Lewis was laid off, not fired, because his position has been reorganized. Since PenMet currently has no projects under construction, there is no work to do, Hunter said. The district will hire outside managers as needed in the future.

“It’s very common for agencies to decide to have on-call contractors,” he said. “If you need a civil engineer for two weeks, that’s what you get.”

Shakeup in October

Lewis’ departure continues a shakeup at the Peninsula Metropolitan Park District that began in October, when the board placed the executive director, Doug Nelson, on paid administrative leave after less than a year on the job. He was the district’s fourth executive director to leave or be forced out in less than three years.

A few weeks earlier, on Sept. 17, Glenn Akramoff, then the Community Recreation Center project manager, resigned with a letter accusing the park board of “continued interference in daily operations.”

There had been a dispute between the board and professional staff over handling of the CRC project. The board overruled staff in selecting a first-stage design firm for the building, a Denver firm called BRS Architects.

‘Considerably smaller’

By his own admission, Lewis had been an irritant to some members of the board.

“I’m an engineer, and I speak bluntly,” he said in an interview last month. “They didn’t always like that.”

He said he warned that BRS Architects’ “Northwest look” designs, with their heavy timbering and natural wood exteriors, were too rich for the district’s budget.

“They do exceptionally nice buildings, very beautiful, very elaborate, but very expensive,” Lewis told The Gateway. “This budget wasn’t designed for that.”

As a result, the CRC “is going to be considerably smaller than originally planned,” Lewis said. “It’s not going to be what people think it was going to be.”

Board President Maryellen (Missy) Hill said during an interview Dec. 1 that she could not remember any conversations with Lewis.

“That is complete news to me,” she said. “If Ed had concerns, I would have appreciated them being brought to the board.”

Mark Roberts, the district’s attorney, said Lewis did come to him, and “I tried to understand what he was talking about. I couldn’t figure out, number one, how there was going to be a delay, and number two, how costs were going to go up.”

‘Jack of all trades’

A mechanical and electrical engineer, Lewis came out of retirement after a long career in construction — he once did a $273 million project for Mitsubishi — to help the growing park district. He began in 2013 as a resident caretaker at the Fox Island Fishing Pier, where he and his wife live, and gradually took on maintenance and building jobs.

As park directors became aware of his background, he was asked to take on capital projects, including the construction of restrooms, the turf field lighting projects at Sehmel Homestead Park, the Hale Pass schoolhouse renovation and others.

In October, he fixed an electrical problem at the DeMolay Sand Spit that saved the district about $30,000, Nelson said.

“He’s a jack of all trades, and that’s held against him,” said Nelson. “He’s not a polished public speaker, and some board members did not consider him to be a good representative of the park.”

Hill said, “I do not remember any conversations like that.”

Tagged with dome

Lewis was project manager for the CRC in its early phase, and he became closely associated with an early airdome design that proved unpopular and had to be abandoned.

“The public reaction gave the board a little bit of black eye,” Nelson said. “They wanted to blame the staff. All I heard, from the day I started, was how badly Ed had screwed up.” At a board meeting in November, he said, board members asked him why the construction manager was still on the payroll.

Hill said she did not remember any conversations critical of Lewis. If there were discussions among the board members, she said, they were about eliminating the position, not the person. “As a board, we do not get involved — and shouldn’t get involved — directly with staff,” she said. “Our point of contact is the executive director. So I am not aware of any board member having challenges with Ed.”

When Akramoff quit and a new, interim project manager, Ally Bujacich, was named, Lewis said, he was frozen out of the CRC project. He said he was directed not to talk to Bujacich, who was reporting directly to two board members, Hill and Amanda Babich.

Hill and Babich both denied they are directing the project, although George acknowledged that Bucajich is reporting directly to the board, at least for now.

“The commissioners and I agreed to have Ally continue reporting to the Park Board for the time being so that I can focus on the major task of completing PenMet’s 2021 annual budget,” George said in an email. “We anticipate shifting Ally’s reporting relationship to me at a point that makes sense and is least disruptive to her and my work. “

Work to do

Nelson said it is not true that there is no work for a construction manager. The district has several capital projects that will need to be completed soon, he said, including a re-turfing project at the Sehmel playfields.

“The minute they hire an outside contractor to do work Ed is more than qualified to do, they are costing the district money unnecessarily,” he said.

But George said it makes more sense to hire project managers as they are needed. He has budgeted less than half of Lewis’ salary and benefits for that purpose, he said.

“What we have a need for is flexibility in expertise,” he said during an interview Dec. 1. “We might need a civil engineer for this, we might need hydro, we might need mechanical, we might need electrical for different projects.”

“We get the service we need, and then we’re done,” he said. “You pay for what you need, when you need it.”

Reach Kerry Webster at editor@gateline.com

This story was originally published December 9, 2020 at 8:27 AM.