Working together, the Transportation and Water Business Groups secured a significant win with Seminole County, Florida, as program manager for the public works (water and transportation projects) portion of its 1-cent sales tax infrastructure program.
Seminole County awarded the program, valued at $353 million, to CH2M HILL unanimously, in October after voters approved the 1-cent sales tax increase during a special election in May 2014. The increase will fund infrastructure, raising the sales tax from 6 to 7 percent. Seminole County’s sales tax rate was 7 percent until 2011. County leaders then let the penny tax expire, citing a bad economy. Client Service Manager Didier Menard from the Water Business Group worked with Seminole County to put together the 1-cent sales tax infrastructure initiative. Our local employees got behind the effort – volunteering at community activities and speaking publicly about the benefits of the program to gain support.
“Getting the funding passed required a full-team effort. For 8 years, we have worked hard to establish our roots in Seminole County. Our employees volunteered more than 1,000 hours to build our brand in Seminole County and position ourselves for this program,” says Didier. “It was critical to get our client’s total faith in our capabilities, which we’ve successfully accomplished by outperforming and delivering on the original utility program.”
The Water Business Group’s successful delivery of Seminole County’s water/wastewater capital improvement program – the County’s largest infrastructure improvement program to date – clearly differentiated us from our competitors. Transportation State Leader Matt Lamb’s strong Seminole County client relationships and extensive experience in similar program management roles for various Florida clients was also key to the win. Strategic insight into the educational facilities aspect of the program was provided by Transportation’s Dana Chester/ORL, who served as the Seminole County School Board Director of Facilities.
The general engineering services contract covers program management, planning support, design support, grant funding support, infrastructure sales tax support, and miscellaneous support. Work began January 1 and will be delivered by a cross-market team including Program Manager Matt Lamb/ORL, Principal in Charge Drew Jeter/ORL, Carol Barker/ORL, Diane Chavis/ORL, Brenda Van Ravenswaay/ORL, Jesse Blouin/ORL, Dana Chester/ORL, Nancy Houston/ORL, and a team of local subconsultants.
“Since we started the program in 2006, Seminole County has been one of the largest gross revenue clients. By leveraging the strong client relationships developed through our water work with Drew Jeter as Program Manager and Brenda Van Ravenswaay as Design Manager, we were well positioned to win additional work with the County,” says WBG Geographic Market Lead Matt Alvarez. “We can’t underestimate the power of relationships because, at the end of the day, clients prefer to work with people they know and trust to deliver good work.”
The infrastructure tax revenue, which is effective for 10 years beginning Jan. 1, 2015, will fund several projects for the County, several municipalities in the County, and the School Board of Seminole County. Projects include stormwater systems, roads and transportation facilities, bicycle and pedestrian trails, and educational facilities. While tax increases are typically unpopular, CH2M HILL helped Seminole County voters see that the extra funds would differentiate the County and improve the quality of life for residents by growing the economy.
Scott Gurholt/MKE from the Transportation Business Group led the pursuit from the sales side, and Mirjam Jeter/ORL led the team’s graphics efforts.
Seminole County is one of the fastest growing counties in Florida, with a population of approximately 431,000 people. The county has a total area of 345 sq. miles, 36 of which are water. The county boasts miles of scenic rivers and acres of beautiful parks and is just minutes from Orlando’s top attractions.