Mayfield Heights Contracts with URS for Engineering, Design Services

Mayfield Heights City Council passed a resolution Monday authorizing a global firm to handle its engineering and designing services for the year.

For $2,000 a month, San Francisco-based URS Corp. will provide instruction and advice for department heads throughout the city. For specific projects, URS will be paid on an hourly basis, depending on the project. Mayor Gregory Costabile said he looks forward to working with the company's engineers on the city's upcoming strategic plan.

"All in all, we're grateful they've been willing to stand by us," "It's really been a positive for both of us."

This is the fourth annual contract the city has agreed to with URS, which has several Northeast Ohio offices. Council members said the new contract is practically the same as last year's, though the hourly rates of three classifications each rose up by $1.

provided the lone dissenting voice Monday night. He said the city's building department was more than capable of performing many of the functions Mayfield Heights pays URS for. He added that he didn't care for URS' ability to back out of the agreement without facing a penalty, while the city would be on the hook for a fee if it were to renege on the contract.

"I don't think it's fair," Monaco said.

Council didn't honor his request to place the resolution on multiple readings because it had already voted to suspend the rules and vote on it as an emergency measure. Monaco voted in favor of suspending the rules. Monaco's questions seemingly caught Costabile by surprise.

"It is an emergency reading because we want to make sure we have engineering services going forward, so I really don't want to put this on another reading," the mayor said. "Second, as I've mentioned to the councilman in the past, if he ever has a question, to have a nice dialogue and try to maybe answer the questions he may have.

"It's much more efficient to probably contact my office prior to a quarter to 8 p.m. in the middle of a council meeting, so that we can address what those issues may be."

Monaco said he had been out of town and only recently received information about the agreement.