Spirited Debate over Sprinkler Change Order Punctuates Ocala City Council Meeting

OCALA, FL (352today.com) – A change order that differed from the text of an agenda item, was the cause of spirited and lively debate at the Ocala City Council meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. City Council eventually approved the change order 5-0, but only after thorough discussion.

The agenda item was in relation to the third elevator change order and additional expenditure, to the tune of $216,000, under the contract with SSC Construction Management, LLC for design-build services for the forthcoming Downtown Parking Garage No. 2.

This agenda item concerned additional funds to cover a change order for the addition of a third elevator as per the developer’s agreement with (design and architecture firm) domash, said Sean Lanier, City of Ocala engineer. Staff recommended approval.

Ocala City Council President Kristin Dreyer noticed that it was an odd agenda item, and there was almost an $800,000 change in the item. She asked Sean Lanier, the city’s engineer, to touch on the fire suppression system for Garage No. 2

“For transparency, I included the fire suppression, fire sprinkler change order, just to show what the remaining contingency was used on,” said Lanier. “We’re asking for an additional $216,000, you know why. Initially, the garage when it was put out for the RFP or Request for Proposal, under the existing code, it only required a dry stand-pipe system. A dry stand-pipe system is activated by the fire engine connected to it to supply water on the first story, and then the firefighters would go to whatever floor that there’s a fire on, connect to the ADC on that floor and then manually fight the fire with a hose. You can imagine the response time.”

Staying current 

Even though the pre-approved fire suppression system could’ve been grandfathered in, the city wanted to stay current with the code and was planning on approving the change order, which was approximately for $700,000.

Ocala City Manager Pete Lee had talked to each city council member, informing them the decision received a great deal of consideration, including input from the city’s fire chief and the engineer, and it seemed to be a prudent decision since there have been two fires recently, one in Anaheim, Calif. and one in Jacksonville, Fla. It came to Lee’s attention that the code was going to change in 2026, and he thought the city’s $18 million investment in the parking garage should have the best protections in place.

Limited options

Council President Dreyer was surprised to see it in the agenda item. Councilman Barry Mansfield asked if the construction manager received multiple bids from the sprinkler companies to install the sprinkler system. It had been advertised by the city as a design build; Mansfield said it’s the city’s responsibility to solicit and vet bids.

Councilman Mansfield’s asked the question about the change order once again, questioning staff if the city had received multiple bids for the project regarding different sprinkler systems on the change order.

Since the parking garage is still just a design concept, the sprinkler designer/installer is the person responsible for the design change. It’s being submitted for review and approval by the city fire marshal, said Lee.

An educated consumer is our best customer

Mansfield said it’s not the council’s job to make sure they’re getting the best price for the city no matter what, no matter how it was designed. But the issue of the sprinkler installation is time-sensitive in order to proceed with plans for the garage.

Mansfield wanted to know what was in the change order, and what was the cost.

As the city engineer, Lanier is responsible for estimating a reasonable price for such an installation.

“We can look at it to see if it’s going to be a reasonable cost,” said Lee, who had not approved the change order. “We’d have to ask him for a breakdown.”

Dreyer asked if the city could get some bids on the agenda item and solve the problem quickly. Daphne Robinson, City of Ocala director of contract procurement said the offering can be benchmarked to find out if it’s reasonable.

“I think that’s what we should explore. I think what you’re asking is completely reasonable,” said Dreyer. “You can spend up to X amount of dollars, but we don’t want you to. If we can save money, let’s save money.  You know what, I didn’t like this agenda item to begin with. We have two separate items–they should have been two separate things. I don’t know what we’re approving and what we’re not approving at this point, is it the change order for the elevator or is it the change order including the fire suppression.”

Clarifying the confusion 

Staff said that the agenda item was for an approval to add $216,000 of expenditure to the overall approved budget for the parking garage to cover the third elevator and also approve the change order for the addition of the third elevator. It wasn’t in the original contingency that was approved in the budget. The fire suppression system is going to cost somewhere around $700,000 even if the cost is reduced, which would come out of contingency.

“This isn’t just a change order, the cost went up,” said Dreyer. “This is a completely different thing that you’ve chosen to do for $800,000. This isn’t the same. This isn’t a change order like the project got more expensive, or we made a small change, this is a significant change in the project.”

Money management and protecting assets

The city council doesn’t typically review the elements of the construction project, the city engineer does that, said Lee.

“We’ve talked to each one of you that it was going to be a $700,000 or $800,000 change order,” said Lee. “The sprinkler system from the stand-pipe system was included, when we spend that amount of money, short ourselves on the third elevator shaft and we need one more change order to do it. We have to get more contingency money to do that. If there’s the implication that we’re not being forward or transparent in what we’re doing in the parking garage, I don’t think that’s the case.”

However, making certain there’s enough money in the event of an emergency, being fiscally responsible and getting the best price seemed to be variables in the equation regarding the project.

“It’s not the implication at all,” said Dreyer. “The question was what are we approving, here’s the money for the elevator, we all agree on that and we approved that, when Jimmy and the team came before us, to Councilman Mansfield’s point, just to carte blanche say, I guess I was not under the impression that we could make major design changes, and it eats that all up, and it takes away from unexpected things. I think it’s reasonable for his ask to be, can we have additional people come forward with bids and see if we can get it cheaper. Maybe we can, move forward.”

Council President Dreyer wanted to remind everyone that when everyone sitting behind the dais ran for their seats, the council members promised that they would be fiscally responsible and conservative.

“What I feel like I’m hearing is the minute you approve contingency money, all of your control is gone, and I don’t think that that’s appropriate,” said Dreyer. “We don’t want to get to the point where we say come to us for every single change order you need, but if we’re getting close to million-dollar changes, maybe we should do that.”

City Manager Lee reminded council that had talked to each member explaining how much the sprinkler was going to cost, informing then how much contingency money the city had.

“It’s a twofold thing, and I was measuring what was more important, the $18 million parking garage at the end of the day is more important than the $800,000 in contingency for this item,” said Lee. “‘I’m sure it’s going to be less. We’ll benchmark it and bring it back.”