When the city of Wilmington opted to extend JM Thompson’s contract on the convention center to build a portion of the Riverwalk, it was a change order. A change order of about $2.1 million.

Never mind that the Riverwalk is only on convention center property, not actually part of the convention center building.

Convention center project manager Steve Bridges said the change order had to be done to have the Riverwalk finished before the convention center opened.

“The goal all along was to have those projects finished simultaneously and the only way to do that was to make changes to the JM Thompson contract,” Bridges said.

The change order passed the city council 7-0 on May 18.

Councilmember Laura Padgett has been critical of the change order, but voted for it anyway because of the opening of the convention center.

“I was hesitant to do it as an amendment. I don’t have a problem with JM Thompson getting the contract, but an amendment is a minor change that no one anticipated or the owner, the city, changes their mind,” she said. “I think JM Thompson has done a great job, but there’s an obligation of the government to provide government access to as many businesses as possible.”

The change order to the Riverwalk is only a minor part of the $28.3 million convention center bid. But there are very few rules defined by the city when a project must go out to bid and when it can remain a change order on large projects.

“There was some real surprise to council that was even permissible,” said Charlie Rivenbark, a city council member.

The city follows the state guideline that a formal bid must be issued for construction and repair procedures $500,000 and above, according to a presentation recently given to the city council by purchasing manager Daryle Parker. But according to the presentation, state law says bidding does not have to be done for work done “during the progress of” another project that was formally bid, allowing the Riverwalk work to be done.

The city of Wilmington follows the general rule that if cost of a change order is more than 50 percent of the original work, then a bid will be issued.

The University of North Carolina Wilmington uses a 10 percent rule as a guideline, according to Mark Morgan, the UNCW director of architectural and construction services.

“We strive to keep change order below 10 percent,” Morgan said and as long as it’s in “reasonable scope” of the original project.

Otherwise, Morgan said, they have to go back and receive state approval and justification.

New Hanover County follows a rule of 45 percent according to Max Maxwell, senior project manager for the county. Maxwell said sometimes change orders come in too high when it’s not bidded out.

“If a change order comes into play, myself as the senior project manager, and usually the design team will look at it, then we’ll validate if that price is accurate or not,” Maxwell said. “Typically, it comes in pretty inflated.”

Maxwell said that he personally would not have done the Riverwalk as part of the convention center, calling it “too much of a gray area.”

But there are “no specific hard and fast rules” for change orders from the state level, said UNCW’s Morgan.

UNCW must follow rules set forth by the State Construction Office, but counties and cities just have to follow the general statutes.

The SCO says that there are no rules for change orders as long as they are part of the original project, but it is not part of statute.

“Additions (change orders) may be added to the project no matter the size as long as the additions are related to the original project. This is not in statute anywhere. This is a long held standing of the State Budget office and State Construction for State Government projects,” said Greg Driver, director of the SCO. “Contractors are often questioned and change order pricing is reviewed by multiple people to ensure that the cost is reasonable.  If the cost seems unreasonable the ‘changes’ are typically bid out.”

Under state guidelines and rules, the low bidder must be chosen for any project as long as the bidder is a “responsible bidder” according to Driver. Considerations may be given for quality of work, performance and timing.

“We typically do [consider] and we don’t go with the lowest bid. We have to show pretty significant reasons why we didn’t go with that contract,” Maxwell said.

In the case of the city, next time more planning will be required.

“It should’ve been a separate contract. It should’ve been bid out and been done earlier,” he said. “We knew all along the Riverwalk was going to be extended in front of the convention center.”