Lawrence city commissioners are set to decide on Tuesday whether they want an audit of approximately $12 million worth of no-bid infrastructure work that was done at Rock Chalk Park.

If commissioners decide they do want an audit, it appears likely it will be a quick one. Commissioners want a final report delivered no later than Feb. 3.

“Getting responses back and getting the work done by then will be an aggressive time frame,” said City Auditor Michael Eglinski, who won’t be conducting the audit but rather is advising the commission on which auditing firm to select. “But I think it can still produce a meaningful product.”

Mayor Mike Amyx said he’ll be urging commissioners to move forward with a thorough audit of the project, which involved a private firm led by Lawrence businessman Thomas Fritzel building roads, parking lots, sewer lines and other pieces of infrastructure under a no-bid contract that was part of a larger public-private partnership to build the sports complex.

“I would have much rather seen the whole thing bid from day one, but we can’t go back and redo that at this point,” Amyx said. “I think it is essential that we go through this audit process now.”

Exactly what will be involved in the audit is still a bit unclear. Eglinski has put together a potential scope of services that calls for the report to examine whether the work “was delivered according to requirements” and whether “expenditures were appropriate based on the development agreement” the city had with Fritzel’s firm, Bliss Sports II, and the Kansas University Endowment entity that was the third partner in the project.

But how far auditors will be asked to dig into the books of Bliss Sports II isn’t specified in the proposed scope of work. The Kansas University Endowment entity has a construction contract with Bliss Sports II that gives the association the ability to receive copies of Bliss’ “accounting entries, books, correspondence, instructions, drawings, receipts, subcontracts” and a variety of other documents held by Bliss Sports II.

The KU Endowment Association entity had access to those documents because it was responsible for vetting portions of the construction costs before they were submitted to the city for reimbursement. But the association did not seek many of those documents. Instead, the association has said it conducted a review that involved the various subcontractors working on the project signing legal affidavits attesting to how much they had been paid by Bliss Sports II.

Amyx said he doesn’t believe that meets the definition of an audit.

“I thought an audit was to have been done from the very beginning, but I guess my understanding of an audit was different than others,” Amyx said.

Whatever audit is conducted by the city will cover only the infrastructure portion of the Rock Chalk Park project. The city’s 181,000 square-foot recreation center at Rock Chalk Park was competitively bid and will not be part of the audit. The track and field, softball and soccer stadiums that were built at the complex for use by KU also won’t be audited because the city is not paying for any of the construction costs of those facilities.

At Tuesday’s meeting, commissioners are expected to receive a recommendation on an auditing firm that could conduct the work. Staff members then would be instructed to negotiate a contract with the firm. An estimate on how much the audit may cost isn’t yet available. Commissioners then would be asked to approve the contract, likely at their Jan. 13 meeting.

The proposed audit comes at a time when the city already has paid for the bulk of the approximately $12 million in infrastructure work. The only portion of the infrastructure bill that hasn’t yet been paid is $1.06 million that involves several “soft costs” such as legal fees, engineering fees, and loan and interest costs incurred by Bliss Sports II.

Commissioners have been split on whether those remaining costs should be paid prior to the audit being completed. At Tuesday’s meeting, commissioners will consider a proposal that would pay about $500,000 in loan origination and interest costs, and leave the remainder unpaid until the audit is completed.

Commissioners meet at 5:45 p.m. at City Hall.