Public stewardship.Not a rate sheet.
Controls Engineering operates as a public-controls cooperative — vendor-neutral, open-book, and structured to serve public owners the way a utility serves its customers: at transparent, fully loaded cost with no contractor markup.
Public owners are paying contractor rates for public infrastructure.
Controls contractors in Arizona and across the country bill $180–$320/hr and mark up materials 40–100%. On tax-funded projects — school districts, cities, counties, state agencies — those margins come directly out of operating budgets, bond funds, and utility incentive programs. Public owners rarely have the technical staff to audit scope, verify pricing, or enforce open-protocol standards. The result: proprietary systems, locked-in software, undocumented sequences, and deferred maintenance that compounds every year.
Open books. Fully loaded cost. No markup.
CE operates as the public owner's honest technical partner — not a vendor, not a contractor with a rate sheet. Every cost category is visible, attributable, and passed through at actual cost.
CE still recovers its true cost — including a reasonable operating reserve — so it can retain qualified technicians, carry insurance, respond to failures, and remain sustainable. But every dollar is visible and attributable.
Full-path delivery. No layer marks up another layer.
CE can own the complete project path — from facility assessment through commissioning and owner turnover — using transparent field subcontracts for low-voltage and electrical installation work.
Assess & Plan
Audit the facility, define the controls modernization standard, and develop a vendor-neutral BAS master plan with documented sequences and open-protocol requirements.
Procure Transparently
Buy hardware and software with every invoice visible. Competitively procure low-voltage and electrical field labor. All discounts and rebates credited to the owner.
Manage & Build
Manage conduit, cable, panels, sensors, actuators, devices, graphics, programming, startup, and commissioning. No layer adds markup to another layer's work.
Commission & Turn Over
Functional performance testing, operator training, and a complete owner-turnover package — open credentials, documented sequences, full point lists, and no proprietary lock-in.
Two entities. One mission.
The CE model separates public-benefit work from licensed contractor execution — keeping the nonprofit credible, fundable, and legally clean while the licensed entity handles installation and private-sector work.
Arizona Public Facilities Controls Initiative
Facility assessments, energy and IAQ improvement plans, open-protocol BAS standards, owner-side QA and commissioning, grant support, workforce training, and subsidized support for underserved public facilities.
Automated Controls / AC25
Installation, programming, service, retrofit execution, warranty, and private-sector work — competitively procured where public work is involved, with strict conflict-of-interest controls.
Prove it with a pilot.
The most credible first step is not to announce a new model — it is to prove it. CE is seeking two or three public-facility partners for a pilot program.
Audit 10–20 buildings
Baseline energy, IAQ, maintenance cost, and controls system condition across a school district, city, or county portfolio.
Build a modernization roadmap
Vendor-neutral controls modernization plan with open-protocol standards, documented sequences, and a transparent cost estimate.
Deliver with open books
Execute the first project with a published cost ledger — every labor category, material invoice, and subcontractor rate visible to the owner.
Publish the results
Energy savings, maintenance reduction, IAQ improvement, and cost-per-point compared to market rates. Reinvest any surplus into the next public facility.
"We are not here to sell a proprietary controls system, inflate labor, or bury fees in change orders. We exist to help public owners modernize their buildings with transparent cost, open systems, and local accountable support."
CE Academy — Public Controls Cooperative
Pilot Partnership
Become a pilot partner.
If you represent a school district, city, county, or public agency interested in the CE model, we want to hear from you.