Commissioners need to hold themselves accountable to taxpayers for the bottom line where contracts are concerned.
No need to make the County Engineer a scapegoat.
Definition of Public Private partnership : Public Risk / Private Profit
2015 Bond Money
A Courier report last December told how County Judge Doyal proposed a new contract review policy after he learned Commissioner James Noack’s recent $1.9 million contract with RPS Klotz Associates was not reviewed by the County Engineer’s Office. The contract is funded with proceeds form the 2015 Bond election.
We also read Noack “added all firms the county contracts with should complete an ethics affidavit.”
Now we can be grateful that we have a highly qualified and competent County Engineer like Mark Mooney to depend on for engineering review. But is this just another move by commissioners to shield themselves from blame and blow-back for lack of vigilant supervision that only they, the elected officials should give to financial and other matters in the county?
To start with Noack, who is calling for others to sign double dog dare ethics oaths yet has failed to disclose that the two single largest donors to his campaign are engineering firms. Furthermore, one of those firms, RPS Klotz Associates is the same outfit that was awarded the project mentioned in the above story. However, when you surf over to mctx.org disclosure page neither Klotz (CFR) nor the other big donor PTP Transportation (CFR) is mentioned. Even more troubling is that there is no disclosure of the financial relationship on the Elected Officials disclosure page either. No doubt commissioners will say they are doing everything required by law. Is that satisfactory?
Better yet, lets look back at the last time the commissioners were entrusted with road bond money. How did they do when it came to supervising contracts then?
2005 Bond Money
Back in 2005 the commissioners awarded a contract to PTP Transportation ( formerly know as Pate Engineers ) for $100,000,000.00 of the $160,000,000.00 2005 bond proceeds, the amount was later increased to $120,000,000.00 to include the 242 flyovers and the entire management of work done was outsourced in a Turnkey Public Private Partnership to PTP Transportation and Jeannie Taraborelli.
To all intents and purposes PTP was the county, they even gave them county office space for $1.00 per year.
The agreement approved by commissioners called for PTP / Taraborelli to pass through all construction costs to the county and mark up the HOURLY personnel costs by a factor of 2.3.
The original contract laid out various positions each with a specified base hourly rate like Environmental Manager $65.00/ hr and Construction Manager $84.00 / hr. Then the hourly rate would be multiplied by 2.3 for the amount to be billed the county. $65.00 becomes $149.50 and $84 becomes $193.20, all agreed up front, contractually and in writing. Among the positions specified were of course a Program Manager @ $70.00/hr and the Principal Manager @ a modest $80.00/hr.
In hind sight per hour rates the county agreed to seem fairly tame compared to a similar contract PTP wrote with the City of Forney a year earlier where they called for a Principal @ $150.00 /hr and a Survey Manager @ $90.00 / hr all with a multiplier of 3.3.
Here is what happened at Forney Texas
I guess the commissioners thought they deserved a break because of the magnitude of the project.
They say you should never look a gift horse in the mouth, but actually that is the very reason you elect Commissioners Court. You know, vigilance and due diligence and what not.
Come 2006 something amazing happened, its what is called a revision. A 26% increase revision to be exact followed the next year by what amounts to a 53% increase over the original rates agreed. $70.00 became $104.00 and then leveled out at $139.00 or fully extended $239.20 / hr and $319.70 /hr
Then also in 2007 a new strategy surfaced. Rather than commissioners suffer the embarrassment of approving more outlandish increases for the same job title, new job titles were introduced. Partner was obviously worth $139.00 / hr but Managing Partner? How did they keep the project going without one? Well if they needed him or her the title alone was worth the quoted base rate $312.00 / hr. with the multiplier that amounts to a stout $717.60 per hour!
If you are wondering why this could not have been done out of the County Engineers’ office using contract employees for less then you are thinking the way this writer does.
In the end PTP earned $26,125,849.00 in fees from a $120,000.000.00 contract right here in Montgomery County.
Don’t forget four of the five on Commissioners Court in 2005 are still in government. Craig Doyal is County Judge, Mike Meador remains in office, Ed Chance and Alan Sadler both serve on the Montgomery Central Appraisal District.
Who is going to out-do the PTP record with the current $280 Million road bond?
Technical Contract review by a subordinate is no substitute for end to end scrutiny and analysis by responsible elected officials.
