Monday, May 17, 2010

White on Dodd kitchen budget overrun

At last Tuesday's Council meeting, I voiced concerns about the budget overrun on the Dodd kitchen renovation project. I distinctly remember this project beginning as a simple move of the refrigerator from the basement up to the kitchen. But now we've got a bunch of other stuff:



IMO, taxpayers should blame these overruns on the Council, including me. But as a member of the Council, I think Management should be held accountable for this.

From my perspective, these changes in the scope and cost of the project should have been flagged by the TMs staff to the PBC. And this should have been brought to the TMs attention by his staff. And the TM should have brought this to the attention of the Council a while ago.

That didn't happen.

And it never seems to happen.

In fairness to the TM, he wants to redefine the role of Town / School staff with the PBC. But what's happening with that? I haven't heard anything recently. As far as I know, that's just another one of the old kick-the-can-down-the-road routines being performed by the TM... say something to just keep people off your back... hoping everyone will forget. That routine gets tiring... but I guess that's the point.

This project reminds of the classic Cheshire excuse "It's not my / our responsibility... blame the Charter!" But I don't accept that excuse.

Regardless, the taxpayers should keep this budget overrun in mind. And if the Council fails to hold Management accountable, then you oughta hold us - the Council - accountable.

Tim White

19 comments:

Tony Perugini said...

Tim,

What do you believe the "other stuff" to be that was not in the original project scope? Your involvement with this goes back much further than mine. Was there an original, detailed project scope document for the Dodd Kitchen? Can you post it/share it here? The only documentation I've come across is what's been presented since last Fall and what we've been discussing in the planning committee.

I met and spoke with Vincent Masciana, Greg Florio, Todd Dixon, Peter Massey and several maintenance staff involved with the project to discuss what the overruns entailed and I didn't hear or see scope creep. What I came away with was that someone missed the contingencies for possible asbestos/lead removal and that the budget was underestimated. I heard nobody stand up and take responsibility for it though.

So far, I've found nothing that suggests any extras were added to Phase 1 (out of 3 phases) of the project. The scope of the project has been consistent with the the presentation made to the TC last Fall.

I took a tour of the kitchen and looked at what the renovation entails. I suggest you do the same (if you haven't already) to understand exactly what is being touched vs. what's not. I'll walk through it with you if you want.

The manager's office is a 8'x8' closet/pantry/office with no ventilation. It's also the employee locker room. LOL.

The bathroom...speaks for itself.

There's a lawsuit(s) waiting to happen in that kitchen and as I understand it we already have a couple of worker's comp cases as a result of the how the refrigerators (there's more than one downstairs) are accessed up/down the stairs. Additionally, we've been lucky in that we haven't been fined by State health dept. regarding the issues they found in the walk-ins. We've been warned repeatedly already.

I don't believe this project gained extras along the way but I was not involved with it back when Jimmy was on the BOE. It would be helpful to see the original proposal vs. the current but I've been told repeatedly that scope we have in front of us is it.

However, it wasn't budgeted/estimated/managed properly and took too long to get to bid. How is it that nobody bought up asbestos/lead concerns early on in the project? It's not like this is the first time we're touching an old building with potential asbestos issues. There was no contingency built into the original budget for it.

When I walked through the Dodd basement, we took photos of what's going to be touched during the renovation. Tim: Would it be possible to put these photos up here? I wouldn't mind writing it up.

Let me know if you want to walk through the kitchen.

Thanks,
- Tony Perugini

Anonymous said...

Except for Highland and Doolittle, ALL of the Cheshire schools are LOADED with asbestos--the floors, the ceilings & the walls. Shouldn't THAT be factored in EVERY renovation???!!!

Anonymous said...

The schools are in rough shape. Highland school's indoor freezer broke down a couple of years ago. The kitchen staff have to go outside down a flight of stairs, across a side walk, then up a flight of stairs to get to the outdoor freezer to get their food.
Talk about an accident waiting to happen.

Anonymous said...

While not wanting to be negative about a bunch of volunteers who make up our Public Building Commission, I must say that the current system just does not work well.

Does the PBC report to the Council, as they gave them the project? Or do they report to the Department Head? Or to both?

It is clearly still true today that "success" has many fathers and "failure" is an orphan. This project is yet another example.

Low bidder is not necessarily lowest QUALIFIED bidder. Who writes the bid specifications and are they qualified in the subject matter? I understand that there can always be surprises, but that's what contingency is for. How about a revamped protocol for how Cheshire public building projects are handled?

Anonymous said...

WHO CARES?

Tony Perugini said...

"WHO CARES?"

Well, it seems we've had two cost overruns related to education in the last 12 months. One is the ~$167K bus contract overage and another $50K to cover the Dodd Kitchen shortfall. That's $217K in shortfalls that two BOE's had to ask the TC to help fund from reserves.

IF these are related to poor planning/management/execution of the bidding/planning process then something needs to be done about it.

I certainly don't want continue to dip into the reserve for the wrong reasons. Whether the fault lies within the PBC/TC/TM/BOE/etc. or not we can't use the reserves for poor budgeting/planning. If it was under-budgeted then what did we learn from it so we don't repeat?

Emergencies are going to happen but neither of these two cases were emergencies. Based on the 5 year capital plan we'll be discussing at Thurs' BOE meeting...there's potentially $18M in capital projects related to education that entails mostly maintenance/repairs to school buildings/facilities. About $2.7M is related to mitigating CRA (Civil Rights Audit) issues found at CHS last year.

So we may want to perform a root cause analysis on the Dodd project so that the same mistakes, if any, aren't repeated again.

$50K here...$167K there...adds up very quickly.

Tony Perugini
BOE

Anonymous said...

I can understand lead being found, but asbestos, that should not be there. Back in 1990, the school was closed for a week during the school year (right after February vacation) for emergency asbestos removal and it was completed over the following summer.

Should look into why we are still finding it and follow up with the contractor

Anonymous said...

You cant blame the bus contract on the TM, that overrun was the result of a TC vote because, despite the evidence they had that this was the best deal they would get, they still wanted to go out to bid (same thing happened with the garbage contract).
And Tim, either you can get your majority caucus to back you in removing the TM or you can not. If, as it appears, you can not then STOP wasting time and energy pinning the blame on him for everything that occurs. Instead, use that energy to come up with some constructive solutions that you CAN get your collegues to support!

tim white said...

Tony and everyone else... feel free to send me thoughtful, well-considered pieces for a front page post anytime. I don't care if I agree... as long as it's not outrageous.

Tony... google up my blog. You'll find stuff going back to Aug 2008 in which I discuss the refrigerator move. And Jimmy seems to agree with me, if you watch the Council meeting. And he was on the BOE before the Council. So I'm confident that my memory is fairly accurate.

tim white said...

If, as it appears, you can not then STOP wasting time and energy pinning the blame on him for everything that occurs.

In this post I recommended that the voters blame the Council, including me, for the Dodd budget overrun. I then offered my thoughts as a Council member that staff had failed on this. I don't understand why you seem to be so upset.

use that energy to come up with some constructive solutions that you CAN get your collegues to support!

I already got a commitment tonight for something I've been advocating for years... yup years. And that's how this stuff goes sometimes. I'm ok with that.

1) Elimination of DB plans for future non-union hires.

2) Action on the pool.

3) Reduction in the number of take-home vehicles.

4) Consideration of performance contracting.

I'm ok working on things over time. And just because there's a GOP majority doesn't mean a lot to me. We had a GOP majority in Washington and Rand Paul won his KY GOP primary tonight. Why? Seems that there are a lot of voters similar to me. Party affiliations don't mean too much. The bigger problem I see in local government is when elected officials get too friendly with staff. That certainly was the case with the former Council.

Anonymous said...

"In this post I recommended that the voters blame the Council, including me, for the Dodd budget overrun. I then offered my thoughts as a Council member that staff had failed on this. I don't understand why you seem to be so upset."

Wow, you have been a politician too long. Passing the buck. What a wonderful job you are doing. I think it is time the voters fix what they can since they cannot touch the town manager.


What can you list as an accomplishment during the current council? Everything you listed was in the previous council(s). It appears that you have done nothing. Is it because you are getting too comfortable sitting behind the desk?

I agree with others. If nobody else feels that the manager should be replaced, they get off it. All the grandstanding you do/did against him has been for nothing. Unless the other council members have made the slightest hint at agreeing, you are barking up the wrong tree. In you personal career (which you will have more time for unless you get something accomplished) would you go out of your way to help your boss who wants you fired? Try working WITH Milone instead of AGAINST him. You might be surprised. In the meantime, lay off trying to fire him. You 1 vote will not cut it.

You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar

Anonymous said...

All the whining about the Dodd kitchen makes one wonder just what was accomplished with the last make over of Dodd. Has it been even 10 years since it saw its last major overhaul? With all the problems Tony seems concerned about is Tony the first to see them? How come they were not seen and acted upon 10 or 12 years ago when millions were last spent on a major overhaul of the facility?

Anonymous said...

That overhaul 10 - 12 years ago was for the addition which added more classrooms. It had no effect on the kitchen area.

Tony, maybe you can clarify this. I know the lunch program is self supporting (not part of the 60million Boe budget). I originally thought that the kitchen project was being paid for through the 5 year capital plan but I thought I also heard that the Lunch Program is getting stuck paying a chunk of this project. Is that correct? Seems to me if it involves the building the way it was constructed, then the Boe should be picking up the tab or it's all done through the 5 year capital plan. The lunch program can bearly replace broken equipment in the kitchens. You can't expect them to pay to relocate freezers.

Tony Perugini said...

"Tony, maybe you can clarify this. I know the lunch program is self supporting (not part of the 60million Boe budget). I originally thought that the kitchen project was being paid for through the 5 year capital plan but I thought I also heard that the Lunch Program is getting stuck paying a chunk of this project. Is that correct? Seems to me if it involves the building the way it was constructed, then the Boe should be picking up the tab or it's all done through the 5 year capital plan. The lunch program can bearly replace broken equipment in the kitchens. You can't expect them to pay to relocate freezers."

It's being paid for through the capital budget which is a seperate from the BOE operating budget. The lunch program is not paying for it. The next 5 year capital plan that will be discussed tomorrow night will include Phase II and III of the kitchen project. I believe Phase II will be planned for in 2011 and Phase III in 2012. The new 5 year plan is subject to both BOE and TC approvals.

Tony Perugini

Tony Perugini said...

"Tony... google up my blog. You'll find stuff going back to Aug 2008 in which I discuss the refrigerator move. And Jimmy seems to agree with me, if you watch the Council meeting. And he was on the BOE before the Council. So I'm confident that my memory is fairly accurate."

What I'm looking for is the original documented proposal for the kitchen renovation. In the business world...some people call it a requirements document, project proposal/scope document. Someone must've created this document in order to get cost estimates from vendors/contractors prior to requesting capital funding.

I think that if we can find this document and compare it to the current scope we may be able to verify whether or not the scope may have changed. Otherwise it's a game of he-said/she-said.

I find it difficult to believe that no town official can produce the original document. And that's the problem that has been raised by this project. It appears to be another symptom of lax procedure/project management. In the business world, I would perform a root-cause analysis to make certain the ball doesn't get dropped again.

Anonymous said...

Might the Nutrition Director have a copy of it? I believe she's the one originating the request.

tim white said...

The Town Clerk will have the Council's original motion and related Council meeting minutes, but I don't happen to have it.

Anonymous said...

Is this really important?

Anonymous said...

Apparently when trying to come up with yet one more reason to fire the TM... it is important.
Otherwise... I am not sure that this is a major concern for Chehsire citizens when there is so much to be concerned with.