Little Compton Town Counsil Acts on School Project

Here we find ourselves still reeling from what the Mass Media is calling the worst recession since the Great Depression. I’m not sure that I agree with that assessment, I remember the Jimmy Carter years; the Prime Rate was 12%, unemployment 10%, 13.5% inflation factor and gas went from 99 cents a gallon to $1.50… In any case here in RI we are still mired in some pretty horrible fiscal times.

One would think that our town leaders would continue their outstanding record of holding the line on spending even tighter than they have over the past several years. I can remember them quibbling over a few thousand dollars for senior citizens transportation. But no, the proposed school building program has them throwing numbers around that boggle the mind.

At last Thursday night’s meeting of the Town Council there was an item on the agenda where the members were going to decide whether or not to endorse the RIDE Stage II application for approval by the Rhode Island Board of Regents. Sadly, even though the application is unfinished the council agreed that the town should send out the yet to be completed document.

Members of the School Building Committee and the School Committee were throwing around numbers in the millions of dollars like confetti at Tony & Maria’s wedding. $14.5 million construction costs or maybe it was $18.1 or was it $34. 7 million for a 5% 30 year Bond Issue. It is amazing to hear how easily these numbers flow off the lips of our elected and appointed government officials. One might think that we have money to burn.

Remember all of the hell that was raised when it was learned that the Federal Government was paying $300.00 for a hammer or $500.00 for a toilet seat?
Wait until you hear the numbers for some of the items on the architects pricing out list of stuff for the school.

I have been looking at the list: A new exterior sign for the school $10,000.
Two mop sinks, $7,500 bucks: Hardwood floor for the stage in the Gym $12,000. Relocate the Public Playground, $77,674.00. Redo the baseball field, 80 Grand. Landscaping $695,709. New Visual display surfaces (black boards) $8,692… And get this, three (3) robe hooks in a restroom, $105 dollars, that’s 35 bucks a pop.

What the hell, its only money, your money, all of it! Even the 40% State reimbursement is your money. And what about the impact on your property taxes? How about somewhere between 14 & 16 percent!

A major chunk of money is going to be spent to address a safety issue involving the dropping off and picking up children whose parents have decided for whatever reason that they don’t want their kids riding the school busses. Remember those golden chariots that turned the town meeting upside down a few years ago. Get this, there is an average of 12 children daily that are delivered and picked up by parents. We are being asked to spend $8.7 million dollars to totally change the School Bus area so that the kiddies being dropped off by parents won’t get run over. That is 725 thousand dollars per kid. OMG! There has got to be an easier solution to this very costly problem.

How about the School Department establishing a policy that unless there are very serious and justifiable reasons to the contrary, all students must use the town provided transportation. Not only that, those parents who must drive their children will deliver them into the building, and pick them up in the gym after school. Nah, that’s too simple.

In conclusion (for now) this writer believes that the Town Council displayed an astonishing lack of courage in going along with this massive spending project. No, they did not give the Stage II application their final approval, but many believe (including building & school committee members) that by agreeing to send the incomplete package forward that the members are giving tacit approval to the project.

If the State ends up approving the school building project it will all end up in what the School Committee and supporters of this Mega Millions project are hoping and praying for; a no holds barred Special Financial Town Meeting to approve funding.

Sarge

SNAFU AT THE SCHOOL BUILDING COMMITTEE MEETING

The Little Compton School Building Committee met on Monday November 15th for a review of what can best be referred to as “loose ends.” Here’s the story behind the story.
The Building Committee somehow got the ok from RIDE to submit the Stage II Application with some strings attached. This all came about because the documentation was not complete. There were some issues, yet to be defined that were holding up the process and threatening to jeopardize the drop dead submission date of November 19th.

A sub committee was created last week to address the loose ends. At Monday’s meeting the sub-committee was supposed to update the rest of the Building Committee on their progress. They had nothing to report.

Then the meeting went on too a general discussion on the overall project. That is when the wheels started to come off the meeting. There are several members who do not think that adequate consideration was given to alternative plans. In other words, fix problems rather than build a virtual new school. Talk about a day late and a dollar short.

Earlier estimates for repairs by The Mount Vernon Group & RGB Architects were kicked around from pillar to post. It was even suggested that there be yet another analysis of a “fix it” solution, possibly by the present architectural firm of Durkee Brown (DB). That suggestion was shot down because it was evident that most thought that DB could not be impartial. One member attempted to make a motion that the Committee take steps to bring about another survey. The chairman would not allow a motion for parliamentarian reasons.

Members of the public spoke up criticizing the fact that the School Department had no back-up plan or a “Plan B” should the present recommendations not pass muster with the voters. It looks like the committee is going to place all of their bets on RIDE approving the present plan and let the chips fall where they may when it comes tome for the voters to have their say.

Sarge

CORRUPTED SCHOOL BUILDING PROCESS

Let me begin with defining "corrupt" in the context of the Little Compton School Department proposed building project.

Corrupt: "Containing errors or alterations."

It is not that the people involved in the building program are corrupt, certainnly not. They are a well meaning, hard working group of elected & appointed officials charged with the responsibility of assessing problems and making recommendations for resolving them.

I like to use anologies to attempt to bring things into focus. If you were planning a cruise in the family saiboat, you would chart a course and follow the heading and the "Rules of the Road." Otherwise you might get lost or even worse run into hidden rocks and sink the boat.

If you were asked to participate in or even lead a project to investigate the possibility of your town building a new school, It would be wise to learn all of the establised rules and regulations that have been established by the State. Failing to do so could be equally as bad as sinking your boat.

The State of Rhode Island has an establishment called the Department of Education or in short, RIDE. You will see RIDE a lot in this essay.

If you are seeking State funds, RIDE has very clearly defined rules and regulations that must be followed if you are planning a school building or major remodelling project. You will see that the folks charged with the investigation and planning for the possible building/remodling of the Wilbur & McMahon School did not do dilligence and embarked on this project without knowing the "Rules of the Road," which led to what has been thus far a difficult corrupted and error plagued journey.

Back in 2005 the new Little Compton Fire Chief visited the school to conduct the annual fire Inspection. The result was a staggering report with a list of violations that would choke a horse.

The cost to correct the lengthy list of Fire & Safety Code violations had a price tag of $100 thousand dollars.

The Report sent a shock wave through the leadership of the school, The School Committee, and the Town Council. The report became the catalyist for the now almost five year old process to either replace the school or totally refurbish the entire facility. Ironically, the origional catalystic fire inspection report problems have long since been resolved at a cost of about $50 thousand dollars.

The shocked School Committee decided to form an ad hoc committee to investigate the code issues, and to conduct a complete review of the entire facility to look for Building Code issues, and the overall conditions of the school physical plant. The School Committee retained an Architect/Engineering firm the Mount Vernon Group (MVG) to do an in depth analysis.

MVG returned a report with 418 deficiencies ranging from plumbing, to heating, air conditioning (HVAC) roofing, windows, walls, fire protection, security egreess and handicaped access. The estimated cost to make all repairs, upgrading HVAC and installing a fire sprinkler system was 11.7 million dollars. The vast leap from 100 thousand dollars worth of fire safety code violations delivered another devasting shock to the system and it was quickly decided by the School Committee that they should explore building a new school.

A School Facilities Needs Committee was appointed by the School Committee. The Needs committee promptly issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to retain an architect. This was their first mistake. Rhode Island has a mandated procurement process for hiring architect/engineering firms to work on municiple construction projects. (Title 44-55-8.1) The process is called "Qualifications Based Selection" (QBS). For all other procurements of $5,000 or more municipalities are required to create an RFP to solicit bids for services or products. The low bidding qualified bidder is usually awarded a contract.

QBS calls for a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) letter to be sent to a large group of architectural/engineering firms (20-30) who are invited to reply documenting their experience in the field of interest (in this case; school construction). From the list of respondants the committee selects the top five or six firms and invites them to participate in a selection process. QBS relieves the municipality from selecting a firm based primarliy on price.

The Facility Needs Committee did indeed select the low bidder responding to the RFP. In January 2008 JCJ Corporation was hired for a fee of $18.5 thousand dollars to lead the committee through the RIDE process to build a new school. Unfortunately JCJ was not up to speed on the RIDE process and they plodded on for about one year, considering five (5) conceptual plans for a new school. In the meantime the Facilities Needs Committee asked JCJ to take a look at the origional MVG estimate for repairs. This action was in response to growing public concern that the Town could not afford a new school. JCJ came back with a report that added $7 million dollars to the MVG report cementing the concept that it would be foolish to throw that much money into the old school when you could build new one for about $22 million.

Feeling that JCJ had inflated the estimate the Little Compton Taxpayers Association made a presentation to the Town Council totally debunking the JCJ inflation of the MVG report, recommending that the Council urge the Facilities Committee to commission a "independent" update of the MVG estimate. The Town Council thought that was a good idea. In fact the chairman of the Facilities Needs Committee Mr Don Gomez was present for the council meeting and agreed.

The Facilility Needs Committee issued an RFP (here we go again) and RGB Architects was hired as the low bidder ($5,000). RGB concluded that the necessary repairs as documented in the origional MVG report, could be completed for $10.4 million dollars. For all intents and purposes the RGB report was ignored and the Needs Committee pressed ahead.

They finally opted for Plan 5 and presented their recommendations to the School Committee. The School Committee accepted the Plan and instructed the Facilities Needs Committee to prepare a "Roll-Out" series of public presentations and to go forward with plans for a Special Financial Town Meeting to approve funding for a $33 millon dollar project.

Shorthly thereafter the Superintend of Schools, following a convesation with Mr. Joesph da Silva of RIDE, sent the School Committee & the Facilities Needs Committee a memo informing them that they were not incompliance with the RIDE process, and that their efforts to get funding and build a new school were "premature." The memo included details for submitting Stage I documents to RIDE. The first step was a "letter of intent." The memo also admonished JCJ, reminding them that it was their contracted responsibility to guide the committee through the RIDE process. JCJ tried to blame Mr. da Silva for "changing the rules in the middle of the game." This was not factual. The RIDE application process had been revised fully six months before JCJ was hired. JCJ was soon informed that their services were no longer required.

The Stage I applicaton requires the appointment of a School Building Committee. RIDE requires the appointment of eight (8) persons consisting of key people in the School Department, a representative of the town government, a public safety official and a person from either the building or architectural community. Next miscue; The School Committee appointed 20 people to the Building Committee, including four sitting members of the School Committee. Draw your own conclusions.

About a month into the process it was discovered that the Building Committee had not been appointed (as required by RIDE) in accordance with an enabling Town Charter or By-Law or a so called "Charge." Another violation! I'm not making this stuff up.

Still unaware of the State of Rhode Island QBS procurement process, the Building Committee sent out an RFP to hire another achitect. (anybody keeping score) There were 22 firms that responded. They went through a series of dog & pony shows with the committee narrowing the field to six leading contenders. That number was cut to three finalists and those firms entered into "negotiating sessions" The top three bidders ranged from a low of over $300 thousand dollars to a low of $75 thousand dollars. This practice flys in the face of QBS.

Finally it was announced that Durkee Brown (DB) Architects (the high bidder) had been selected. The negotiating committee had talked them down to a figure of $106 thousand dollars. Remember RGB Architects? They were the low bidder at 75 K. Public inquiries revealed that DB has virtually no experience in school building projects. The Committee Chairman said that they were selected because of their expetise in "Historic Restoration." RGB on the other hand sports a resume of 2.5 million square feet of school construction projects. Go figure!

Jumping back a bit, in December of 2009 Joe da Silva of RIDE met with the Building Committee.

It was a highly informative meeting. The Committee was taken aback when Mr. da Silva informed the Committee that they had one (1) year from the date of the Stage I submission to complete Stage II and have it on his desk by November 19th 2010, otherwise the process would have to start all over again next year. That gave the Committee 11 months to respond.

Back to 2010. On Memorial Day (can you believe it) the School Committee Scheduled a "Special" meeting to vote on the appropriation of the $106 thousand dollars to pay DB. They wanted them to start on the first of June. The School Committee made a major mistake and failed to advertize their meeting in the newspaper. The Little Compton Taxpayers Association (LCTA) filed a complaint with the RI Attorney General who later ruled that the School Committee was in fact in violation of the RI Open Meetings Act. There is no excuse for "ignorance of the law."

That sort of brings us up to date. As of today (11-16-10) it appears that RIDE is cutting the Building Committee Some slack on the sumbission of a complleted Stage II document. RIDE is going to accept the work that is finished and give them a couple of months to tie up a few loose ends. There was a rather tumulteous meeting of the Building Committee last night. I will chronical that for you in my next post.

Sarge

New School Express

It's been far to long since I updated you on the proposed new school project here in Little Compton. Last Tuesday night, November 10, 2010 the School Committee on a four to one vote, Joe Quinn the only dissenter, approved the recommendations of the School Building Committee and sent the package along to the Town Council for their approval, the last step in the Stage II submission process.

Remember the addition you have been planning, or that garage that you always wanted to build? forget it! The School District needs that money to pay for remodeling the school. According to the latest scheme (their choice of words) the homeowners in Little Compton will have to ante up $34,690,543.00. Let me spell it out: Thirty four million six hundred thousand five hundred and forty three dollars. That is about $15,000.00 for every home in town.

Now the planners will tell you not to worry, the State of Rhode Island is going to reemburse us for 40% of the cost, maybe even an additonal 2% for really green stuff that they plan to do. Even if that happens the taxpayers are still stuck with a 20.1 million dollar bill over the next 20 years.

I don't know about you, but that does not give me a warm and cozy feeling. Even if the State, which is on the brink of bankrupcy, sends some money back to the town, where do they think that money is coming from? It there a money tree that we don't know about growing under the statue of the "Independent Man?"

I'll bet it really makes folks in Tiverton, who are already broke, feel great about having some of their money going to the "rich people" in Little Compton.

I thought for a while that there was a glimmer of hope that our Town Council in their wisdom, would take a hard look at this massive expensive project and say wait a minute we can't afford this 34 million bill, there are only 310 chidren in the school, that's almost $122,000 per kid.
Unfortunately it does not look like that is going to happen.

The School District had until the 19th of November to get the whole Stage II application signed, sealed and delivered. When it became clear that they were not going to make the date, they cut a deal With the Department of Education (RIDE) that is allowing for the submission of an incomplete application. The deal is that the town is going to have about two months to get their act together. In the meantime RIDE will be reviewing the unfinished product that was sent to the Town Council who will broom it to the State.

It looks to me like Joe da Silva from RIDE is bending over backwards to make this project happen. I can understand that, Joe needs work to justify his existance. Times are really tight right now and there are not a lot of towns that can really afford these big school projects right now.

Should worse come to worse and the State gives it's blessing to this massive project you and I are going to have the final word. The school building program advocates are calling for a Special Financial Town Meeting next year to approve funding for a Bond Issue to pay for the project.
It doesn't matter that the RIDE regulations call for a referrendum, the school house gang want's a Special Financial Town Meeting. Surprise, surprise.

I can see it now, the Wilbur & McMahon Gym packed to the rafters with Mom's Dad's, Grandmothers and Grandfathers, Aunts & Uncles, friends and neighbors of "the Kids" all eager to have us plunk down 34 million bucks for a virtual new school. The Gym has a capacity of 700, there are more than 2500 registered voters, somebody is going to be left outside. It will be chaotic!

The only fair and open proceadure is a referrendum where the folks can show up between 8:00 AM and 9:00 PM to cast their votes just like a regular election. The stage is already set for this upcoming battle. I will keep you posted.

In my next article I am going to expose the courrupt process that has taken place over the past four plus years during this whole school building debacle.

In the meanwhile please contact your Town Council members to express your opinions and concearns about this whole sorted affair.

Sarge