3/21/11
Good afternoon.
Once again, we see absolute evidence that MID cannot accomplish a task.
First, MID management sold us a bill of goods on Mountain House. This has turned into a miserable failure, and has cost you and me millions of dollars. Worse, Mountain House will plague the MID rate system forever. Management failed horribly on Mountain House.
Second, MID let a 10 year – let me repeat, A TEN YEAR – warrantee lapse on an $11 Million dollar roof leak that they identified SEVEN years into the warrantee. Instead of exercising our rights against the builder, MID management waited until you and I had to pay for the roof repair.Today’s BEE reports the latest failure of MID management. TWO YEARS after the Phase 2 build out of the Surface Water Treatment Plant, MID admits that they are going to have to tear the plant down, and rebuild it. Let me summarize what happened:
1. MID decided to expand the SWTP, to begin in 2007. They promised the Taxpayers Association, personally, that the cost of this expansion would not exceed $30 Million dollars. This guarantee came from the General Manager and a Director.
2. MID then sold bonds to finance the expansion in the amount of $92 MILLION DOLLARS.
3. The expansion was to have been completed in October, 2009.
4. Now, in March of 2011, SEVENTEEN MONTHS later, we are told they have to demolish the building, and rebuild it.
5. MID admits that their $200,000 dollar-a-year engineers and managers are unable to manage this expansion, so they have spent $8,320,000 dollars on outside engineers and managers to do their job.
6. Today, they admit that these outside managers failed to notice at least “...125 defects, including problems with structures, pipes, basins, storage tanks and the overall quality of the concrete work.”
7. Finally, they tell us that they are going to spend untold millions in litigation, and eventually rebuild a junk plant that cost you and me $92,000,000. What is going to keep them from spending ANOTHER $92,000,000 on demolition??
8. Finally, and most damning, is the BEE’s comment, “Modesto has no immediate need for additional water from the (expanded) treatment plant, because the poor economy has brought city growth to a standstill.” I have to ask, since it sounds like every single thing that was built in this expansion was defective, what on earth happened??
Where were the MID engineers and managers? Why did we spend $8.3 MILLION dollars on outside construction management? And why would we now spend another $92 MILLION on a plant we do not need?
What on earth went wrong?I am compelled to ask Mr. Short for an explanation. Moreover, Mr. Short should tell us what he is going to do about the incompetence so clearly illustrated by the issues I raised, above.
What is his plan for the failed Mountain House situation and the gross overestimation of its growth, the reason the leaky roof was not properly solved, and how the heck did he allow the totally botched expansion to go to completion prior to any of at least 125 “deficits” being “discovered”?????
You might want to ask Mr. Short the same questions.
Thank you,
Dave Thomas, President, STA
