Tag: Augusta Politics

Breaking: Special Meeting Called Tomorrow to Discuss Parking Deck Agreement

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Originally posted on CityStink
Monday, August 20, 2012
Augusta, GA
By Lori Davis

Al M. Gray, President of Cost Recovery Works, Inc. contributed multidisciplinary review techniques in support of this article. Cost Recovery Works is no longer in business, as of December 31, 2020.

Heads Up Augustans!! The Commissioners are up to their old dirty tricks, or at least a few of them are. CityStink.net has received word that a special called meeting requested by Legal Counsel will be held tomorrow, August 21, 2012 at 4:30 in Commission Chambers. The one and only item slated for the agenda is —-You guessed it—-The Reynolds St. Parking Deck Management Agreement. Mr. Paul Simon, partner in Augusta Riverfront, LLC, will be presenting to the Commissioners.

Our question is, how can they do this when this item has been on the floor of the Commission several times already and has even been through a committee workshop. Also, in the last Commission meeting, another public workshop was called for on the very same item making the public quite aware of the problems associated with it? Commissioner Joe Bowles even railed against the lease agreement drawn up for  the city as being one-sided;  leaning toward the best Interests of Augusta Riverfront, LLC, and not the tax payers. Why haven’t the citizen’s been properly notified of this called meeting? Why is the normal process for placing items on the Commission’s agenda being circumvented to benefit Paul Simon and Augusta Riverfront, LLC? Why did Mayor Copenhaver sign off on this?

A closed door legal session has been requested after Mr. Simon gives his presentation in Commission chambers. Commissioners will have to vote on whether to approve going into legal session. What will be discussed that should be off-limits to the public and the media? Is this an effort to ram this lop-sided management contract through behind closed doors and keep it away from public scrutiny?

Word has it that Commissioner Brigham is the one who got this little meeting put together. It seems that Mr. Simon was to present before the full Commission as a delegation at the regularly scheduled 5:00 Commission meeting concerning the parking deck agreement, however, for some reason, his item did not make it on the agenda in time. Hmmm…  Wonder how that happened?

The broader question is, why the rush? What is in this for Commissioner Brigham and the others who are agreeing to this called meeting? Those of us who follow the actions of government in this city know that all things are done for a reason. We also know that something stinks here. We are counting on our Commissioners who are tired of the way business is done in this city to take a stand. Tomorrow is the day. Who will break ranks and go the right way??? Anyone, anyone at all?  Or shall we say, “Business as usual?”***

LD

Corey Wants Tough Controls

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Understated Brilliance from Corey Johnson

Originally posted on CityStink
Tuesday August 7, 2012
Augusta, GA
By Al Gray

The author, Al M. Gray was President of Cost Recovery Works, Inc., a provider of Cost Avoidance and Cost Recovery for America’s leading companies, businesses and governments desiring Superior Returns. Cost Recovery Works is no longer in business, as of December 31, 2020.

During the rampant hysteria of the Augusta Commission’s July 17, 2012 meeting, a quiet, serious voice spoke. It should have been the loudest voice. It wasn’t. It was the clear voice of reason. It came from this commissioner: Corey Johnson.

Mr. Johnson spoke of a dire need for a contracts expert to come in and straighten out Augusta’s many contracts. He spoke of this needing to be a permanent position in government. His 1 minute contribution was uninterrupted, uncut wisdom.

Corey is showing astuteness and leadership during a meeting when those to either side were flailing like drowning men. Why is he right? These are known issues:

  1. A one-sided parking deck contract favoring the management company with a blank check and a $238,000 (based upon original plan) subsidy.

  2. A TEE Center contract that provides an unlimited conduit into the general funds of Augusta.

  3. A recorded Kitchen Equipment partnership agreement that remains in effect while Augusta has paid nearly $1.4 million for equipment that is the responsibility of another party, according to those agreements.

  4. An Ambulance contract that bears a $1.3 million subsidy, whereas the same company apparently has a $400,000 subsidy in the neighboring county.

  5. A Sewer Plant contract that reimburses every conceivable cost, yet provides for a 12% fee and a separate $250,000 director fee.

  6. The problematic Mobility Transit contract.

  7. Major cost-plus, guaranteed maximum price, contracts that have not had costs scrutinized to verify that the costs are actual costs.

  8. Myriad issues with medium and small contracts.

  9. Limited or nonexistent rights to audit contracts.

  10. Failure of Augusta Housing to obtain the actual costs before reimbursing Laney Walker contractors for housing unit construction.

Are the contractors writing their own meal tickets? The survey says “YES!”

Bravo, Commissioner Corey Johnson. You did the Augusta citizenry proud that night.

Let’s have more of it.***
A.G.

Special Report: Marble Palace in Full Panic Mode

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Mayor Deke: “We’re Not Crooked, Just Stupid.”

Originally posted on CityStink
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Augusta, GA
By Lori Tabb Davis

Al M. Gray, President of Cost Recovery Works, Inc. contributed multidisciplinary review techniques in support of this article. Cost Recovery Works is no longer in business, as of December 31, 2020.

We at Augusta Today and CityStink.net have waited for the hullabaloo over last Tuesday’s election to subside to respond to the cry of a panicked Augusta Commission and Mayor to -paraphrasing here – “Let the District Attorney investigate the TEE Center Parking Deck and bring in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation if there is fraud.”

What a total joke. That motion carried 7:1 but it was a plaintive cry for someone, anyone, to rescue the city from its many failures – be they criminal or just incompetence.

You could almost see the fear and desperation in the air. Matt Aitken wailed that Augusta “is becoming a laughingstock” while Joe Jackson moaned to the media about opening “Pandora’s box.”

Now we are getting somewhere! We agree with the angst and terror. Attempting to throw the hot potato of the TEE debacle into D.A . Ashley Wright’s lap was never going to work. Mayor Deke Copenhaver instructed that we should “present” our evidence to Ms. Wright. He obviously missed a very key point – The evidence is in his possession and custody. We have gotten where we are with slow, diligent investigation of limited facts based upon the laborious Georgia Open Records Act request process.

Deke, you have the records. Why not throw all of them open to Augusta Today and CityStink.net? We welcome your new found candor, but you just are not sincere, you are desperate to shake us off the trail.

You almost sound as if you are wailing “We are not criminal, we are just Stupid!” You won’t get any argument here.

Augusta Today and CityStink.net contributor Al Gray and I went to Ashley Wright’s office on Friday, July 27 to relieve her of the hot potato and toss it back to you and the commission. Your motion was plain stupid. Of course, we don’t have evidence of criminality – that takes LAW ENFORCEMENT with a capability and DESIRE to investigate. The D.A. doesn’t have the resources. In Augusta these days there is no desire to investigate either, only to engage in endless cover up of very serious issues and FACTS – YOUR FACTS – that we discovered. They include:

    • Failure of City Attorneys to advise the commission of Millions of Dollars of liens on property under the $12 million Reynolds Street Parking Deck until after the structure was built. How did this happen when you have engaged special legal counsel?
    • Failure to execute a partnership agreement governing division of responsibilities with partner Augusta Riverfront, LLC with respect to $50 million in buildings constructed on land owned by the LLC. How did this happen when Fred Russell promised in July of 2009 – three years ago – that these agreements were being “finalized?”
    • Failure to execute management agreements beforehand, with the result that the commission has a figurative gun to its head – execute a bad agreement or else – so that Commissioners Bowles, Guilfoyle, and Lockett are being forced into arduous hours of work to fix what $1500 an hour worth of “experts” have fouled up!
    • Submitting management agreements for the decks that are UNLIMITED BLANK CHECKS, putting the citizens of Augusta at risk of losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. We suspect the same is true of the TEE Center itself. Why are there 15 pages of direct incidences where the commercial terms, as Al Gray calls them, provide monetary benefits to Augusta Riverfront that are vastly more lucrative than the rejected Ampco contract? Why don’t YOU demand answers, as a growing number of savvy commissioners are doing?
    • Buying $1.4 million of kitchen equipment without getting commission approval for changing recorded agreements whereby Augusta Riverfront pays for kitchen equipment while Augusta pays for the building and the kitchen space within the TEE center. Why hasn’t the LLC been billed yet?
    • Where is the $1.4 million of kitchen equipment? Contractor billings show it as work complete, when the facts are that the kitchen was an empty space at the time of the billings back at the end of May! Just this week there was a report about the kitchen equipment being installed. Where are Augusta’s assets? Where was it installed as reported through May? Where is contractually-required documentation for stored equipment?
    • Where are the cost details whereby ANYONE can verify that contract limitations on the supplier/subcontractor overhead and profit of 15 % were not exceeded for the kitchen equipment? We extend this challenge to any public accounting firm wishing to help us and to YOU, since you have boasted of the city’s “fine accounting.”
    • Where is the authority to spend Augusta funds refurbishing Augusta Riverfront, LLC’s equipment? Whose equipment is it after the work is done?

You celebrated killing a forensic audit that might have answered some of these questions. You threw it over to a D.A. Who you knew could not and would not do anything.

Mr. Mayor, why are you engaged in this massive cover-up?

To the Commissioners inexplicably remaining in denial – How are you going to remain in this community when the truth comes out – IT WILL – showing you failed in your fiduciary duty to the public?

Is claiming utter stupidity – since criminality is off the table – your final defense?

Augusta is rapidly acquiring a reputation as the most CORRUPT city in Georgia. Your actions in refusing to consider the evidence at hand are adding fuel to the fire.***

I agree with Commissioner Aitken that our government is a laughingstock.

You and the Russell Administration are in full panic mode. Some commissioners are now wide awake and the rest have to be getting antsy.

We will not be dissuaded by your cover up.***

Stay tuned. More to come.

Lori Davis

Farmer Lee Anderson Grows Taxes

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The Lee Tax Shift

Originally posted on CityStink
Friday, August 3, 2012
Columbia County, GA
By Kurt Huttar

Al M. Gray, President of Cost Recovery Works, Inc. contributed multidisciplinary review techniques in support of this article. Cost Recovery Works is no longer in business, as of December 31, 2020.

Last Tuesday, July 31, 2012, saw the completion of the biggest tax shift in CSRA and Georgia history with the passage of the 1% sales tax for transportation called TSPLOST. Less than two months after Columbia County Representatives Lee Anderson and Ben Harbin voted for $tens of millions in new sales tax exemptions for Delta Airlines, Delta, Georgia’s  domineering airline, contributed $225,000 used to convince easily-swayed voters to vote themselves a 33% sales tax increase on food.

Perhaps Delta, once notorious for sending passengers on the last leg back to Augusta on buses, wants safer roads on which to transport shafted customers upon whom it foisted an $8 billion tax increase.

Anderson, now a candidate for the 12th Congressional District seat now held by Democrat John Barrow, voted to cut Delta’s sales taxes but voted for these sales tax increases on us in the middle class. Here we find Lee dining with George Bowen, the lobbyist who greased through the fuel tax exemption for Delta and Georgia Power.

Worse is the behavior of Georgia Power Company, who gave $395,000 to deluge us with pro-TSPLOST propaganda after the same legislation saved them $hundreds of millions. It is noted that said cost savings supposedly are given back to consumers via fuel adjustments to their rates, but how many citizens trust those calculations? This also came after Lee Anderson voted in 2009 for Georgia Power’s advance billing of $1 billion in profits, hidden as “construction costs.” We got double digit rate increases from that, too.

Yes, we voters are now going to have to pay Lee’s 14% TSPLOST sales tax increase on those double-digit, advance-profit charges on our power bills.

Here, the Georgia Gang, including former Augusta Chronicle opinion editor, Phil Kent, questioned the rush by Lee Anderson and others to pass the bill.

Lee could not be dissuaded by pleas of “Read the BILL, Lee!”

Anderson, a hay farmer, also voted for a $500 million a year hospital bed tax. How did he make a “No Tax Increase” pledge with Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform and vote for these tax increases? Can we believe his promises?

It was most frustrating for us in Columbia County to only be able to put up a few score “VOTE NO” signs, then go home to find pro-TSPLOST mailers in the mailbox.

I had to drive by scads of “Vote Yes” signs illegally placed in medians and rights of way, like this one:

I had to listen to broadcast appeals funded by these corporations who just got sales tax cuts.

Finally, I got a batch of signs from Augusta County Commissioner Joe Bowles, who courageously fought adoption of this terrible tax.

On August 21, we have chance to just say “No!” once again. This time it is a vote against legislators stupidly subordinating our Columbia County votes to those of ignorant and corrupt Augustans. This time it is a vote mindful that this dastardly TSPLOST tax begins to be collected January 1.

Just say no to Lee Anderson for Congress.

Lobbyists love him. The middle class groans under the burdens their orgies of money and excess we are left with.

Isn’t it time the people won one?***

KH

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Government Watchdogs Meet with D.A. Over ParkingGate

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Friday, July 27, 2012
Augusta, GA
From CityStink.net Reports


Government watchdogs and CityStink.net contributors Lori Davis and Al Gray will meet with District attorney Ashley Wright at 3:00pm today to discuss the evidence they have uncovered in the TEE Center Parking Deck debacle. Davis spoke at the July 17 Augusta Commission meeting and urged city leaders to halt a management contract with Augusta Riverfront, LLC for the $12 million publicly financed parking deck at 9th and Reynolds Streets. The contract was tabled because there were not a sufficient number of votes for it to proceed.

After Ms Davis’ presentation before commissioners, Mayor Deke Copenhaver sarcastically suggested that she needed to take this matter to the District Attorney and it was time for her to “put up or shut up.” Cost Recovery Specialist Al Gray, who has done much of the analysis on the transactions and deals concerning the parking deck for Augusta Today and CityStink.net, said the mayor’s statements were strange considering  all of the reports they have released concerning the parking deck have been backed up by the city’s own documents. At this same July 27th commission meeting a forensic audit looking into the parking deck deals was voted down and a substitute motion by Joe Jackson to forward the matter the the District Attorney and GBI passed.

Gray says that government watchdogs have had to go through an unwieldy, expensive and time consuming process to obtain public records to uncover the truth, and they have encountered stonewalling from some government officials in this process. Gray says, “I would hope that between the Mayor and DA, we gain access to all information to answer our issues or that the DA takes action to investigate with a promise to address them with supporting documents.”

Lori Davis says that she is confident that the evidence and truth is on their side and they already have hundreds of pages of documents to prove it. Al Gray says that a comparison matrix  he was asked to put together shows that the management contract under consideration with Augusta Riverfront, LLC amounted to a “blank check” and did not meet the city’s own RFP guidelines. In fact, he says that Augusta Riverfront, LLC never even submitted a bid, whereas other companies did, like Ampco Parking Systems, that met the city’s RFP guidelines. But city administrator Fred Russell ignored the RFP guidelines and ignored the bids from the companies who  had agreed to the city’s terms in favor of the “blank check” contract with Augusta Riverfront, LLC. This shows a wanton disregard for the interests of the taxpayers.

But some political observers believe that the DA is a dead end and point to the handling of the David Fry case as an example, citing that the District Attorney was too eager to accept an Alford Plea by Fry’s defense attorney to keep the matter from going to trial. They also question whether she can remain unbiased on the matter since she is running for re-election this year, and her boyfriend, Donnie Smith is running for the District 7 commission seat being vacated by Jerry Brigham. Donnie Smith was the first to suggest the matter be forwarded to the DA. He has also stated on the record that he doesn’t believe there is any “smoking gun” in the case to warrant further investigation.

Lori Davis says she is not quite sure what will come out of the meeting today, but says, “I hope that the DA will provide citizen support that we have not been getting from our Mayor and some of the commissioners. I also hope she can remain unbiased because I am sure that she will be getting a lot of pressure from outside sources.”

**We will have an update after their meeting with the District Attorney.***
CS

Related:

Special Report: No RW Allen GuaranTEE?

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Originally posted on CityStink
July 25, 2012
Augusta, GA
By Bradley E. Owens

Al M. Gray, President of Cost Recovery Works, Inc. contributed multidisciplinary review techniques in support of this article. Cost Recovery Works is no longer in business, as of December 31, 2020.

Augusta Today member Dean Klopotic submitted a Georgia Open Records Request seeking the RW Allen, LLC (RWA) billings for the TEE Center related contracts they are performing. The Law Department of the city of Augusta issued a response which included RWA invoice number 24 representing costs through March 31, 2012. Our investigating team has since obtained RWA invoice number 26 from other sources in city government and turned the documents over to cost recovery accounting specialist Al Gray for analysis and review.

RWA boasts of having an “Open Books Policy” but their TEE Center project manager Jim Cely declined to allow us to visit their offices to view supporting documents to the billings obtained through the Georgia Open Records Request. RWA CEO Rick W. Allen, currently a candidate for Georgia’s 12th Congressional District, had previously pledged to allow Mr. Gray access to the billing detail records. Despite being assured they would cooperate, we were not allowed to see the documents, and instead, Cely gave instructions to direct inquiries to Augusta Administrator Fred Russell… the same Fred Russell who has displayed a pattern of withholding VITAL information from Augusta Commissioners on the TEE Center and its companion parking deck across the street.

The TEE Center Contract with RW Allen, LLC is a Construction Manager at Risk guaranteed maximum price (GMP) contract. Under a fast track, a cost plus contract with a GMP, the Construction Manager sets its fee, general conditions (overhead) expenses, and other costs necessary to construct a total facility.  These contracts are or can be comprised of multiple subcontracts and work with the CM (RWA in this case), self-performing portions as if they had been subcontracted. In other words, they can hire themselves to do certain parts of the job as the Construction Manager.

Once the drawings and design work is 75% complete the GMP was officially set at a price of $29,700,000 and accepted by the Augusta Commission. There have been two change orders (“change orders” are contract modifications which usually are increases in the cost of the fixed price cap due to unforeseen “changes” that affect the construction itself) executed which bring the total price to $30,113,215.  So as you can see, the agreed upon price of the TEE Center construction was $29,700,000.00 but due to the two “change orders” the final projected price tag (there could be more change orders before it is completed, so I say “projected”) is now a cool $30,113,215.

Since the more detailed supporting documents for RWA’s invoices (which are pretty vague) are not likely to be in the possession of the Augusta government and therefore open records accessible and the honcho over at RWA, 12th District candidate R.W. Allen, has already broken his pledge to allow us access to the documents (a politician breaking a pledge to the tax payer? SAY IT ISN’T SO!); here are the questions we would pose to Mr. Russell and to Program Manager Heery International to find out the details of these invoices for us, the lowly tax payer footing the entire bill of $30mil and change.

Has There Been Double Billing of General Conditions Costs?

Let’s be clear here, these are complicated contracts, but the billing is not if you are willing to bear with me and see the questions we are asking.

Article 7.4.1 sets out the components of the contract price and these are repeated in Exhibit A in the contract. to be paid by Augusta, so a cost has to fall into one of those two categories and be authorized by the terms of the contract to be billed. To cover the contractor’s overhead costs, called “General Conditions” in construction language, RWA put in a General Conditions Guaranteed Maximum cost of $1,082,670 in the contract and in Exhibit G.

The capped GC cost is described this way on page 56: Items that are included within the General Conditions Costs for which the Construction Manager is entitled to no additional compensation include without limitation:.. viii. “That portion of insurance GL and Auto Builders Risk and P&P bond premiums that can be directly attributed to this Contract for Construction”… ix. Fees and assessments for the building permit and for other permits, licenses, and inspections for which the Construction Manager is required by the Contract for Construction to pay.

Looking at the latest payment application available, on line 2 of the Form G703 appearing on page 2, we find an amount listed for General Conditions costs of $1,082,475, which is only $195 less than the stated limit in the contract. Augusta is making progress payments, which total $697,917 (less 5% retained by Augusta) through this invoice, based upon component invoicing and RWA labor charges. In addition to the GC costs, we found $167,585 charged on page 2, line 19 of the G703 schedule for P&P Bonds.

Based upon the contract having capped GC costs to INCLUDE the P&P bonds, separate invoicing in this manner appears to be a duplicate charge, especially since the contract also says this: “The overhead and profit component for any change includes the cost of bonds and insurance”, which seems to preclude the additional billing of P&P bonds separately in this manner. The P&P bonds for the subcontractors are in their OWN costs.

Besides the P&P bond issue, there is the same issue with the $48,961 of permit costs on line 18 of the payment request.

These two issues relating to costs billed separately that appear to be already covered by capped General Conditions total $216,546. It is recommended that these costs be reallocated against the capped GC costs of $1,082,670, or line 2 on the G703 billing schedule of values.

Extension of General Conditions without Required Change Order?

 

Accompanying payment request number 24 was a document entitled, “Augusta TEE Center Contingency Log”, which includes a $16,393 item labeled, “extended builders risk cost due to delays.” There was an invoice supplied showing the builder’s risk policy was being extended to October, 2012. The contract says this, “All adjustments in compensation or extensions of time shall be by change order (page 38).”

No change order was found to extend the duration of the project, so shouldn’t this charge be covered by the capped General Conditions that includes builder’s risk insurance?

A much more important and broader issue is whether RWA intends to collect extended general conditions for the approximately 6 months greater time until completion of the project, to include the more costly GC costs, like supervision. The project duration in the contract was set at 24 months, yet the project is on the 26th monthly billing.

Does the charging of builder’s risk premiums for project delays mean that there will be a costly claim for extended General Conditions at the end of the project? Will extension costs be continued to be charged against the contract contingency, instead of being authorized by change order, as the contract apparently requires?

Lack of Pricing Details Limits Change Order Price Analysis?

 

Augusta Today and City Stink contributor Lori Davis submitted a Georgia Open Records Request on another matter concerning the TEE Center kitchen equipment that was added to the RWA contract as Change Order 1, to increase the Contract Price to a total of $29,276,987. Included in the information provided  was the pricing from the subcontractor, itemized by equipment price, but unsupported by cost versus overhead and profit analysis of the pricing.

The contract says this in Article 15: “If and to the extent the change involves work of one or more subcontractors, the overhead and profit component for subcontractors shall be fifteen percent, and the overhead and profit component for the Construction Manager shall be seven percent 7 of the amount allocable for subcontracted work.”

Unless there is additional analysis not presented with the City’s response to the GORA request, how can RWA tell whether the 15% limitation on overhead and profit has been met with respect to Change Order 1? Is sufficient cost information being obtained on other project changes to meet the contract limitations on combined overhead and profit?

Construction Equipment Rentals in Steel Costs?

Within the supporting backup for Payment Application 24 for the steel cost category was an invoice to RWA for construction equipment rental. The contract has this inclusion within the definition of General Conditions costs: “xviii. Rental charges for temporary facilities and for machinery equipment and tools not customarily owned by construction workers.”

Since the equipment rentals seem to be within General Conditions (Overhead), wouldn’t such costs be covered by the allowed 15% overhead and profit markup allowed on work self-performed by the Contractor?

Summary

  1. Aren’t $216,546 of bond and permit costs separately billed also within the capped General Conditions expense in this contract?

  2. Did the billing of $16,393 for extending insurance coverage to October 2012 presage a claim for an additional number of months of general conditions expense, including Contractor Supervisory labor, and unforeseen costs? Without a change order, should this item have been charged to contingency?

  3. Is there sufficient cost detail provided by subcontractors to assure that contract limitations on maximum, combined overhead and profit can be verified?

  4.  Are construction equipment rentals separately billable from overhead and profit markups?

  5. Will Augusta review the contract to assure that all contingency and allowances are recaptured by the city at project completion on this major contract? Others?

We expect that the Mayor and the City Commission will assure that these questions are answered.***

B.O.


**Augusta Today members Al Gray, Lori Davis, and Dean Klopotik also contributed to this report**

 

**Below is the GMP Construction Contract between RW Allen Construction on the city of Augusta for the TEE Center:

RWA GMP Contract

TSPLOST Report: Don & Ron’s $87 Million Tax Give-Away

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Just Dandy or Downright Irresponsible?

Originally posted on CityStink
Monday, July 23, 2012
Augusta, GA

By IndyInjun

Al M. Gray, President of Cost Recovery Works, Inc. contributed multidisciplinary review techniques in support of this article. Cost Recovery Works is no longer in business, as of December 31, 2020.

A loose coalition of anti-tax and community activists has arisen locally to oppose TSPLOST, which is the chosen acronym for a proposed new 1% sales tax dedicated to transportation. This measure is Referendum Item 1 on the July 31 Georgia primary election ballot. If passed, the sales tax rate in most counties in the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) increase from 7% to 8%, for a whopping 14.3% sales tax increase.

The funds collected from the new 1% TSPLOST in all of the 13 counties in the CSRA region would be dispensed in two pots. 75% of the money goes into designated, preapproved investment list projects, called the “Constrained Investment List.” Many, if not most, of these projects in the CSRA have long been on the Georgia Department of Transportation’s planned projects list to be built with motor fuel tax funds. For example, the extension of Riverwatch Parkway to Washington Road in Evans has been on the DOT planned list for a decade or more. Columbia and Richmond Counties are MPO’s (Metropolitan Planning Organizations) under the authorizing bill, the Transportation Investment Act of 2010, and will be empowered to use the new TSPLOST funds largely without DOT involvement.

The horse trading with the other 11 counties was thorny. As best can be told, the trade-off was to build the large investment list projects in Augusta and Columbia County early in the 10 years of the TSPLOST, while the Investment list projects for the rural counties are delayed largely to the last 3 years, carrying the risk that the funds will run out. The bill says that these projects are guaranteed to be built but provides no funds.

Dandy Don Loves Taxes

The other 11 counties are willing to be in this arrangement only by virtue of the 25% “Discretionary” Funds or Cash Pot. This 25% is set based upon a combination of road miles and population which vastly favors the rural counties.

How much money are Augusta and Columbia County giving up into the Cash Pot for the rural counties? An astounding $87.6 million! Augusta gives up $63 million and Columbia County gives up $23 million in cash! Proof of this is found in the spreadsheet that the CSRA Regional Commission provided, although it required extending some of the data and calculations to divulge the truth of the matter.

Don Grantham, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Transportation Board for the Augusta Region, and CSRA Regional Transportation Roundtable Chairman Ron Cross were extremely generous with the “cash pot” funds to be doled out from their counties!

Why aren’t these figures being publicized? ***

IJ

 

CSRA TSplost Revenue Gains and Losses by County

Fox 54 Swallows Deke Bait

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Friday, July 20, 2012
Augusta, GA

By Al Gray

 

The author, Al M. Gray, was President of Cost Recovery Works, Inc., a provider of Cost Avoidance and Cost Recovery for America’s leading companies, businesses and governments desiring Superior Returns. Cost Recovery Works is no longer in business, as of December 31, 2020.

(Editor’s Note: The article this post is written in response to was originally posted at http://www.wfxg.com/story/19049904/commission-votes-down-tee-center-forensic-audit, but is no longer available on the Internet.)

 

George Eskola should be proud. In the run-up to the Augusta Commission meeting this Tuesday, there was a last-minute interjection of an accounting analysis by a party in the midst of the TEE Center Parking Decks controversy. George knew about it early. His wise years of experience said take the new gambit with a grain or two of salt.

George wrote:

“But this comparison is coming from Paul Simon of Augusta Riverfront, LLC, the company that owns the Marriott, not the city’s attorney who worked on the deal. ”

Precisely.

+100 for George.

Then there was a report by Jake Wallace of Augusta Fox affiliate WFXG.

Wallace seemed impressed by Mayor Deke Copenhaver’s cheap trick of having the city’s external auditor from the firm of Maulden Jenkins put on the agenda to give a positive report on the annual city FINANCIAL AUDIT soon after Augusta Today activist and City Stink contributor Lori Davis’ presentation in favor of a forensic audit of the TEE Center Parking Decks agreements and against approval the proposed parking deck management agreement that would have been the subject of the forensic audit. Wallace wrote –

“Mayor Deke Copenhaver agrees, saying the finance team received high praise at tonight’s meeting by an auditor for the 2011 audit, is the same team who worked the finances of the TEE Center deal.”

“They applauded our finance folks for doing such a great job with fiscal management,” Copenhaver says. “That’s the same team that put this deal together. Why would they do something different on the parking deck and the TEE Center than they did with the city finances?”

Wallace totally blew it.

A city financial audit only attests that generally accepted accounting principles have been met with respect to the city’s transactions. It does not extend to the point of questioning HOW the transactions come about or whether a contract is totally stacked against the city’s interests. That is the role of a forensic audit. After a flawed deck deal is executed, a financial audit will find everything to be just wonderful versus the standard of the flawed contract. A forensic audit would derive the answers of whether there are material controls deficiencies in contract administration and would seek to identify fraud in the execution and application of the management agreement.

Deke trotted out a financial auditor and Fox obliged his clever subterfuge by equating the annual city auditor’s report about finances with one about a much more in-depth audit of only a couple of complex transactions.

For another thing, the city’s finance team has had practically nothing to do with the deck agreements, as Augusta is using outside legal counsel, bond counsel,and even has gone to the extent of excluding the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau chief, Barry White, a figure who was integral to the early TEE Center presentations to the city commission and the city executive most attuned to the contract needs to be negotiated.

Wallace did not know that, or at least, did not report it.

Fox 54 came up short and looked amateurish in rising to the bait.

We are sure that they will get better, given a few more years around Augusta politics. It truly is a world all to its own.

This writer remembers George when he was an amateur, too.***

A.G.

Broken links:

[[http://www.wfxg.com/story/19049904/commission-votes-down-tee-center-forensic-audit]]

Cutting Through the Spin Over ParkingGate

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Photo by Conor Luddy on Unsplash

Originally posted on CityStink
Friday July 20, 2012
Augusta, GA
By The Outsider

Al M. Gray, President of Cost Recovery Works, Inc. contributed multidisciplinary review techniques in support of this article. Cost Recovery Works is no longer in business, as of December 31, 2020.

Despite how some government officials and members of the local media have been trying to spin the events from this past Tuesday’s Augusta Commission meeting, the citizen watchdogs who have been leading the charge for more transparency and accountability in the ParkingGate debacle won two significant victories.

Lori Davis went before the commission to appeal to the conscience of city leaders to “park” a very lop-sided management contract for the $12 million publicly financed Reynolds Street Parking deck with Augusta Riverfront, LLC. As we detailed in a previous report, the lop-sided contract, that was drawn up by ARLLCs own attorneys (not those hired by the city) was riddled with loop holes and amounted to a blank check. To put it in simple terms, it was a bad deal for the taxpayers.

Earlier in the day on Tuesday we got word that there was some political maneuvering by Commissioner Jerry Brigham and Augusta Riverfront, LLC President Paul S. Simon, to try and ram through the contract at the last minute. This followed a finance committee workshop the previous Friday where a majority of commissioners said they were not prepared to vote in favor of the contract as it stood and wanted a thorough comparison of the deal with ARLLC and others that had been rejected by city administrator Fred Russell. City hired outside counsel Jim Plunkett was tasked by commissioners to provide that analysis. Many commissioners expected the parking deck management contract to be removed from the agenda for the July 17th commission meeting.

But surprisingly, early on Tuesday, a comparison magically appeared just in time for the commission meeting that supposedly said the ARLLC deal was $14,000 cheaper than one Ampco Parking Systems had submitted in an earlier bid. The only problem is, this comparison was drawn up by Paul S. Simon and Augusta Riverfront, LLC… the same folks who have been trying to get the lucrative parking deck management contract… hardly an unbiased source. Why didn’t Augusta’s hired outside counsel Jim Plunkett put together the comparison as he was tasked to do by commissioners at the Finance Committee work session the previous Friday? Paul Simon and Jerry Brigham probably thought they could catch commissioners off-guard like they did on February 7th, when a tentative management agreement was passed with similar last-minute political maneuvering. George Eskola, senior government reporter for WJBF news, pointed out the obvious conflict of interest in Augusta Riverfront, LLC providing their own comparison in his 5 pm report on July 27th. “But this comparison is coming from Paul Simon of Augusta Riverfront, LLC, the company that owns the Marriott, not the city’s attorney who worked on the deal ”

But this time things would not go in Paul Simon’s favor. The contract was tabled for the second time in a month after Commissioner Jerry Brigham announced that he did not have the votes lined up to pass it. So now it will go back to the drawing board… where hopefully the taxpayers can finally get a more favorable deal, one with caps on what ARLLC can bill the city  and minus all of the loopholes that gave Paul Simon practically a blank check courtesy of the city of Augusta. This is what we have been asking for months… to halt this hideously bad contract from being approved, and to get a better deal for the taxpayers. The results from Tuesday’s commission meeting now provide that opportunity.

But to listen to some in the local media, particularly a struggling weekly print tabloid, the results from Tuesday were somehow a rebuke of Lori Davis and a defeat for the citizen watchdogs at Augusta Today and CityStink.net. We have to wonder… what meeting did they attend? As we said, Paul S. Simon and Augusta Riverfront, LLC were unsuccessful in their last minute efforts to ram through a lop-sided management contract for the parking deck. Lori Davis, the citizen watchdogs, and the taxpayers of Augusta won that day.

Some in the media wanted to focus all of their attention on the vote to halt progress on the forensic audit looking into the questionable deals associated with the parking deck. Though certainly the circumstances and the evidence uncovered thus far warrant a full forensic audit, it has hardly been the primary goal for the citizen watchdogs like Lori Davis who have been investigating this matter since October of last year. The main goal has always been to make sure that the taxpayers get a better deal and a better return for their $12 million investment in the deck. This also means assuring that the city gets control of the land free and clear of all bank liens. The results from Tuesday’s meeting were a step in that direction.

The story that some in the media have been completely missing over the forensic audit is the hypocrisy of its most vocal opponents on the commission who have been complaining it is just a waste of taxpayer money, all the while these same people are more than eager to sign over a blank check to Paul Simon and Augusta Riverfront, LLC in a series of bad deals that would pay for many forensic audits.

However, something rather stunning happened at Tuesday’s meeting that also seemed to go unnoticed by some in the Augusta media, particularly the folks at that struggling weekly print tabloid. In lieu of proceeding with the forensic audit, commissioner Joe Jackson made a substitute motion to forward this whole debacle over to the District Attorney and the GBI. That motion passed with an overwhelming majority. Wow. Whatever Jackson’s motivation, he is on to something here. We have been having to go through a cumbersome and expensive process of initiating numerous government open records requests to uncover the evidence in ParkingGate. Jackson’s move could now give government watchdogs and investigators unfettered access to the volumes of government documents that exist on these deals. Again, this is yet another win for the citizen watchdogs and taxpayers.

Commissioner Jackson also suggested that perhaps we should “open Pandora’s box” and look into the deals associated with the Laney-Walker redevelopment project. We could not agree more, and we have also been at the forefront of that investigation, initiating numerous open records requests that have revealed more waste of tax-payer dollars and possible fraud in that massive project.

These are all quite major revelations in this story, and a bit of a vindication for government watchdogs like Davis, but the narrative the folks over at that struggling weekly print tabloid have been attempting to pursue is one of ridiculing Davis over the childish behavior and disrespect shown by some government officials. In particular, the writer at the tabloid mentions an incident at the Finance Committee work session last Friday, where Paul S. Simon tried to belittle Lori Davis and us here at CityStink.net for our investigative reports into the parking deck debacle. Simon called us the “bad press.” Well, we will gladly wear that title as a badge of honor, coming from Simon.

We of course wouldn’t expect him to rave about our reporting, as we have pretty much thrown a wrench into his grand plans to get a lop-sided management contract for not just the parking deck but also the even more lucrative TEE Center. Mr Simon probably never expected anyone to question these deals, better yet dig deep into them with open records requests. They have become accustomed to a largely complacent local media, like the folks at the struggling weekly print tabloid, who find these matters just “too complex” to pursue. This has allowed Simon and the folks at Augusta Riverfront, LLC near free reign in Augusta to get pretty much whatever they want courtesy of the taxpayers. This lead to them becoming complacent and feeling emboldened, and always looking for more. They never saw us coming.

The folks over at that struggling weekly print tabloid thought it was funny that some Augusta commissioners snickered when Paul S. Simon admonished Lori Davis and us here at CityStink.net for an article we did a couple of weeks ago that showed how the management contract under consideration with Simon’s company was riddled with loopholes that had Augusta on the hook for maintenance and equipment costs for the entire 640 space parking deck, when Simon’s company would still own and control the entire ground floor. We rightly pointed out this did not appear to be a fair deal for the city. But Simon took to the podium last Friday to complain,
“You see all this stuff on these blogs that’s just wrong… they had me on a little street sweeper.” This prompted giggles from some commissioners in a scene that the weekly tabloid described as a “bunch of fraternity brothers” and according to the tabloid, this surely must have been embarrassing for that pesky Davis woman.

Notwithstanding the not-so-subtle undertones of sexism in all of this, the point that was also completely missed by the weekly tabloid is that amid all of these snickers from the good-ole-boys club, no statesman emerged to call Mr. Simon out, instead they fell over themselves to kiss his ring. Here was a man coming before them acting as though his company was doing Augusta a huge favor by allowing the city to use the Marriott brand on the $12 million parking deck the taxpayers had paid to build on his land. Simon’s company not only got a wonderful $12 million new parking deck courtesy of the taxpayers, but also a $38 million gift in a brand new convention center attached to his hotel, giving his company exclusive use of the facility. And we pay him hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for this honor. And now he was coming before the commissioners pretty much demanding that they sign off on a hideously lop-sided management contract that added more insult to injury. Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth!

And Lori Davis should be made to feel humiliated in all of this? If anyone should feel humiliated, it’s the city leaders who have allowed themselves to be taken for such a ride. You build a $12 million parking deck on land you don’t even own, and even worse it has over $7 million worth of bank liens on it. You build a $38 million convention center without an executed CORE agreement and also on a parcel of land still owned by Paul Simon’s company. Maybe the snickers should have been directed at themselves. Surely, Paul Simon was probably saying “you suckers” under his breath.

But at the end of the week a majority of commissioners saw the bad deal for what it was and put a halt to it. Good for them. Commissioners Wayne Guilfoyle, Bill Lockett and Mayor pro-tem Joe Bowles have shown particularly outstanding leadership on this matter and should be applauded by the taxpayers. Sure, the buildings cannot be unbuilt now, but commissioners can now see to it that the taxpayers get the best return on their investment, and that has always been our primary goal from the beginning. People like Lori Davis should feel proud and the taxpayers of Augusta should thank her for her courage and perseverance in this ordeal.

And despite the ridicule from the folks at that struggling weekly print tabloid, there have been others in the local Augusta media who have provided commendable coverage of this story. Particular accolades go out to George Eskola of WJBF, Chris Thomas of WRDW, Renee DeMedicis and Doug at WNRR 1380 AM, Ben Hasan’s Urban Pro Weekly, The Metro Courier, Austin Rhodes and Scott Hudson at WGAC.

A free press is an integral part of any democracy, holding our government accountable to the people. The role of a free press is to cut past the spin and propaganda to get at the truth. This is a duty that some in the Augusta media obviously still believe in. Some though, like the folks at that struggling weekly print tabloid, seem to think it is more important to ridicule those of us who still believe in that principle. As they belittle the government watchdogs who have been breaking the big news stories over the past 8 months, perhaps it is out of frustration, as they see the writing on the wall and their role in Augusta’s media world slipping rapidly into irrelevancy. Oh and by the way, we can handle the ridicule. If we are making this many people angry in Augusta’s establishment, then we must be doing something right.***

OS

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Simon Says He is Cheaper; Watchdogs Say “CAP It!”

  By
Friday, July 20, 2012
Augusta, GA
By Bradley Owens
Elections have had October surprises but lately anytime the Augusta Richmond County meets with a parking deck agreement on the agenda, watch for the wild, woolly, and unexpected.

The February meeting saw a last minute compromise whereby proposed parking deck manager Augusta Riverfront LLC (ARLLC) was conditionally awarded a management agreement with the condition that the land they own under the Reynolds Street Parking Deck (all but a small parcel) being transferred free of the almost $7,000,000.00 in liens that bedeck the title to the land bank

The Augusta-Richmond County commission meeting on Tuesday, July 17, 2012, saw a morning pre-meeting surprise, when ARLLC’s Paul Simon offered a cost comparison between numbers he suddenly provided and those submitted by Ampco Parking, who had been recommended for award of the management contract for the parking deck based upon its competitive low bid. (It is noted that Administrator Fred Russell directed the award to ARLLC, who was not part of the bid process, after notifying Ampco that its bid was rejected.)

There is no surprise that Simon says his numbers were $14,000 lower, I mean what did you expect him to say, “We are bilking you?”

The surprise was that he took the risk of putting numbers to a combination of two dissimilar deck agreements, one cost-reimbursable and the other a net lease deal, with the gamble that the commission would take his last-minute, arguably improperly-disseminated (through Fred Russell) gambit at face value and approve the management agreement.  All of this happened despite ARLLC’s failure to get the liens released hence clearing the title for the land bank and doing as they promised.

The public needs to take his bet and counter with one of its own.

Open Challenge to Paul Simon

Dear Paul,

Since you are pleased to present such a reasonable budget, let’s cap it at the numbers shown. We agree that you really don’t need the following to make this a profitable deal, so let’s drop these items from your earlier proposal;

·        $250,000 referenced in the capital budget section,

·        The liability insurance cost reimbursement that would have been covered by the Ampco fee

·        Overarching power to expend Augusta’s money as you see fit

·        The ability to define “costs” in whatever manner you deem expedient

·        Latitude to assign high-priced employees to the deck deal

·        Two fees totaling $50,000 (Ampco’s was less than $18,000)

·        The ability to exceed the budget with impunity (Ampco was prohibited from doing that, weren’t they?)

Those of us in the community have read repeatedly in ARLLC partner Billy Morris’ newspaper for the need to have sound financial policies in government operations.  That being the stated position of the “Big Boss” we are quite sure you will see the need for a procedures manual by which Augusta’s auditors can judge compliance with some contract mandated standards, won’t you? Such a manual was going to be required of Ampco so certainly you are prepared to give us one, right?

Yes, Paul, we are pleased that you have put forth these solid numbers and are sure that you would be willing to share those for the Conference Center Deck, so we can see about how the second $25,000 fee is accounted for. We are also interested to know about how the costs relating to the 150 ground level spaces in the Reynolds Street Deck that you own, subject to liens, are treated. Our “back-of-the envelope” calculations brought that cost, based upon your numbers, to about $47,000 or so a year.

Mr. Simon, if you are willing to cap the costs at the numbers shown, eliminate all of the provisions in the management deal that make it a blank check to your LLC and dispense with those pesky liens, I think we can make a deal.

Because then, and only then, you just might be on the same footing as Ampco.***

B.O.

**View Paul Simon’s “comparison” below**

ARLLC – Budget Comparison