Enough is enough. Charlotte cannot abide any more of Ron Tober’s bumbling. Worse, CATS is now engaged in a massive re-write of how the cost of the South Blvd. light rail line went careening off-track. Tober is directly responsible for both the cost overruns and the nascent cover-up.
It simply will not do to blame Parsons Transportation Group for a faulty design. No doubt Parsons made mistakes, but CATS and Tober were responsible for catching and correcting them. Instead, CATS handed Parsons sacks of cash. The relationship was tight and cozy so long as Parsons’ rosy financial projections of the project helped CATS win millions in federal transit dollars.
Now, with federal standards for transit funding much tighter and local money at risk, CATS is turning on its former partner in shady dealings. The development resembles nothing so much as one crook ratting out another in hopes of cutting a deal. Better still, with Tober’s strong insinuation that CATS will have to do more project work itself with more CATS headcount, this looks like a Tony Soprano, cut-the-other-guy out move.
No one in Charlotte should fall for it.
Back in 2003 the Federal Transit Administration was still deciding if it was going to fully fund the South Blvd. project. It gave the CATS’ plans, and by extension Parsons’ work, the once over. The FTA saw then that the project had very little room for error.
“FTA further notes that the project schedule is very aggressive and that capital costs are likely to change if the schedule slips,” a federal analysis observed. Yet CATS and Tober had no problem with that. The entire light rail team was all buddy-buddy at the December 2003 “transit summit” at the Westin, where FTA Administrator Jenna Dorn was told repeatedly just how wonderful the design really was.
Even after the FTA telegraphed further serious concerns about the project in early 2004 by opting to only commit $30 million for what was then a $385 million project, CATS and Tober stuck to their guns. Trains would be running by August 2006, we were told. By August of 2004 CATS gladly accepted an $11 million grant from the FTA to prepare “final construction plans” for the light rail line.
Yet just months after the FTA committed to “fully fund” the line — actually just 47 percent — with a $55 million check in February 2005, CATS began to start tweaking the design to save money. The vital parking deck in Pineville lost spaces and the Trade Street station was revamped. Delays crept in, at first a few months, then an entire year to August 2007. Tober and CATS did not raise alarm bells.
At the same time, as we noted below, a city audit of Parsons in April 2005 was turning up financial irregularities. Tober and CATS opted to gloss over them and eventually come to accept most of Parsons’ charges.
The delays and cash flow problems continued into 2006 even as the feds threw another $70 million at the project for a total of $193 million. In April we learned the ribbon-cutting would be “fall 2007,” which now evidently means November.
At the same time consultants hired by the FTA again warned that the $427 million budget was at risk. Construction could bleed into 2008, past the hard, drop-dead federal deadline of December 31, 2007. Meanwhile, CATS’ contingency fund was already down to $6.5 million from a $24 million reserve.
Here is what Ron Tober said then about the project:
In comparison with many construction projects that put 10 percent or 15 percent in contingency, CATS’s 5.5 percent set-aside may seem small. But it makes sense, CATS officials said, because many of the contracts had already been awarded by the time the contingency was set. Earlier in the project, the contingency percentage was higher, but it shrank to cover rising costs.
Even if CATS runs through the remaining $6.5 million left in the contingency fund, Tober has a few ideas about where he could find up to $8 million in extra money within the project: an insurance reserve, excess land that can be sold and a park-and-ride lot that a private developer may build.
If that’s not enough, CATS would have to find more money in its overall budget, which is funded with the half-cent sales tax.
Tober said he’s confident that — barring a hurricane or similar catastrophe — the project will meet the $427 million budget.
“The (firm) is not here on site, does not know what’s going on,” Tober said. “They’re consultants. They have a job to do that they try to cover themselves on. … We don’t always agree with their assessments.”
No, no that’s fairly obvious.
Even when the fairly stunning news came to light this summer that the pedestrian bridge that linked South End to Uptown could not be rebuilt as the light rail plans had planned, Tober maintained that all was well. It is now clear that the bridge issue goes directly to the problems Parsons’ now stands of accused of causing: Contractor scheduling conflicts that make finishing parts of the project impossible.
Now we hear that it’ll cost an additional $22 million — at least — to finish the enitre project and that CATS and the city are going to court to try to get some of that back. Good luck. More to the point, cut out the BS. You are not fooling anyone who does not want to be fooled.
Long-time Charlotte residents recall exactly the same charade back when the Convention Center went way over budget in the mid 90s. Contractors would be held responsible, by gum. Guess who was never held responsible? The Uptown crowd and city officials for backing a horrible waste of taxpayer money.
Well, not this time. Ron Tober has done enough damage to Charlotte. He must go and CATS must accept full responsibility for the fiasco that is the South Blvd. line. The city must turn away from light rail, consider it a $500 million mistake, and chalk it up as a lesson learned.
