Why do capital projects take so long to complete in Durham? That was the question a Colorado consultant has been paid $700,000 to answer by the City of Durham. And nearly $4 million more might be coming the firm’s way.
If you’re wondering why it takes a consultant to answer such a basic question, and why so many local governments spend taxpayer funds on so many consultants, consider a recent column by Chad Adams, director of JLF’s Center for Local Innovation. In discussing the broader issue of consultants (not the specific case in Durham), he calls consultants “modern day gunslingers.” Below is part of Adams’ commentary. You’ll find the entire column here.
Counties and cities are particularly prone to the mysticism of consultants. For whatever reasons they seem to believe that an outside consultant has the objectivity and expertise to provide a solution to a perceived problem. And it’s probably a sound strategy for the manager if you think about it. With the consultant, the manager or superintendent escape the local charge of having a political agenda. So too do local elected officials. When the consultant says you need a big expensive building or school, each has plausible deniability with respect to the new spending request. In short, consultants have quite a racket.
It gets even funnier when different boards with different desires hire consultants to come up with different solutions. For instance, if a school board has hired a consultant to say they need a massive demolition/rebuild for an existing school and the county commissioners consider hiring a firm to say they don’t or can do it for less.
Firms like Moody’s, who do bond ratings, have to look into these studies and a particular entities ability to spend money. “The assumptions that go into feasibility studies are the problem,” says Anne Van Praagh of Moody’s. “The outside firms have no financial stake in the business.”
And that’s the crux of the issue. Consultants are the PT Barnum’s of our day. They come to town, give you a study saying you need whatever conclusion you want and walk away with your money. They may be useful, but they lack any type of risk with their solutions. They could care less about the cost of their proposals, the tax burden, the business impact. And they shouldn’t, that’s not what they were hired to do.
